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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A Hot Performance Film, 9 September 2007

Author: sezme from Canada

It doesn't really matter whether you already love Fado music or not. This film will make a believer out of you.

I attended the world premiere on the 6th of September at the Toronto Film Festival (actually it was the first film shown at the festival this year) and I can tell you that the audience was in tears at the beauty of the performances alone, with applause after every number.

The film has no plot, only a brief title slide to explain the history of Fado music. Fado is a Portuguese vocal genre that has endured for the last 150 years. After that introduction, though, Saura just lets the music do the talking. The film is composed of performances by the top Fado artists from Portugal (Mariza, Carlos do Carmo...) as well as artists from Brazil, Cabo Verde, Spain, and Mexico (Lila Downs!).

This is no concert movie. Instead, each of the numbers is uniquely performed as a set piece often with a dance accompaniment. But true to form, it's the vocals more than anything which go straight to the heart as they tell tales of sadness and longing, of memories, losses and triumphs.

Interesting that a movie so devoted to the form should be directed by a Spaniard, Carlos Saura, but his filmography shows unequivocally his love of music and dance and his skill in bringing it to the screen. At the premiere, he spoke of the last day of shooting - it was shot entirely in Madrid - and how the cast and crew - half Portuguese, and half Spanish - was crying because they were sad it was over. I felt the same way at the end of the film and can't wait to see it again.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Fado is also art, 25 February 2008
Author: ruiresende84 (ruiresende84@gmail.com) from Porto, Portugal

I've been dreaming about this film. Despite i've seen this some months ago, i didn't comment on it before because i wanted to understand how it would fit in my imagination. And it has been moving my dreams in ways i had never experienced before. This is a milestone work, and i am marking it as a film one should necessarily watch in order to get maximum range of what moving images can give you.

I had experienced the musical genre according to Saura's vision. This one tops what he had done previously with Iberia and Flamenco. He topped everything he had done before in this area. The thing with this is: i'm not sure i watched cinema here. I watched a composition, which concerns music, plastic development of sets based on the feeling they cause, framing, camera movement and so on. So, Saura plays with the whole deck of cards. He plays with camera, sound and image/composition. He uses all the possibilities, and oh, he knows so well where he wants to go.

Probably, as a Portuguese i connect with this more specially. Fado is an work in progress, it is a form of expression that jumped out of the "neighbourhood". Amália Rodrigues tried to cross barriers, she looked for making Fado something more jazzy in the way it could play with more notes, breaking forms, and even breaking the idea of rigid forms. Ary dos Santos was her equivalent in what concerns lyrics (and he supported in this quest the upcoming Carlos do Carmo, who performs here). But when Amália started, she had fascism supporting "traditional" and fado had necessarily to play the cultural role of supporting the soul of the people, and the health of the empire. So she could never take the music to a whole new level, as it is being done in recent years.

Mariza shows now, well supported by the right people, and she took musically fado to a new artistic level. Fado is also music, Morelembaum told her. New musical developments are taking its way. And now we have this. Here the question becomes more universal and has to do with other "sports". Several parallel forms of expression, which intersect fado without being exactly fado. Over those expressions, Saura places flat colored surfaces, and he uses them at his will, to bring out the best all the numbers (dance or music) have to offer. So, he uses mirrors to multiply the area or to reflect movements he cares about, and he uses strong colors, usually to place faces against them. Here he can achieve in moments genius. I dream about that yellowed orange, i believe i cried a tear in my sit over that orange. The genius here comes when Saura is able to use all the media he has in order to bring out the value of music. He creates a new form of art, that may be beyond cinema, something between the happening and the installation, but oh much more interesting than any of these. Curiously, 2007 also gave us a film i consider essential, Caótica Ana by Medem, another spaniard, and in this film i commented on a specific scene which i considered to be something more than cinema, something which included the viewer. Very interesting, same year, same country. I believe the next step over this would be to place an architectural/spatial eye. That could come by studying the cinema architects (Welles, Tarkovsky, Antonioni...) and emulate them, or turning this into a physical real experience, but there, cinema is gone. I would prefer seeing this done the first way.

