BONES
Ossos
Portugal, France, Denmark | 1997 | 94 min
Three characters, two girls and a boy, in a stylized melodrama set in Lisbon’s suburbs. An indifferent, aseptic space, composed of places of transit: an empty house, anonymous roads, markets, busses. Whatever happens to them, whatever upsets their lives seems not to transpire from their countenances. They move slowly, they betray no emotion, as if they weren’t human beings but rather not yet (or no longer) human figures. The bones in the title convey the idea, among other things, of subtracting, almost flaying the narrative as much as the expression. In the cinema of Pedro Costa, a double movement is increasingly taking shape: on one hand, the search for a narration that is essential, down to the single shot; on the other hand, a tendency towards expansion, meant to tell not only the stories of the characters, but also the world that envelopes them and determines their lives. (d.d.)
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: 07 Nov 2023
- Time: 12:45
Location
- Cinema La Compagnia - Via Camillo Cavour, 50/R, 50121 Florence
Organizer
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Pedro Costa
Pedro Costa is one of the most important directors in contemporary Portuguese cinema. Born in 1959, he studied history and art history at the University of Lisbon before starting to work as an assistant director for some of the most prominent Portuguese directors, including João César Monteiro and André Téchiné. His career as a director began in 1989 with the film O Sangue, presented at the Cannes Film Festival in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs section. Since then, he has directed numerous films that have been screened at major international festivals such as the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival. His film In Vanda's Room (2000) won the FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was selected to represent Portugal at the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. With his subsequent films Colossal Youth (2006), Horse Money (2014), and Vitalina Varela (2019), Costa continued to work with the same non-professional actors who live in a poor neighborhood of Fontainhas in Lisbon. His work has received numerous awards worldwide, including the Best Film award for Vitalina Varela and the Best Director award for Horse Money at the Locarno Film Festival. Costa is known for his unique aesthetic, which often relies on long static shots and a creative use of light and shadow, for his attention to detail and composition.
