Top 100 Portuguese Films
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- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVenturaVitalina VarelaTito Furtado"The time is now, a numbing and timeless present of hospital stays, bureaucratic questioning, and wandering through remembered spaces... and suddenly it is also then, the mid '70s and the time of Portugal's Carnation Revolution, when Ventura got into a knife fight with his friend Joaquim." This is the synopsis from the press notes. The film is a sequel of sorts to Costa's "Colossal Youth" with Ventura again playing himself.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsJoão César MonteiroManuela de FreitasRuy FurtadoLisbon, 1989. A middle-aged poor idiot, tormented by an illness, lives in a cheap room in a family boarding house, in the old section of the city's waterfront.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsNascimento FernandesVital dos SantosAntónio PalmaThe story takes place in the old streets of Porto and by the banks of the Douro River. A gang of very young kids has just accepted a new member, Carlitos, a shy boy who has "played it tough" by stealing a doll in a shop. Carlitos soon has a crush on Terezinha, the only girl in the group. The trouble is that Eduardo, the gang boss, is also in love with the pretty girl. And he will not allow any rival to challenge him.
- DirectorMiguel GomesStarsTelmo ChurroMiguel GomesHortêncílio AquinaA restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa.
- DirectorManuel GuimarãesStarsBarbara LaageRogério PauloMário PereiraSet in a little remote village, where everyone is very religious and primitive, "O Crime de Aldeia Velha" (The crime of Aldeia Velha) tells the story of Joana, the most beautiful girl in village. She is badly regarded by all other women because they envy her and her affairs with men. As soon as accidents start happening involving her (at some point, she holds an already sick baby and he eventually dies), the women (and slowly, men too) in the village start claiming that she is possessed by the devil. At first,she doesn't believe it. They ask for two priests to exorcise her, but they leave and say to the people that she isn't possessed at all, and that people need to relax. But, little by little, they start convincing Joana that she is really possessed and she starts entering a stage of slight madness and behaving like she is. So, people "believing" that she isn't going to die, and that the demon will leave her body, with her permission, they end up burning her alive...
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsGeraldo Del ReyIsabel RuthMaria BarrosoAfter a stint in the army fighting in Angola, a soldier comes home to find his sweetheart has married his brother. He makes advances towards his sister-in-law, but she turns him down. Discouraged, the man meets a new girlfriend who vows to escape the town's crushing poverty even if she has to steal. The two begin a relationship but the film does not indicate what their future may hold.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsBelarmino FragosoJean Pierre GeblerMaria Teresa de NoronhaInterview with a has-been boxing champion «who could have been great», probing, and soul revealing.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVanda DuarteLena DuarteZita DuarteThe film follows the daily life of Vanda Duarte, a heroin addict in Lisbon, and the community she lives in.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVitalina VarelaVenturaManuel Tavares AlmeidaA Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsPedro HestnesNuno FerreiraInês de MedeirosVicente, seventeen, lives with brother Nino, ten-years-old, and his ailing father in a derelict house on the outskirts of the capital. They don't seem to remember their mother, and are very much attached to their father, despite his temper, and his frequent absences from home. One day, the father leaves for good, and Vicente and Nino swear to cover it up. It's their secret. Clara, the primary school assistant, is fascinatingly beautiful, and secretive, and (may be) she knows it aswel. There are other secrets, though: the origin of the money that appears at Vicente's house; the relationship between Vicente's well-to-do uncle and his girlfriend; the relationship between the four people who once played the cards together, and now can't stand each other.
- DirectorMiguel GomesStarsSónia BandeiraFábio OliveiraJoaquim CarvalhoDocu-drama about Portuguese social life in the countryside during the busy month of August
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVanda DuarteNuno VazMariya LipkinaA suicidal young woman gives her newborn child up to his deadbeat father in the Fontainhas slums of Lisbon.
- DirectorCatarina VasconcelosStarsManuel RosaJoão MóraAna VasconcelosThe passing away of their mothers makes Catarina and her own father meet in an emotional place that is different from the one most fathers and daughters know.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsInês de MedeirosIsaach De BankoléEdith ScobThe film tells a story of Mariana, a nurse who leaves Lisbon to accompany an immigrant worker in a comatose sleep on his trip home to Cape Verde. The devoted Portuguese nurse took a journey only to find herself lost in abstract drama.
- DirectorGonçalo TochaStarsDídio PestanaGonçalo TochaDocumentary about the ordinary life of an isolated civilization in the middle of the ocean, on Corvo Island.
- DirectorTeresa VillaverdeStarsAna MoreiraAlexandre PintoNelson VarelaThree homeless teenagers rejects struggle to survive together. Of them, Andreia is pregnant, while Pedro and Ricardo hustle, steal and are exploited by a pornographer.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsJoão César MonteiroRita Pereira MarquesJoaquina ChicauJoão Vuvu, lives alone in a house that requires regeneration but due to being alone he is unable to do the work. On his son's release from prison and João's ensuing deception triggers a series of somber events.
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsRui GomesIsabel RuthRuy Furtado19-year-old Julio has just left the provinces to settle down in the outskirts of Lisbon. He lives in a poor area with his uncle Afonso and starts working as an apprentice shoemaker. At the shop he gets to know Ilda, a young housemaid and regular customer. Ilda is pretty, joyful, and modern, and Julio falls for her. The two young people, although very different from each other, embark on an idyll.
- DirectorLeonor TelesAshore portrays the life of a singular fisherman in an ancient riverfront community near Lisbon. Divided between the quiet solitude of the river and the family ties that wash him ashore, the film follows Albertino Lobo, as nature renews itself with each season cycle.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsCláudia TeixeiraJoão César MonteiroManuela de FreitasJoão de Deus is the manager of an ice-cream shop owned by an ex-prostitute, Paraíso dos Gelados (Ice-Cream Paradise). Through a unmoved desire of perfection, he seeks, through cleansing and purity to attain heaven. The surrounding world, however, does not comply with his decaying vision of lust and decay as a way of achieving his purpose.
- DirectorFernando LopesStarsLaura SoveralJoão GuedesZita DuarteA married couple of rich and depressed noblemen destroy the lives of their servants out of spite.
- DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsRita DurãoJoão César MonteiroJoana AzevedoAfter receiving a visit from a messenger of God, João de Deus wins his buddy's girlfriend through a roll of the dice.
- DirectorJosé Cottinelli TelmoStarsVasco SantanaBeatriz CostaAntónio SilvaAfter flunking in medical school, the young and bohemian Vasco need to trick his aunts, the main financers of his studies, preventing them to know that he is not a doctor.
- DirectorAntónio ReisStarsEvangelina Gil DelgadoJaime FernandesA documentary about a deceased psychiatric patient, Jaime Fernandes.