JOSÉ ÁLVARO MORAIS RETROSPECTIVE
from 17 JUL 2017 to 30 JUL 2017
The first full retrospective of the films of José Álvaro Morais in Porto will be held via open air screenings in Serralves Park, providing a unique opportunity to rediscover a masterful oeuvre and see images from the South projected in the North. Few directors have succeeded in questioning the country so freely and with such intense light. The retrospective begins with the premiere of Silêncios do Olhar, a documentary by José Nascimento, which proposes an approach to the director’s creative process and the uniqueness of his creative universe, followed by a chronological presentation of José Álvaro Morais's films. Journey and exile, cultural roots and spirit of place, the tension between belonging and evasion, are some of the vanishing points that cross this oeuvre which explores the magnetism of a country that attracts as much as it repels.
Curator: António Preto
Access 3€ or subject to acquisition of a ticket to the ParkFriends of Serralves: 1,5€ Related Activities 17 JUL (MON): "Silêncios do Olhar" by José Nascimento
José NascimentoSilêncios do Olhar | Portugal, 20172K, colour, 104 min.Presented by the directorFar more than a posthumous homage, José Nascimento’s Silêncios do Olhar, offers an intimate glimpse of the creative process of José Álvaro Morais and privileged access to the director’s oeuvre. The documentary explores themes and polarities, and develops an archaeology of the aesthetic and affective options that reposition José Álvaro Morais in the centre of his own cinema. 18 JUL (TUE): "Cantigamente n.º3"
Cantigamente n.º 3 | Portugal, 197616mm, colour, 85 min.José Álvaro Morais’ oeuvre, entirely produced after the 1974 revolution, began with two commissions for television - Domus de Bragança (1975) and Cantigamente (1976) – that revealed the filmmaker's interest in visual and sound montage. 19 JUL (WED): "Ma Femme Chamada Bicho"
Ma Femme Chamada Bicho | Portugal, 197616mm, colour, 79 min.Ma Femme Chamada Bicho (1976), a portrait of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, shot in only five days, confirmed the director’s own cinematic language, with energetic and fast filming. 24 JUL (MON): "O Bobo"
O Bobo | Portugal, 1987
16/35mm, colour, 123 min.José Álvaro Morais also worked on projects whose preparation and writing took many years, as was the case of O Bobo (1987). In this work he used Alexandre Herculano's text on the foundation of Portugal to provide a historical perspective on the contradictions facing contemporary Portugal. Filmed almost entirely in the studio, the film is one of the most ambitious and troubled productions in Portuguese cinema - the negative was stored in the refrigeration vaults of Tobis film lab for six years due to lack of funding and was miraculously completed only minutes before winning the Grand Prize in the Locarno Film Festival. 25 JUL (TUE): "Zéfiro" and "Margem Sul"
Zéfiro | Portugal, 199435mm, colour, 52 min.
Margem Sul | Portugal, 1994Vídeo, colour, 25 min.
27 JUL (THU): "Peixe Lua"
Peixe Lua | Portugal, 200035mm, colour, 123 min.The final phase of José Álvaro Morais’ oeuvre affirmed its solar intensity as "cinema of the South". Zéfiro (1994), Margem Sul (1994) and Peixe Lua (2000) are travel films that think of southern Portugal as a place of intersecting cultures, which is paradoxically endowed with a unique identity. Seeing Lisbon as the last of the Mediterranean cities, condemned to the Atlantic Ocean by the vast Tejo estuary that separates it from the "African" bank, amidst farmers, bulls and stranded sailors, the filmmaker recognised a territory in which the borders that separate the Alentejo from Andalusia boil down to a road sign. 30 JUL (SUN): "Quaresma"
Quaresma | Portugal, 200335mm, colour, 95 min.Journey and exile, family roots entwined with the memory and spirit of the place.Acceptance and rejection of the land where he was born, the tension between belonging and evasion are vanishing points to which José Álvaro Morais returns in Quaresma (2003). In this, his last film, situated between his grandparents' house in Covilhã and the cool landscapes of Denmark, he definitively buries, unanswered, the personal and national melancholic question that runs throughout his entire oeuvre: the magnetism of a country that attracts as much as it repels, the deep reasons that, as seen at the end of O Bobo, lead the Portuguese to leave Portugal, making "a caricature of this land in another land."
