Portugal, B&W, 16mm e 35mm, mono, 33′ (1970)
This is a dense film, as convoluted as a shell. To misquote Rimbaud we might say that the “real film is elsewhere”. What the producer has tried to film is not so much the film itself as its reflection, darkly, as if throught a mirror. Facing the mirror, then, Monica, through reflected words, reveals her tactics in the revelation of Lívio’s tactics and frees herself through words. Here words are a moral choice, conscience laid bare, the assumption of truth. Monica’s look (or that of her double) at a Lívio absent and out of the picture (the real film takes place off, quite apart from the illusion of the screen), forms part of a flow of fascination and repulsion which continually rules her inner dialogue. The aiscovery of her look? The discovery of the film itself, of course.
A transparent film, as open as a flying bird. Let us seek some other way of diagnosing its mysterious, vague movement.
What is it all about, after all?
João César Monteiro
(Press Office -Dossier)