São Jorge: The Movie
Review: São Jorge
SCRIPT: 60%
Directing:65%
CASTING: 60%
SOUNDTRACK: 65%
CINEMATOGRAPHY: 90%
WITH EXCELLENT CINEMATOGRAPHY, THE BEST
THAT'S EVER BEEN SEEN IN PORTUGAL IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, SÃO JORGE LOSES ITSELF
FAR TOO MUCH IN INCONSEQUENTIAL SCENES.
SUMMARY: (3.5/5)
It's the most widely
covered movie of recent times; it's been held in high regard by the press and
presented as the definitive portrait of a Portugal in crisis. Gut punch or
failed uppercut?
Failed uppercut. In most Marco Martins interviews, he talks
about the times he and actor Nuno Lopes went underground, looking for fight
clubs and the tough collection agencies for São Jorge.
The result, while it's an excellent documentary about the time
Portugal was under Troika's judgement, fails when it comes to cinematic
narrative. Sometimes it seems more like we're watching a docudrama than a
production fit for the big screen.
With excellent cinematography, the best that's ever been seen in
Portugal in the last few years, São Jorge loses itself far too much in
inconsequential scenes, especially the ones that show Lopes' job as a debt
collector.
It's a difficult job, that makes his stomach churn, but it's his
only way to give his son a decent living; they both live in a house in a poor
neighbourhood, inhabited by more than ten people who all have the same drama in
common: unemployment.
São Jorge's cast is based on real people who appear in scenes improvising
dialogues about their marginalised realities – it's precisely here that São
Jorge becomes a hybrid between documentary and film that doesn't make sense and
that prevents it from deepening the conflict between Jorge and his struggles.
It's also a bit incomprehensible why the movie would only have a
couple boxing scenes (one of them being the protagonist training at the gym),
when we know that Nuno Lopes was entrenched in clubs where this sport is
practiced for six months. The question we need to ask is: what for?
Whoever expects to see a consistent story that flows well
throughout the two hours of screening will be disappointed, because there are
many moments that cut between the action and we are left exasperated with how
unimportant they are to the narrative.
It's like Nuno Lopes talked to Marco Martins about his old dream
of making a film about boxing. So we'll keep waiting for that day to arrive and
that it'll be one of Portuguese cinema's masterpieces; something São Jorge
failed to achieve.
Chosen and translated by: Mariana.
Revised by: Badriah and professor Elena.
I actually haven’t seen São Jorge but, like this reviewer pointed out, it had a ton of media coverage and every time I passed by the cinemas there would be posters of this movie so I thought something related to it would be culturally valuable to the blog. I chose a review because I like reading reviews before I watch movies, and I thought it would be useful for an English reader to know what critics think of it. I chose this review in particular because despite the critic giving it such scathing negative feedback, it the overall score he gave it was quite high, which I thought was interesting.
- Mariana.
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