My opinion: 5/5 I felt i was watching to the construction of a new medium, of something never seen before. I enjoyed the sensation

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent film, 9 October 2007

Author: lanca-gil from Austria

Film that has to been seen by all Fado-fans. And those who didn't know anything about Fado have to see it, to learn and love it. Very good mix between studio-scenes and scenes filmed in Lisbon. Also the presentation of the old fado legends as Amalia is wonderful. Even the dancing scenes are great, though the dance is not belonging to fado. The appearance of Mariza, Camane and Carlos do Carmo are magnificent. They are the great fado-singers of the past, present and even for the future.I was surprised by the breathtaking scenes with Mariza and Patrick de Bana, I couldn't imagine that fado can be danced too. But Saura tooked his many years experience to make film, which shows not only the traditional fado music, but also the new ways and the relations to African and Brazilian music.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Masterful portrayal of a national art-form, 20 October 2007

Author: freeds from New York City

Of the 5 previously-posted reviews, I thought the one by "sezme" the most perceptive. So far, though, no one has explained that Fado (pronounced fah' doo) is an intimate art form, consisting, at minimum, of a female or male singer accompanied by a plucked-string instrument. The essential accompaniment is the high-pitched, mandolin-like 12-string Portuguese guitar. In most contemporary settings, a conventional ("Spanish") guitar adds the bass notes. The songs are passionate and intense but not necessarily tragic or somber. One of the film's greatest services is to show, via the excellent subtitles, the sublime folk poetry that makes up much of the lyrics of Fado.

A principal intention of the filmmakers was to present Fado as a trans-cultural phenomenon, an art form which has been translated and transmuted through the cultural lenses of many other peoples, especially those of the former colonies of Portugal. They certainly succeeded in this intention, although the various submissions were of varied quality and, obviously, did not suit the taste of some of the reviewers. For me, the low point of the film was the "rap" selection, an abominable form in general and particularly egregious in this setting. The pattern of audience applause after each segment, established at the beginning of the film, was broken here -- by my loud "boo" -- which elicited knowing chuckles from other members of the audience.

Given the film's scope, it is hard to fault the inclusion of dance. Some of it worked fairly well, other examples not so well. None of the choreography could be called inspired. One advantage of the world-wide excursion through forms of lesser quality, at least for me, was the enhanced joy produced by the return to "pure" Fado, which made up most of the later portion of the film. I especially liked the scene in the "night club," with three Fadistas, two female, one male, engaging in a sort of competitive conversation.

All in all, "Fados" is a rare internationalist endeavor, a Portuguese film made in Spain, where awareness of its less populous neighbor is, perhaps, even lower than that of Canada in the U.S. Allowing for a few misguided camera effects and hokey "fado" incarnations, this film remains a genuine work of art, an expression of overwhelmingly good taste in a time when that is a scarce commodity. Saura and company should be very proud!

Barry Freed

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11 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Fado Multinational Corporation, 7 October 2007

Author: Egberto Moreira from Portugal

As often as not art is comprehended not within the axiomatic framework of elements proposed by the artist, but within the context created by the audiences, based on their cultural boundaries and "pre-concepts". In the case of "Fados", it is clearly the aim of Saura, to the regrettable anguish of a few people, to portray a music genre which for many decades had been confined within the realms of its country of origin, Portugal. But then came the Goddess Amalia, who dared to "break the rules", taking all her wonderful energy to the four corners of our planet, and suddenly, as by a magic spell or charm, Potugal awoke, to realize that the whole world had already become aware, and ready to assimilate, what had been devalued and belittled. This music crossed the borders and influenced nations all over the world, causing astonishment in those nationals who never believed that could ever be possible, and who used to see it under the guise of a folk art manifestation, many times outside the limits of political correctness. - Saramago is more read in Spain alone, or Japan or Brazil, than in his own country (where 67% of the population never read any single book!) And most of his work only get published in Portugal after having become well accepted in other countries; his Nobel Prize is surely not due to his compatriot's acclaim or popularity - All in all to say that Fado finally may have become another matter of Portuguese delayed praise, both socially and politically (it could as well be challenged that it is still, in Portugal, a regionalized capital's possession, for some purists do not even recognize its performance outside the auspices of Lisbon's district "Bairro Alto".) But that acceptance does not justify whoops of nationalistic appropriation, for it is now, by merit and history, living in a much wider sphere, transmuted and amalgamated to suit the idiosyncrasies of all cultures that embraced it. Carlos Saura film beautifully shows how this can be so true.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Direction upstages the endearing song and singer, 21 March 2008

