O Sangue

O Sangue
(Blood)

DVD cover
Directed by Pedro Costa
Produced by Vítor Gonçalves
Written by Pedro Costa
Starring Pedro Hestnes
Nuno Ferreira
Ines de Medeiros
Cinematography Martin Schafer
Edited by Manuela Viegas
Release dates
  • 1989 (1989)
Running time
 94 minutes
Country Portugal
Language Portuguese

O Sangue (Blood) is the Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa's first feature film. Released in 1989, in black and white, the film depicts the impoverished life of two brothers, Vicente and Nino, after their father dies. With the help of Clara, Vicente's childhood friend, the trio struggle to survive, caught between their uncle's attempt to abduct/adopt Nino, and mobsters looking to collect the debts Vincente's father left behind. The film was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[1]

The film clearly demonstrates Costa's cinephilic knowledge, as it recalls many scenes, sensations, and styles from classic filmmakers. Despite such references, this is not intended as mere quotation, because in the process Costa engraves his own vision. Adrian Martin writes

"...the poetics of certain filmmakers have been so deeply internalised, we might say say so deeply lived (in the imaginary realm) by Costa, that a unique palimpsest has been formed at the intersection of all these visions, all these worlds, all these memories: his signature is that knotted thicket, too tangled, fused and transformed to ever be cleanly separated, now, into its various separate source elements."[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  2. ↑ Written by Adrian Martin in his article The Inner Life of a Film for Second Run DVD's release of Blood
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