Verde por fora, vermelho por dentro

Verde por fora, vermelho por dentro'' –Green outside, red inside'' – (1979) is a Portuguese feature film directed and produced by Ricardo Costa.

History

Green outside, red inside, in the panorama of the Portuguese cinema of the late nineties, was an exception as far as, contrary to the national production of this time, was produced with no state subventions. It’s the first fictional film directed by Ricardo Costa, mainly devoted to documentary film and docufiction. Although conceived as a linear narrative, it subverts this classification since it finishes at the story departure point, a burial scene. Together with this stratagem, unreal and subjective situations interfere in order to generate a metaphor of the social and political country’s situation, affected by the recent Carnation Revolution. Facing the neorealistic tendency of the Portuguese films of its time, it caricaturizes politics and social agents in a surrealistic mood. It was highly controversial.

Sinopsys

«A middle-aged businessman, a neoliberal, returns to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution to realise the ambitious dream of a banana plantation and help reconstruct the national economy, weakened by the "communists". He fails. He even fails his death, from which he mysteriously escapes. To be continued ?» (Cit. : producer’s press-release).

Cast

• Rogério Paulo
• Adelaide João
• Armando Venâncio
• Maria Teresa Melro
• Ana Luísa Nascimento
• Luís Alberto
• António Machado
• Pedro Valentim
• Mário Vasco
• António Germano Anjos
• António Anjos
• Helena Isabel
• and others

Credits

• Writers – Ricardo Costa, Ilídio Ribeiro e Maurício Cunha
• Production – Diafilme (1978 - 1979)
• Producers – Ilídio Ribeiro and Ricardo Costa
• Director – Ricardo Costa
• Music and songs – António Macedo
• Cinematography – Vítor Estêvão
• Sound engineer – Vítor Duarte
• Format – 35 mm colour
• Language – Portuguese and english
• Locations - Vale de Lobos (interiors: house of Alexandre Herculano)
• Genre – comedy (comic drama)
• Production year – 1978
• Studios – Tobis Portuguesa and Nacional Filmes
• Distribution – Doperfilme
• Premiere – Estúdio 144, Lisbon, the 16th October 1980

Festivals

• 9th International Film Festival of Figueira da Foz (1980) – Portugal
• International Film Festival of Santarém (1980) – Portugal
• Thessalonique International Film Festival (1981) – Greece
• Mediterranean Film Festival of Lecce (1982) – Italy

External links

• Green outside, red inside – producer’s web page
• Green outside, red inside at IMDb

pt:Verde por for a, vermelho por dentro fr:Vert en dehors, rouge au dedans