Author: Jugu Abraham (jugu_abraham@yahoo.co.uk) from Trivandrum, Kerala, India

Seventy-six year young Carlos Saura charmed film lovers with several melancholic dance, music and song styles: Flamenco in "Flamenco" (1995), "Blood Wedding" (1981) and "Sevillanas" (1992), tango in "Tango" (1998), and finally, opera and flamenco in "Carmen" (1983). Then comes his latest film "Fados," a heady mix of dance and melancholic Portuguese folk song rendered by mesmerizing singers such as Mariza and Carlos do Carmos…If you thought as I had, that I had seen all that the wizened genius from Spain could do, you will be pleasantly surprised. "Fados" is undoubtedly one of his finest films—forget the music, forget the song, forget the singers (if you possibly can!) and enjoy the art of fine direction.

I am forced to recall the US film "Woodstock" (1970). Millions would remember that wonderful film, but few would recall its director Michael Wadleigh. The gifted Wadleigh not only directed the fascinating documentary film, he was one of the cinematographers and one of the editors of the film. His assistant film director for the film was Martin Scorsese! If you enjoyed "Woodstock's" groundbreaking editing, it is important to note that Wadleigh's editing collaborator was Thelma Schoonmaker, who has edited each and every Scorsese movie since 1980. Now why am I writing about "Woodstock" instead of "Fados"? It is because like "Woodstock," "Fados" is very likely going to be discussed in years to come for its endearing music, song and dance, bypassing its vibrant cinematic ingredients.

The first few minutes into the film introduce you to breathtaking effect of the cinema of "Fados". You have shadows of live individuals walking as they do on a street (you do not see them under direct light). These shadows fall on a screen where another film image is projected. As the opening credits roll, you realize you are being seduced by the kinetic images. And even up to the final shot of the film, you realize that you are under the spell of creative use of shadows, images, mirrors, projection screens and shiny reflecting dance floors. The final shot is of the film camera lens, which is the appropriate mainstay of the film—not the music, song and dance, which merely provides the subject for the director. Even the English subtitles were aesthetically placed in the left corner of the frame, so that the beauty of each shot is maximized for the viewer.

Saura has a great ear for music. No wonder he made all these movies on music, song and dance. Go back in history, and you will recall his most famous film, "Cria cuervos (cry ravens)" (1975) featured a song called "Porque te vas (Because you are leaving)" sung by an American singer called Janette who was living at that time in Spain. The song had been released by the singer earlier but few took note of it. After Saura's film won honors at Cannes, Janette's song soared in popularity and became a worldwide hit. (Somewhat like Antonioni's boost to Pink Floyd in "Zabriskie Point", even though Pink Floyd was arguably quite famous by the time of film's release) That was unfortunately the career high for the singer. Today, some 30 years after I saw "Cria cuervos" during a Saura retrospective in New Delhi, the notes of the song ring in my ear. "Fados", like "Cria cuervos", is a delight for those who can appreciate good music.

In Saura's "Fados", achievements are many. The film is entirely made on a set, eliminating extraneous sounds such as street noise. The Portuguese icons of song come to Spain to film the scenes—a clever canvas of light and shadows, dance and song, mirrors and projection screens that recall the brilliance of another of my favorite documentary films—Hans Jurgen Syberberg's "Hitler--a film from Germany". Like all Saura's films there is some politics at play—his work is a cry for Iberian unity between two neighboring nations that never trusted each other historically. In an interview Saura stated that he was deliberately removing artists from their natural surroundings so that they could create "something new". To Saura watchers, he is continuing his favorite exploration merging theater and film, without being hemmed in by the boundaries of a written play.

