The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“[Costa’s] admirers include the French director Jacques Rivette and the Canadian photographer Jeff Wall … [His] first feature, a black-and-white reverie is, in the best sense, a young man’s film, drunk on romantic doom and movie love.”

Dennis Lim, New York Times

Before Pedro Costa dedicated himself to the worlds, real and imagined, contained in Fontainhas (the setting for five of his films, most recently the Locarno-awarded Vitalina Varela), he directed this winter noir, a transformation of Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause. As in that James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo-starring melodrama, Vincente (Pedro Hestnes), Clara (Inês de Medeiros), and Nino (Nuno Ferreira), each abandoned in their own way, form a fragile yet familial bond. Shadows threaten to engulf their lives, materializing as debts, threats, and in Martin Schäfer’s gorgeous black-and-white photography, but Costa also makes room for an occasional glimpse of bliss. As his contemporary Leos Carax trailed the French New Wave, so Costa, as he put it, ​“rides on the shoulders of giants,” following Portuguese Cinema Novo trailblazers like Paulo Rocha.

“Every frame throbs with passion, artistry, and a profound understanding of charted and uncharted cinematic terrain.”

David Jenkins, Time Out

“Wears its influences very much on its sleeve, though it’s handled with such preternatural confidence that Costa’s own personality comes through loud and clear … An immensely rewarding [film].”

Michael Brooke, Sight and Sound