Fourth session of the Carte Blanche to Luis Miguel Cintra, a films, talks and conference programme that accompanies the exhibition Luis Miguel Cintra - Small Theatre of the World. This session will feature screenings of the films Manoel de Oliveira's Rite of Spring (1963) and Pier Paolo Pasolini's La Ricotta (1963).

ACTO DA PRIMAVERA | RITE OF SPRING

Manoel de Oliveira | POR | 1963 | 94'

Acto da Primavera is the record of a popular representation of the Passion of Christ by the inhabitants of Curalha, a village in the municipality of Chaves, in the northern interior of Portugal. The project came about during the preparation of O Pão (in 1957-58), when the director travelled through the Trás-os-Montes landscape in search of windmills that he wanted to include in the documentary. The film documents the fictional recreation of an event that took place over two thousand years ago, placing it in confrontation with the historical and political context of the time in which it was made: a troubled period in which the Portuguese Colonial War had just broken out. In the words of Henrique Alves Costa, because of the way Oliveira dares, even if in a veiled way, to ask questions that few dared to ask, ‘Acto da Primavera’ was ‘the first Portuguese political film’. For this very reason, and because of what he said at a public presentation of the film, Manoel de Oliveira was arrested by the PIDE for a few days for ‘practising activities contrary to the security of the State’.

LA RICOTTA

Pier Paolo Pasolini | ITA | 1963 | 35'

A short film that forms part of the film RoGoPag (1963), La Ricotta deals with a film production of the Passion of Jesus, with a director who plays Pasolini, played by Orson Welles. The most scathing social criticism is shown through the main character of Stracci (which means ‘rags’). Stracci is a poor, starving man who works as an extra (ironically, the ‘good thief’) and receives no pity or mercy. Stracci tries everything to get something to eat and finally succeeds. Unfortunately, the ricotta cheese, which he devours greedily, combined with the awkward position he is forced to assume while being ‘crucified’ in front of the camera, proves to be a fatal combination, and he ends up dying of indigestion.