O Pão e o Vinho

O Pão e o Vinho'' (English:Bread and Wine'') is a 1981 Portuguese documentary feature film directed and produced by Ricardo Costa.

History

O Pão e o Vinho is contemporary to the tetralogy Homem Montanhês (Mountain Man) : Castro Laboreiro (film), Pitões a village of Barroso, Far away is the city and Further ahead on this road. These feature films are all ethnographic films, with one difference: Bread and Wine is not a pure documentary, since fictional elements have been added as part of the film structure in order to strength drama and the anthropologic nature of the subject (see visual anthropology). Bread and Wine is at the same time docufiction and ethnofiction. It’s the second docufiction directed by Ricardo Costa, Avieiros (1975) being the first.

A common denominator for these films is the fact that they have been constructed without incorporating a story, although narrative is present, on the basis of some storyline resulting from the elliptic and harmonic association of shots. Being ethnologic with no scientific method, they may be seen as salvage ethnography. Introduced in Portugal in the sixties, as a consequence of the direct cinema techniques, the genre flourished in the seventies and, in this particular case, early eighties. These films, which are now living “documents” of patrimonial interest, will also remain as original examples of a genuine art of filming (see António Campos and António Reis).

Synopsis

«During an Easter celebration, on a Good Friday, black night, hooded figures dressed with black mantles walk in deep silence, only broken by the noise of a rattle and by the canticles of a young Veronique rising in her hands a sheet with the bloody face of Christ stamped on it. She sings a song of grief and sorrow in an understandable language, telling an old story. The chorus of the hooded men answers to her complaints, echoed by a music band.

At each turning point of the procession, now under a burning sun, other figures appear, bent on the earth, other voices, other sweaty FACES. At each blow of the sickle, at each progress of the harvest, at each hit of the hoe, at each impromptu of a native poet, Anastásio Pires, Gil Quintas, or the bohemian Joaquim, the dishes’ seller, the portrait is drawn, the true story is told. The rattling and the Veronica’s song sounds again. And the procession proceeds until the moment in which, with a strong blow, the coffin cover falls over the body of Christ.

The story which is told is of pain and wandering. The motive is the same as when people talk in front of a glass of wine, of a bit of bread with a slice of cheese. We can see that something happened, by that time, which was not deserved. Now we can see that, extinguished all hopes in a project that was not accomplished, the Alentejo, a singular and attaching land, still had a memory, was still alive. The actors of this film tell what happened. In each of these stories, the main character is Man» (Cit.: producer’s press-release)..

Cast

• Joaquim da Louça (popular poet)
• Anastásio Pires (popular poet)
• Gil Quintas (poeta popular)
• Vitorino (singer)
• Janita Salomé (singer)
• Grupo de Cantadores do Redondo (Group of Singers from Redondo)

Credits

• Production year – 1981
• Format – 16 mm colour
• Length – 90’ (aprox.)
• Production: Diafime with R.T.P. (Rádio e Televisão de Portugal)
• Director – Ricardo Costa

• Music – Extracts from Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi and from pieces of Portuguese music of the 15th century (Segréis de Lisboa)
• Laboratory – Tobis Portuguesa
• Locations – Redondo and Alandroal – Alentejo
• Premiere: RTP, 1981
• 1st theatrical show : Vila Viçosa, summer 2004

See also

• Cinema of Portugal
• Visual anthropology
• Documentary film
• Ethnographic film
• Ethnofiction
• Docufiction

External links

• O Pão e o Vinho – producer’s web page (English, French and Portuguese)

pt:O Pão e o Vinho