Curator: António Preto
Access 3€ or subject to acquisition of a ticket to the ParkFriends of Serralves: 1,5€ Related Activities 17 JUL (MON): "Silêncios do Olhar" by José Nascimento
José NascimentoSilêncios do Olhar | Portugal, 20172K, colour, 104 min.Presented by the directorFar more than a posthumous homage, José Nascimento’s Silêncios do Olhar, offers an intimate glimpse of the creative process of José Álvaro Morais and privileged access to the director’s oeuvre. The documentary explores themes and polarities, and develops an archaeology of the aesthetic and affective options that reposition José Álvaro Morais in the centre of his own cinema. 18 JUL (TUE): "Cantigamente n.º3"
Cantigamente n.º 3 | Portugal, 197616mm, colour, 85 min.José Álvaro Morais’ oeuvre, entirely produced after the 1974 revolution, began with two commissions for television - Domus de Bragança (1975) and Cantigamente (1976) – that revealed the filmmaker's interest in visual and sound montage. 19 JUL (WED): "Ma Femme Chamada Bicho"
Ma Femme Chamada Bicho | Portugal, 197616mm, colour, 79 min.Ma Femme Chamada Bicho (1976), a portrait of Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, shot in only five days, confirmed the director’s own cinematic language, with energetic and fast filming. 24 JUL (MON): "O Bobo"
O Bobo | Portugal, 1987
16/35mm, colour, 123 min.José Álvaro Morais also worked on projects whose preparation and writing took many years, as was the case of O Bobo (1987). In this work he used Alexandre Herculano's text on the foundation of Portugal to provide a historical perspective on the contradictions facing contemporary Portugal. Filmed almost entirely in the studio, the film is one of the most ambitious and troubled productions in Portuguese cinema - the negative was stored in the refrigeration vaults of Tobis film lab for six years due to lack of funding and was miraculously completed only minutes before winning the Grand Prize in the Locarno Film Festival. 25 JUL (TUE): "Zéfiro" and "Margem Sul"
Zéfiro | Portugal, 199435mm, colour, 52 min.
Margem Sul | Portugal, 1994Vídeo, colour, 25 min.
27 JUL (THU): "Peixe Lua"
Peixe Lua | Portugal, 200035mm, colour, 123 min.The final phase of José Álvaro Morais’ oeuvre affirmed its solar intensity as "cinema of the South". Zéfiro (1994), Margem Sul (1994) and Peixe Lua (2000) are travel films that think of southern Portugal as a place of intersecting cultures, which is paradoxically endowed with a unique identity. Seeing Lisbon as the last of the Mediterranean cities, condemned to the Atlantic Ocean by the vast Tejo estuary that separates it from the "African" bank, amidst farmers, bulls and stranded sailors, the filmmaker recognised a territory in which the borders that separate the Alentejo from Andalusia boil down to a road sign. 30 JUL (SUN): "Quaresma"
Quaresma | Portugal, 200335mm, colour, 95 min.Journey and exile, family roots entwined with the memory and spirit of the place.Acceptance and rejection of the land where he was born, the tension between belonging and evasion are vanishing points to which José Álvaro Morais returns in Quaresma (2003). In this, his last film, situated between his grandparents' house in Covilhã and the cool landscapes of Denmark, he definitively buries, unanswered, the personal and national melancholic question that runs throughout his entire oeuvre: the magnetism of a country that attracts as much as it repels, the deep reasons that, as seen at the end of O Bobo, lead the Portuguese to leave Portugal, making "a caricature of this land in another land."
