MovieChat Forums > A Religiosa Portuguesa (2010) Discussion > Politics

Politics

posted 13 years ago by ml07028
4 replies | jump to latest

Just like Des dieux et des hommes (Of Gods and Men), I think this film has some seriously questionable politics. I know the director chooses to ignore real life and focus on the spiritual, but for me the spiritual informs the political. And you cannot have one without the other.
I was alright with it up to the moment when Julie says to Vasco 'Come live with me in France, I'll teach you French'. If she is supposed to be doing a good deed then instead of taking Vasco out of his culture and away from his family (who I'll admit are very distant from him) could she not have simply stayed in Lisbon? I mentioned Of Gods and Men, and to me The Portuguese Nun also seemed to suggest that French cultural influence is inherently good and should be spread around the world. What the Portuguese will make of a French film showing some woman take away a Portuguese orphan I'd be interested to find out. Likewise the fact the Portugal seems to be characterised as impoverished and backwards, through Vasco.
Otherwise it's a well-made film.

[–] Cobra12 13 years ago

I watched this film two nights ago. I quite liked it, Lisbon looks like such a beautiful city; in my opinion it didn’t show Portugal as backward, I want to go visit now!
I don’t think it suggested that French cultural influence is good; this actress was from France, why should she move to Lisbon, when she was (probably) born and raised there, works there etc?

[–] ml07028 13 years ago

Lisbon does look great in it, I liked the style of the film very much. I just felt that she should put the interests of the child first, I thought personally he was being uprooted form his culture based on the women's whim. I saw the film at a Q & A with the director and a portuguese member of the audience seemed slightly aggrieved that the the kid is not in school, as she rightly said it is illegal not to attend school in Portugal, if children are not then it is a problem for a portuguese director to tackle, or for a French director to tackle in a more responsible way. I suppose personally if a French director made such a film about Britain, that showed a French women adopting a British child because of social problems, I would be cross. It is not a socially responsible action for the woman to take, and in the film it is not the correct answer to the social problems the boy faces.
The director admitted in the Q & A that he does not care about politics, for me the film is politically naive as a result, personally I think cinema has a duty to be at least slightly politically engaged.
I also had a problem with the sympathethic portrayal of the aristocrat but that's another story.

[–] Cobra12 13 years ago

I don’t think the director meant it in that way, but I do see your point. It can be interpreted like that. I suppose the woman is going to help the child, and fair enough, he is going to be uprooted, but at least he has a chance of a better life in a different country, with a caring parent, rather than struggle where he is. I really don’t think the director was trying to portray that one culture is better than another.

If you don’t mind me asking, where did you see the film? I would like to see similar films in a similar environment.

Why do you have an issue with the way the aristocrat was portrayed? I have zero knowledge about him by the way!

[–] ml07028 13 years ago

Sure, I saw it in the ICA in London, a quick google search should find it, it was the first time I had ever been but it seemed like a really nice place and the screen was packed (probably because of the Q & A), I think it's attached to a gallery as well.

The aristocrat was the older guy that sees the woman in the restaurant and then invites her to his so he can tell his life story. For me I felt we were being asked to sympathise with him because he was nostalgic for the land which was taken away from his family during the revolution. The film seemed to implicitly criticise the way in which he was treated at the revolution, being an aristocrat. Personally, I am always on the side of the revolutionaries, and even if I know nothing about the Portuguese revolution it was clear from what he said that his family had far too much land than was good for them ('All property is theft!').

Eugene Green, the director, talked a lot about mysticism and spiritual energy, I'm very interested in both these things but for me they have political implications, and the film just doesn't engage with these.