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Risk of disappointment - be prepared!, 1 November 2007

Author: Artemis-9 from Portugal

«I sat in a theatre listening to the music coming out of the big speakers: the latest from Brazil. The film I was coming to see was "FADOS" by Spanish auteur Carlos Saura. I thought fado was from Portugal - I was confused,» said another IMDb user.

I can only sympathize. Film Author (and that's more than Director to you) Carlos Saura decided, because no one had done so for 30 years, to document Fado, the Portuguese national song of passion, sorrow, and remembrance that come so well in almost impossible to translate word, saudade, that seems to be the deepest in us, the Portuguese.

But this is his artistic vision of it, ands he warns in the opening credits of the film that he is not going to present the «classic» fado, but he will attempt to describe it's 150 years old roots that go deep in the miscegenation of native European Portuguese and the local cultures of the peoples that were once our colonies, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Angola… and also the «modern» and stylized ways Fado has taken through the voices who people who loved it, but innovated deeply in the way to sing it. Amalia Rodrigues was the first, changing the popular words of fado songs for poems written by great poets, those of centuries ago (like Camoens) and some contemporaneous. The stylized Fado of Coimbra was quickly accepted, though usually restricted to the cultured Portuguese, as it emerged from the groups of college students from that town. Carlos do Carmo, who now passes for a «classic», with his respectable 70-y-o look, was indeed a revolutionary who dared (protected by his mother, herself one of the best Fado singers ever, Lucilia do Carmo) to sing Fado as a song, upsetting the traditional rhythm and pose of Fado singers. Some audiences went riotous at first – and then acceptance came. There were others, and now the new born queen (a princess yet), Mariza, sings Fado in a totally different way again, HER way, and it is not so much her African origin that does it, I think, but her voice, and her soul. I do not think she is a beautiful girl, though many will throw bricks at me for saying so, but I am deeply touched by her passionate voice, and her attitude; there is no doubt that she has the same Fado culture, and love, as Amalia, and Lucilia, because when she sings she transfigures herself. You'll notice all this, and more, viewing the film.

«Casa de Fado» is the only sketch in which you'll have a peek of the «real thing» as it happened in Portuguese «tabernas» (taverns, where the poorest of a poor people talked, drank, and tried to survive the sorrows of life and love together – by singing them out). Through out the film, for the disappointment of the unprepared viewer who expects to watch and hear the purest of classic Fado, Carlos Saura uses multimedia to mix, on stage and on screen, several art forms with modern ballet and African folk dances on top, all connected to the Portuguese song. I do not like rap dance, but you must know that many African and Portuguese youths do, and there are many who wanted to show their respect for the African roots of Fado.

I was also shocked at first, when I viewed the film last night. But then I thought it over, and this morning I decided to leave here this warning. Please watch the film once, and let yourself go with the tunes, and the mood of poetic passion that Saura builds so well. Enjoy the great guitar players, and try to understand why artists so much apart came together in this film project… That's another beauty of the thing, Fado and Portuguese: both are able to integrate different peoples, and different cultures, all unique, and all the same! A footnote: someone praised «the fight superstar Mariza has with the Spanish singer in MEU FADO MEU - probably the only emotional moment in the film…» The choreographed fight in the film is played by two solo Spanish dancers, underlining very well the words of that particular song. I don't think that one was sang by Mariza, but Mariza is much better looking than the frail dancer in that scene.

A plea: I beg with film producers of the world to put this in a DVD with the short documentary by António da Cunha Telles, Fado (1970). I saw it 37 years ago, and the beautiful images and sounds came to me when I was researching our IMDb today. It would be a smashing DVD, contrasting two great film directors, two epochs wide apart, and with the same deep respect and love for an art form.

