It wasn't just the fado that brings melancholy to this film - in fact, the whole movie is impregnated with a Portuguese dimension and emotional intensity that makes it deeper than the beautiful photography and gives some hidden meaning to the drama. It's a sort of sadness that the director must know very well and managed to convey perfectly well throughout the movie. Great film!
shareI thought this was a terrific story, well acted and filmed, that dealt touchingly and endearingly with themes of loss, abandonment, and redemption.
But being from the U.S., I'm afraid much of the Portuguese subtext went over my head. Could you, or someone else familiar with Macau and the Portuguese handover, elaborate on the Portuguese dimension of this movie?
I'm very sorry that I just saw your post now, daleac. Still, if one day you look into this page again...
I had a more emotional than historical perspective when I wrote that post, but in a very brief terms Macau was a sort of portuguese colony untill 1999.
Without getting much further into the discussion of colonization per se, and just looking into it as something that belongs to a historical past, it is surprising to foresee some typical portuguese feelings in former colonies that shared little with the western culture to begin with. These portuguese traits have some to do with poetry, melancholy and some sense of the uselessness of everything we know, beautiful things, all in all.
I'm very glad that you liked this movie as well, and I'm sorry for the huge delay in answering this post...
Thanks for replying, although I had to refresh my memory about the movie since it has been almost three years. I think I see what you mean now -- the traits you mentioned (poetry, melancholy, etc.) are universal to all of humankind, but perhaps are more acutely felt by those who have once had things and lost them, as is the case with Portugal and other former European colonial empires. Your description also brings to mind "mono no aware," a concept associated with the Japanese but which may have deeper roots in Buddhism from mainland Asia.
shareIt's very cool that we can communicate even though some years have passed :)
In addiction to the points you made, I'd like to add that there's this theory that Portugal cultivates such melancholy for a longer time than we'd expect, and this is because it was "the end of the world" in European eyes - being reclined over the Atlantic sea, where everything ended before the discovery of the new world. But then, it is not strictly true, for Galicia in Spain has the most extreme western position. However, in cultural terms, there isn't much distinction between the north of Portugal and Galicia.
I'll do a research about the "mono no aware", thanks for the indication!
"Mono no aware" is an idea I picked up from reading about Japanese film. It's hard to explain in a few words, but it has to do with an appreciation for the ephemeralities of life. If you've seen any films by Ozu you'll have a sense of what it is. Other filmmakers who illustrated it well are Naruse and Mizoguchi.
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