To Die like a Man

To Die like a Man

Theatrical release poster
Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues
Produced by Maria João Sigalho
Judith Nora
Written by João Pedro Rodrigues
Starring Fernando Santos
Chandra Malatitch
Miguel Loureiro
Jenny Larue
Fernando Gomes
Cinematography Rui Poças
Release dates
  • 22 May 2009 (Portugal)
Running time
133 minutes
Country Portugal
Language Portuguese

To Die like a Man (Portuguese: Morrer Como Um Homem) is a 2009 Portuguese drama film directed by João Pedro Rodrigues, produced by the production company Rosa Filmes.

It tells the story of a homosexual drag-queen at the end of his career. The cast includes several Portuguese real-life drag-queens, with no previous, or little, acting experience. The story has been allegedly inspired by the real story of Joaquim Centúrio de Almeida (artistic name: Ruth Bryden), a Portuguese drag-queen, and has motivated a lawsuit on account of plagiarism of a biographical book on the life of Almeida by the late author Carlos Castro, who was murdered in 2011.

Cast

In order of appearance:

Awards and nominations

It competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.[1] It was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards[2] but it didn't make the final shortlist.[3]

Critical reception

Critical reception has been mixed. Variety.com's Leslie Felperin stated that he disliked the film's excessive running time (138'), that too much of the time is taken up by music and singing, feeling that the movie and storyline were unremarkable.[4] However, the movie was voted "Best Undistributed Film" of 2009 in the Village Voice's 10th Annual Film Critics' Poll.[5] "A fabulously sad fable about a Fado-singing, pooch-pampering trannie growing old, [To Die Like a Man] is also a piece of lyrical, playful, unpredictable filmmaking," wrote film critic J. Hoberman.

See also

References

  1. "Festival de Cannes: To Die Like a Man". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  2. "To Die Like a Man represents Portugal in Hollywood". cineuropa. Retrieved 2010-10-08.
  3. "9 Foreign Language Films Continue to Oscar Race". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  4. Felperin, Leslie (2009-05-22). "To Die Like a Man". Variety.
  5. Hoberman, J. (2009-12-22). "The Village Voice's 10th Annual Film Critics' Poll". Village Voice.

External links