Final Ratings: 4.5/5
For forty-one years, Portugal lived under a dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar. In the meantime, beneath the Estado Novo (New State), a few names built the history of Portuguese cinema, such as António Lopes Ribeiro, José Leitão de Barros, and the historical Manoel de Oliveira.
In the final years of the Estado Novo, a filmmaker shifted the panorama of national film aesthetics. António Reis released his highly influential short film Jaime, which narrates the mind of a man in a psychiatric ward. The central aspect of its success is the disorientation in the editing, which emulates the character ‘s schizophrenia. Jaime was co-edited by Margarida Cordeiro, a shrink, who was Reis’ partner.
Following the short film, they directed the first of a trilogy (Os Três/The Three). The 1976 film Trás-os-Montes borrows its name from the Northeast region of Portugal, near the districts of Bragança and Vila Real. Reis and Cordeiro create a film that blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction. The docufiction structure of Trás-os-Montes is a fascinating look at the reality of the mountain people who live their lives in a different region. By the time of the shooting, Portugal had just experienced the Carnation Revolution, which reestablished democracy in the country.
In this sense, their realistic approach to the land creates a highly poetic work and highlights the beauty of the region and the individuality of the people. Reis and Cordeiro glimpse through the imaginary of community. Hence, the children of the land and the representatives of Trás-os-Montes. In the end, the first entry from the trilogy is a quintessential docufiction that remembers one of Straub-Huillet, especially through its rigorous formality.
The second part, 1982’s Ana, concentrates on the same region. However, the duo focuses on one’s mortality through the titular character. In their films, the actors are individuals from that area following the rigorous process and spending the whole year shooting their projects.
Ana is an adaptation of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegy: The Third, especially in the fever dream atmosphere of the German words. In this sense, the eclipse haunts her; death is imminent, but it is also tormenting. The film delves into the poetic nature, navigating through Rilke’s words as a pretext to symbolize and contextualize the ideals of being alive. Cordeiro and Reis use another classic piece of art to add to the emotional journey of that woman – Ana crosses a field while Bach’s Magnificat plays.
Ana is a mix of the other media as a pretext for the natural study of the people from that region. The last part of the trilogy is 1989’s Rosa de Areia, the final film by António Reis, who died two years after its release. Certainly, the last chapter of Os Três is the most cryptic of the couple, especially reminiscent of the disorientation present in Jaime. In a sense, the rigor of Reis and Cordeiro mimics the impressionist traces, composing images that highlight the natural light.
Consequently, it is a sensorial experience that rejects the narrative traditions. One of the most crucial elements of Portuguese society is its religion, which echoes in enigmatic poems and has sequences such as the execution of a pig, a moment highly reminiscent of the bible. Rosa de Areia is the more fictionalized of the three, but there is a fascinating creation to the enigmatic nature of that universe.
Os Três by António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro, composed of Trás-os-Montes, Ana, and Rosa de Areia, highlights the formal ability of the Portuguese couple. Alongside Jaime, the short that precedes the trilogy, their filmography demonstrates the desire to study the meanings of life and God, while documenting the population of Portugal post-Estado Novo.
Thank you to Messanine for the screener.
