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France released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: Portuguese ( Dolby Surround ), English ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Short Film, SYNOPSIS: Julie, a young French actress and a fluent Portuguese speaker, is in Lisbon for the first time. She is shooting a film based on "Letters from a Portuguese Nun," a 17th-century epistolary novel, recently attributed to man of letters and French diplomat the Count de Guilleragues. During the filming, the actress gets to know the city and the daily life of its inhabitants, all the more pleased to do so since she is recovering from a bad relationship. Every night Julie comes across enigmatic and transient characters and she draws upon these experiences for the next day's filming. The role of the Portuguese nun, who succumbs to her passion for a young French officer, also has a resonance with her own past. One night, she notices a young nun, kneeling in the Nossa Senhora chapel, where they have been filming. This woman lies prostrate night after night, praying until morning. It is the exchange between these two woman that will change Julie's destiny forever.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By J Betson
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a stunningly beautiful film. It is worth looking at just for the camera work. It also includes several atmospheric and enjoyable Portuguese songs sung by performers in Lisbon bars.
It is definitely not a fast moving action film, so if that is what you are looking for this is not for you. Just settle down in comfort, relax, and enjoy a leisurely immersion in the sights and folk music of Lisbon. It is a rewarding film, with a surprising ending, an ending which is, strangely, highly appropriate to what is happening in the UK today - but you have to pay close attention to what is being said.
The actress who plays Julie is mesmerising, as is the actress who plays the nun (although her part is shorter). Together they are rivetting. The little boy, is, of course, adorable.
This film deserves to be better know. I only came across it by accident, and I'm glad that I did.
It is definitely not a fast moving action film, so if that is what you are looking for this is not for you. Just settle down in comfort, relax, and enjoy a leisurely immersion in the sights and folk music of Lisbon. It is a rewarding film, with a surprising ending, an ending which is, strangely, highly appropriate to what is happening in the UK today - but you have to pay close attention to what is being said.
The actress who plays Julie is mesmerising, as is the actress who plays the nun (although her part is shorter). Together they are rivetting. The little boy, is, of course, adorable.
This film deserves to be better know. I only came across it by accident, and I'm glad that I did.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Glaikit woman stares and stares while viewers slump into dull despair
18 Aug 2012
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A most peculiar film. 2 stars for being pleasantly photographed, albeit with excessive use of panning and foot shots. The storyline is watery-thin. The conversations surreal. It would surely calm a whirling dervish, especially if he had no interest in the content of the soundtrack and so would not be distracted by trying to work out whether it was meant to be a joke or not. In a nutshell, a pretty but often vacant-looking woman turns up at a hotel and she and the receptionist stare fixedly at each other while conducting a robotic-style conversation in monotone, and later she wanders around Lisbon a fair bit. She is there because she had done some soundtrack work for a film being made about a Portugese nun, whose story sounds quite interesting from the DVD blurbs but which is scarcely addressed in the actual film. Instead we mostly follow the pretty-often-vacant-looking woman as she moves around Lisbon streets and ocasional bars, finding a real nun and a little boy in the street whom she ends up adopting. He is a bit of a starer too, and the film ends with them both staring away at a grand view over the city. I deserve a medal for watching it through to the end, not least because others in my family who endured it at the same time thanks to my purchase and encouragement will surely not let me forget it over the next few years at least.
16 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Y. Levy
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Thanks to Amazon UK for pointing out that this item may not be in stock again [what an unfortunate decision...] which prompted me to order it from Amazon France.
This film - concept, script, acting, directing, photography - is of a unique quality [which it shares with films like Andre Delvaux's 1971 film Rendez-vous a Bray, based on Julien Gracq's Le Roi Cophetua]- that makes watching it an outstanding and rewarding experience - intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically.
As The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw, in his review, described and rated it, Eugene Green's film - "is a true gem".
Not to be missed.
This film - concept, script, acting, directing, photography - is of a unique quality [which it shares with films like Andre Delvaux's 1971 film Rendez-vous a Bray, based on Julien Gracq's Le Roi Cophetua]- that makes watching it an outstanding and rewarding experience - intellectually, emotionally, and aesthetically.
As The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw, in his review, described and rated it, Eugene Green's film - "is a true gem".
Not to be missed.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Lee Scoresby
Format:DVD
As previous reviews make clear, you either go with it or not. I have a very high tolerance for challenging cinema but even I thought at first, this is a daft French graduation film, sort of thing. But it got to me, it got to me, and in the end I think it's one of those films which pushes at what the medium can do - that is, what cumulative effect it can achieve on the viewer. It's neurology not narrative.
And for a sucker for The South like me, an immersion in Lisbon. The warmth (inferred), the sea, the elegant compactness of the built environment.
If Amazon permits, I'd like to ask if any Lusophone reading this can identify the Camane track over the opening titles, and the one that we see him singing; also the gorgeous Alsina Duarte song over the closing credits (so as I can buy them on Amazon, naturally! The CDs are there.)
Because . . this is really visual fado, the clue is that soundtrack. You can pull an Anglo face and say "silly!" - or you can sit back and think and feel.
guy dugdale.
And for a sucker for The South like me, an immersion in Lisbon. The warmth (inferred), the sea, the elegant compactness of the built environment.
If Amazon permits, I'd like to ask if any Lusophone reading this can identify the Camane track over the opening titles, and the one that we see him singing; also the gorgeous Alsina Duarte song over the closing credits (so as I can buy them on Amazon, naturally! The CDs are there.)
Because . . this is really visual fado, the clue is that soundtrack. You can pull an Anglo face and say "silly!" - or you can sit back and think and feel.
guy dugdale.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Margaret
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Portuguese Nun [DVD]Gosh, I still don't know exactly what it was all about! I have to admit that it was rather enchanting but strange.
The magic of the movie is in the lush filming of Lisbon, the fado singing in the small cafes' and camera lingering on the face of the lovely leading lady. There is a delightful small boy, and a cast of strange characters they come and go. But in the end I was not quite sure what to make of it. However I did enjoy the film, but I would not recommend it to anyone who is not prepared to sit through a slow film.
The magic of the movie is in the lush filming of Lisbon, the fado singing in the small cafes' and camera lingering on the face of the lovely leading lady. There is a delightful small boy, and a cast of strange characters they come and go. But in the end I was not quite sure what to make of it. However I did enjoy the film, but I would not recommend it to anyone who is not prepared to sit through a slow film.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By C. M. Spain
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great watch, especially as I had recently visited Lisbon.A clever and original story line that was easy to follow, yet challenging and with some excellent filming to make it even more thought provoking.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't understand how this movie could receive any award... It is slow, pretends to be very "deep" , the dialogues are full of clichés... The only good thing is the beautiful views of Lisbon.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Robby
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Although the choice of locations strive to provide some visual stimulation, that is where any semblance of filmmaking ends. Appalling acting, laughable dialogue, inept direction, and niaive use of camera are some of this film's flaws. I seldom review and I recognise through personal experience the rigours and challenges of constructing a film. However, when the fundamental components are so dreadfully substandard, I feel compelled to speak out. This production appears to contain all the quintissential elements that people loathe in art-house films and this film has been praised by people who should know better - do not be influenced.
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