At Toronto's Cinematheque Ontario:
The mini-series "Still Lives: The Films of Pedro Costa" will present four of Portuguese director Pedro Costa's features, called "some of the most dreamlike, transcendent films in contemporary cinema":
Juventude em Marcha / Colossal Youth (2006, Portugal / France / Switzerland) tells the story of a Cape Verdean ex-laborer who, after his wife abandons him, wanders around his slummy Lisbon neighborhood visiting other outcasts who see him as a father figure. Screenings: Friday, June 8, 6:30 PM, Monday, June 11, 6:30 PM, Saturday, June 16, 8:30 PM.
No Quarto de Vanda / In Vanda's Room (2000, Portugal / Germany / Italy / Switzerland) chronicles the daily lives of two slum-dwelling, crack-addicted sisters. This digitally shot docudrama features non-professionals Vanda Duarte (who can also be seen in Juventude em Marcha) and Lena Duarte playing themselves. As per the Cinematheque's caption, "The film offers the simplest of found truths: Life may treat these people with 'nothing but contempt,' as one character says, but in their tenuous connections with each other in a world that is literally coming down around them, they assert their worth, their kindness and dignity." Screening: Saturday, June 9, 6:30 PM.
Ossos / Bones (1997, Portugal / France / Denmark) is the story of "a baby born to a suicidal teenaged mother, whose equally young, blank-faced father uses the child as a prop for begging and then tries to sell it — first to a nurse who has shown him great kindness, and then to a prostitute." The Cinematheque quotes Jacques Rivette: "I think it's magnificent, I think that Costa is genuinely great. It's beautiful and strong." Screening: Tuesday, June 12, 6:30 PM.
Casa de Lava / Down to Earth (1995, Portugal / France / Germany) follows a Portuguese nurse (Inês Medeiros) who goes to Cape Verde to accompany an immigrant (Isaach de Bankolé) who fell into a coma following a work accident in Lisbon. Once on Cape Verde, the nurse tries to piece together the (former) immigrant's life story. According to the Cinematheque's synopsis, Casa de Lava is a sort of cross between Roberto Rossellini's Stromboli and Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie. Most appropriately, also in the cast is Edith Scob, who had the (metaphorically speaking) title role in Georges Franju's eerie Les Yeux sans visage / Eyes Without a Face. Note: Casa de Lava literally means "House of Lava." Screening: Tuesday, June 12, 8:30 PM.
Pedro Costa will be present for many of the screenings.
Barbara Stanwyck UCLA Retrospective
HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE Screening
THE RIGHT STUFF: Great To Be Nominated
TOOTSIE: Great To Be Nominated
LUNA THE SPIRIT OF THE WHALE Screening
Interesting films, but hard to watch. Patience is the word. Patience is the key.