Frágil Como o Mundo (2002)

Director:

Rita Azevedo Gomes

Writer:

Rita Azevedo Gomes

Stars:

Maria Gonçalves, Bruno Terra, Sophie Balabanian

Cast

Credited cast:
Maria Gonçalves	...	Vera
Bruno Terra	...	João
Sophie Balabanian	...	Mãe de Vera
Manuela de Freitas	...	Avó
João Bénard da Costa	...	Avô (as Duarte de Almeida)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mário Barroso	...	Narrator
Leonor Cabral

Storyline

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Madragoa Films (Portuguese/English)

Country:

Portugal

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

8 May 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

Fragile comme le monde

Company Credits

Production Co:

Madragoa Filmes, Instituto do Cinema, Audiovisual e Multimédia (ICAM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

User Reviews

It's monotonous but it's beautiful!

It's an artistic movie about the forbidden love of two young teenagers that live in a small village, lost somewhere… It's like a tale, where their love is stronger than anything else, even their own lives…

Vera loves João, but she doesn't want anyone to know her feelings about him, especially her aunt. When her grandfather tells her a popular tale about a Muslim princess that once loved a Christian prince from a near kingdom (in Portugal there is a lot of popular tales about Muslims princesses…) and that they ran into the woods so they could continue their forbidden love, she decides to do the same with her beloved João… They walk into the woods; they want that no one can find them again. They are intentionally lost in the forest. Now these moments are just for them. They share secrets, love, affections, silences (we can hear the birds singing…); they promise to never separate again, not even for one second! But she gets sick after a few days. When he listens hunter's sounds in the forest he goes asking for help, but he got lost. When he finally found her, she was already dead…he carried her in his arms into the river so they could die together…

The poetry has a strong presence in this movie, as the all film was just like a poem on the screen. It's almost all shot in Black and White, except a few scenes in the forest, at the beginning and at the middle, when they are living their fairy-tale romance…The black and white effect gives an artistic touch to the movie (especially when human faces are portrayed…it seems they are like uncoloured paintings!), but I think it would be much more beautiful if the fantastic ambiences of the woods were coloured! And the proof of that is the short scene where we can see the forest with all its colours accompanied by a magnificent piece of music from Renascence… In my opinion, that's the best scene of the film.

It's not an easy movie to watch, you can only enjoy it if you see it as a piece of art! Many people won't like it just because of some "particular characteristics", which are purposed and give it the poetic and artistic style: The black and white colours on the screen, its slowness, the voices are all theatrically spoken, the poetic language, the stilled portraits (sometimes we can hear the characters speaking while their faces are still and their mouths shut!), in one word, the monotony of the movie! It's monotonous but it's beautiful, but it's just my opinion of course…

The title of the movie, Frágil como o Mundo (Weak As The World), is extracted from a Sophia de Mello Breyner Adresen's poem: «Terror de te amar num sítio tão frágil como o mundo» (Terror of loving you in a place as weak as the world). Sophia de Mello Breyner Adresen is one of the best contemporaneous Portuguese writers.

I'll give it 7 out of 10 because of its poetic style.