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If You Liked 'Flamenco', You'll Love 'Fados', 17 May 2009

Author: druid333-2 from United States

The magnificent Spanish film maker, Carlos Saura has gone and done it again. He has crafted an absolutely mesmerizing performance film dealing with the popular musical form from Portugal called Fado (a form of folk music,with roots dating back to the early 19th century). Fado is generally sung by either women or men,with spare musical backing (generally a mandolin like Portugese guitar,and an acoustic guitar or two). Not only are we treated to performances by today's superstars of Fado,but are equally thrilled by dancers performing in front of mirrors,or projected images of Portugal,now and then. There are also vintage film clips of legendary Fado performers such as Amalia Rodriguez,etc. At times the use of overlapping images reminded me of some of the experimental musings of German film maker,Hans Jurgen Syberberg (especially his film adaptation of Richard Wagner's 'Parsifal',or his performance film 'Der Nacht'). Although gone is the saturated colour photography that made 'Flamenco' a treat for the eye & senses,this film is also a sight to behold. If you have any kind of passion for world music,or just outright love Fado,you can't go wrong with checking out 'Fados'. Not rated by the MPAA,this film serves up a few rude words in some of the song lyrics (translated by English subtitles),but generally contains nothing to offend

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Never heard of fado, loved it at first sight/hearing, 10 May 2009

Author: aguajames from United States

We went to see this film because it was described a the Portuguese version of flamenco. We went directly from a flamenco class to the film and were enthralled. Never heard of fado before, but we became fans at first hearing it and watching this movie. I really liked the director getting out of the way and letting the performers perform without some distracting commentary droning on. Most touching was the older woman singing about regret, the passage of time, and the desire to change her past. Most upsetting was seeing that the virus of rap has infected yet another musical genre. However, this was an excellent movie that has inspired us to learn and listen more. We cannot wait for it to be released in a US format DVD.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Music - 9; Film - 4, 9 April 2009

Author: jmbellin from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Okay, can I announce that there is music and dance in this film? Does this constitute a spoiler? Just kidding.

Seriously, though, I was really disappointed with this film. I love almost all kinds of music and this music is now among those I like. Those with ears more trained to the distinctions between this Portuguese music and, say, Brazilian music can say more about it than I. However, there are certainly aspects to Fado that resemble Brazilian music.

Be that as it may, Fado, to my understanding, is not dance music, per se. On the other hand, the director, for who knows what reason, chose to greatly enhance the film experience with often cluttered visuals and dance that sometimes doesn't seem to fit the music. What I wanted to see was either a live concert film, like "Buena Vista Social Club", which showcases the musicians and also told about the musicians' stories, or a film like "Calle 54", a concert film simply done on a soundstage with no audience. Either way, those films focus on the musicians performing the music.

"Fado" is so visually busy, you get the sense that either the director didn't trust his audience to merely sit through a concert film so he enhanced it with visual pizazz, or he felt like doing an exercise in showing off visual style as a director (the way it sometimes feels Tarentino does). Other than a few exceptions, the musicians and the music are not the stars here (but they should be!). What we have are, instead, set pieces comprised of music and dancing and sets and colors and camera tricks. Hey, let's put on a SHOW!!! There was so much going on, with no microphones in sight, I thought I was watching singers lip synching.

The music is lovely, sometimes exciting and the performers seem to be passionate about what they're performing. Their efforts, however, are so often conflicting with the director's vision, or just drowned out.

Remember how tacky those musical numbers used to be at the Academy Awards years ago? You could have a singer like Shirley Bassey mesmerizing us with her vocal of "Diamonds Are Forever", but behind her would be busy Busby Berkeley choreography performed by 50 tuxedoed men and 100 scantily clad women, not really doing anything all that pointed regarding the lyric she was singing. Just complete idiotic distraction. Well, that's how a lot of this film felt to me. As Simon on American Idol would say, "Sorry." Could someone do a film of this music before a live audience and serve THAT up to us? I'll be anxiously awaiting.

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