WEd, DEC. 07 – 8:15 PM
PORTUGAL
The Mystery of Sintra
(O Mistério da Estrada de Sintra)
Portugal/Brazil 2007. Director: Jorge Paixão da Costa
Cast: Ivo Canelas, António Pedro Cerdeira, Bruna Di Tullio, Nicolau Breyner, Rogério Samora
In 1870, two Portuguese writers, Eça de Queiroz and Ramalho Ortigão, published in a Lisbon newspaper a fantastically overwrought mystery story involving counts and countesses, dashing English officers, Cuban beauties, betrayal, kidnapping, duelling, and the like. The serial took the form of letters from people involved in the events; the intent was to satirize and explode the corny clichés, conventions, and customs of romantic 19th-century Portuguese society. Much like Orson Welles’s infamous War of the Worlds broadcast seven decades later, the fictional feuilleton was mistaken by many for fact, causing some minor panic and uproar amongst the populace. Director Jorge Paixão da Costa’s clever film, made with an all-star Portuguese cast, adds a slightly different complicating twist as it dramatizes these events: here, the writers’ pulp fiction hits too close to the truth for some powerful people, who believe that it is their sordid secrets that are being published! Colour, 35mm, in Portuguese with English subtitles. 104 mins.
WED, DEC. 07 – 6:30 PM AUSTRIA
Breathing
(Atmen)
Austria 2011. Director: Karl Markovics
Cast: Thomas Schubert, Karin Lischka, Gerhard Liebmann, Georg Friedrich,
Stefan Matousch
“A sober, compelling drama distinguished by its intelligent restraint, controlled visual style and a matter-of-fact observational approach that gives it bracing dramatic integrity, Breathing marks an assured move into directing for Karl Markovics, a veteran Austrian actor who starred in the 2008 Foreign-Language Oscar winner The Counterfeiters” (David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter). Roman is a taciturn 18-year-old who has lived his entire life in institutions. Raised in an orphanage, he’s now serving time in a juvenile detention centre. He has no family, poor skills, and few prospects; a work-release job transporting cadavers for the Vienna morgue represents a last-chance opportunity for him. One day, Roman encounters the corpse of a woman who shares his surname. For the first time in his life, he is compelled to seek out his origins and find his connection to the wider world. Breathing won the European cinema prize in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes this year and is Austria’s official submission to the upcoming Oscars. Colour, Blu-Ray Disc, in German with English subtitles. 88 mins.
Screenings restricted to 18+.
Pacific Cinémathèque
membership required unless
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