Vicente Alves do Ó has started shooting Amadeo, an intimate and personal portrait of Portuguese painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso. After Florbela [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (2012) and Al Berto [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Vicente Alves do Ó
scheda film] (2017), in which Alves do Ó depicted the lives of two Portuguese poets – Florbela Espanca and Al Berto – the director is once again preparing to portray yet another important figure in the Portuguese artistic and cultural scene.

Amadeo de Souza Cardoso was born in 1887, in Manhufe. He lived and worked in Paris for most of his life, returning to Portugal at the beginning of World War I. There, he lived in Espinho with his family until he died in 1918. The film will depict three key moments in Amadeo’s life: the city of Paris at the beginning of the 20^th century, where Amadeo spent most of his life and produced most of his oeuvre; the historic 1916 “Abstraccionism” exhibition in Porto; and the period just before his death (1918). Rafael Morais (who starred in João Canijo’s 2011 movie Blood of My Blood [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]) will lead the cast, breathing life into Amadeo de Souza Cardoso. He will be flanked by Ana Lopes, who will play Lucie Pecetto (Amadeo’s wife), alongside well-known Portuguese actors such as Eunice Munõz (as Amadeo’s grandmother), Lúcia Moniz (as his sister) and Rogério Samora (as his father), among many others.

The producers consulted Marta Soares, a researcher, historian and curator specialising in the oeuvre of Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, and in order to recreate these three specific stages in Amadeo’s life (Paris in 1911, Manhufe in 1916 and Espinho in 1918), the director chose to take a contemporary approach to the spaces and the characters, with the inherent historical spirit of the times influencing the picture. Said characters include Amadeo’s internationally well-known friends (Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Constantin Brâncuși, André Derain and Max Jacob), as well as Almada Negreiros and Sarah Afonso.

Amadeo is being produced by Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes, with financial support coming from the ICA, RTP, Pic Portugal and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and is set to premiere on 12 November 2020, distributed by NOS Audiovisuais.