30/03/2006

Just released on national screens, Vanitas [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the new feature film by veteran Portuguese director Paulo Rocha. With a script by Regina Guimarães, the film brings together actresses Isabel Ruth and Joana Bárcia – no strangers to this director's world – in a story about a depressed fashion designer who falls in love with the daughter of one her tailors.

Set in Porto, the film blends family memories and local references shared by both the scriptwriter and director: "My film career came about from walking the streets of Porto and Gaia. I have been collecting characters all this time and sometimes they come and knock at my door", explained Rocha, who had already set his 1998 film O Rio do Ouro in the Douro region. Produced by Suma Filmes and RTP with the support of ICAM, the film is being released today in Lisbon and Porto by Atalanta.

Vanitas will compete against two other European titles, two US productions and a Japanese film.

Lusomundo is releasing 10 copies of The Tiger And The Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which marks the return of Italian director Roberto Benigni after the flop of his previous feature, Pinocchio [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2002). Portugal is the seventh European country to release the film, after Italy, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece and Finland.

Also out (on six screens by LNK) this week is Neil Jordan's Breakfast On Pluto [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the tale of an Irish transvestite (Cillian Murphy) who travels to London to meet his mother. Produced by Pathé Pictures and Parallel Films with the support of the Irish Film Board, the film mixes genre issues and political drama, in an ambiguous style.

The three other titles opening this week are Japan's Nobody Knows by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Atalanta), the US/Canadian co-production Just Friends by Roger Kumble (Vitória Filme), and US animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown by Carlos Saldanha (Castello Lopes).