Tabu (2012 film)
| Tabu | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Miguel Gomes |
| Produced by |
Sandro Aguilar Luís Urbano |
| Written by |
Miguel Gomes Mariana Ricardo |
| Starring | Teresa Madruga |
| Studio |
O Som e a Fúria Komplizen Film Gullane Shellac Sud |
| Release dates |
|
| Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country |
Portugal Germany Brazil France |
| Language | Portuguese |
Tabu is a 2012 Portuguese drama film directed by Miguel Gomes, the title of which references F. W. Murnau's homonymous silent film Tabu.
The film competed at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival,[1][2] where it won the Alfred Bauer Award (Silver Bear for a feature film that opens new perspectives) and The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) prizes.[3][4] Sight & Sound film magazine listed it at #2 on its list of best films of 2012.[5][6]
Tabu is the Portuguese film with the widest international distribution as of 2012 and the fifth from Portugal to be commercially released in New York (Film Forum, December 2012),[7] after The Art of Amalia by Bruno de Almeida (2000, Quad Cinema), O Fantasma by João Pedro Rodrigues (2003, IFC Center) and, in 2011, The Strange Case of Angelica by Manoel de Oliveira (IFC Center) and Mists by Ricardo Costa (Quad Cinema).
Plot
The film takes place shortly before the Portuguese Colonial War began.[8]
- Prologue
A narrator, Miguel Gomes himself, reads in voice over a poetical, and somehow philosophical, text that invokes a legend in which the Creator orders, but the heart commands: the suicide of an intrepid explorer who, somewhere in Africa, long ago, plunges in the turbid waters of a river and is devoured by a crocodile. The reason why he commits such a desperate act is due to a frustrated love affair. Many swear, confirming the facts, that a beautiful lady is sighted on the banks of a river, together with a sad crocodile and that both creatures share a mysterious empathy.
- Part 1—Paradise Lost
Three disparate women dwell in an old building in Lisbon. Aurora, an octogenarian living off her pension, eccentric, talkative and superstitious, seeming more dead than alive, and Santa, her housemaid from Cape Verde, live at the same apartment. Santa is semi-literate, but proficient in the divinatory art of voodoo, a well known African practice. Pilar, their neighbor and friend, a catholic middle-aged woman, and militant social benefactor, also occupies her leisure, involving herself with their psycho-dramas.
Pilar has another friend, a romantic painter in love, a gentleman who insists on offering her tacky pieces of art. In fact, she is more concerned with her friend Aurora: with Aurora's solitude, with her frequent escapes to the casino. She is even more worried about her black housemaid, with her long silences and devil arts. Santa thinks that it's better to take care of oneself without annoying others, so keeps quiet.
Something else concerns the old lady: understanding she will die soon, she feels someone is missing her, someone her friends have never heard about: Gian-Luca Ventura. So she asks Pilar to find him. She succeeds in doing so and the man appears. He is an old colonist, a disturbed man, from Mozambique, an ancient Portuguese colony. Another story emerges, beginning: "Aurora had a farm in Africa at the foothill of Mount Tabu..."
- Part 2—Paradise
Flashback: The story of Aurora’s life, told by Gian-Luca Ventura in voice over. Gian-Luca is an explorer, a kind of 20th-century Portuguese Livingstone.
In 1960s Portuguese Africa, Aurora and her husband live together near the Tabu Mountain. She is a skilled hunter, never missing a shot. She owns a small crocodile, a gift from her husband, which moves around the house as a pet.
One day, the animal runs away. The pregnant Aurora finds it in Ventura’s house, where they consummate their existing mutual attraction; a passionate and dangerous love affair ensues. Gian-Luca confides in his friend, Mario, about the affair. Mario demands that Gian-Luca end the affair and when he is ignored, the two start fighting. The heavily pregnant Aurora picks up a revolver and shoots and kills Mario. She later gives birth to a girl. Two days later, Gian-Luca leaves Africa for good.
Cast
- Teresa Madruga as Pilar
- Laura Soveral as Old Aurora
- Ana Moreira as Young Aurora
- Henrique Espírito Santo as Old Ventura
- Carloto Cotta as Young Ventura
- Isabel Muñoz Cardoso as Santa
- Ivo Müller as Aurora's Husband
- Manuel Mesquita as Mário
Critical reception
Critic Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded Tabu four of five stars, and called the film "a gem: gentle, eccentric, possessed of a distinctive sort of innocence—and also charming and funny."[9] But in his review of Tabu, New York Times critic A. O. Scott faults the director for glossing over the issues of colonialism in the film in favor of simple aestheticism. "Unlike other recent European films (like Philippe Falardeau’s Congorama and Claire Denis’s White Material), Tabu views colonialism as an aesthetic opportunity rather than a political or moral problem," wrote Scott. "It is full of longing—hedged, self-conscious, but palpable all the same—for a vanished way of life, in contrast to which contemporary reality seems drab and numb."[10]
See also
References
- ↑ "First Films for the Competition and Berlinale Special". Berlin Film Festival. Retrieved 2011-12-20.
- ↑ Article at Aesthetica
- ↑ "Prizes of the International Jury 2012". Berlinale. 2012-02-19. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
- ↑ Tabu at Komplizen Film
- ↑ 'The Master' Tops Sight & Sound's Top Ten of 2012 While 'Holy Motors' is #1 with Cahiers Du Cinema
- ↑ "Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master' Tops Sight & Sound's Best Of 2012". Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ↑ Tabu at the Film Forum
- ↑ Tabu – Reference at European Film Awards
- ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (September 6, 2012). "Tabu – review". The Guardian. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
- ↑ Scott, A. O. (December 25, 2012). "Remembrance of Passion (and Follies) Lost". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
External links
- Tabu at the Internet Movie Database
- Tabu at Rotten Tomatoes
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