The language of love
One doesn't need to speak Portuguese or Spanish to appreciate the beauty of ‘Fados'
By Jana J. Monji 05/22/2009
True, to really appreciate Carlos Saura's "Fados" one needs to speak either Spanish or Portuguese. It would also help to have an inkling of Portuguese history, or a great love for the music genre, fado.
But even absent all of that (except for the music), don't worry. Saura's highly stylized 2007 film - which doesn't really even have a plot - means simply to seduce audiences visually and aurally, just as he did with 1995's "Flamenco" and his 1998 Academy Award-nominated "Tango."
Now, with all the necessary sensory equipment identified and prepared, think of "Fados" as a beautifully packaged puzzle presented in a universally understood language: love.
The movie opens with music from a lone string instrument. Silhouettes walk from left to right, a crowd of people projected onto the screen behind them, seemingly walking toward the audience along a city street.
The performers' names - their only mention - slide by on a black screen slides. When they finally appear, no subtitles announce their entrance. The film's Web site lists them along with samples of their music, but the movie was made for an audience in the know, with no over-explaining for the uninitiated.
As we watch the black shadows moving between the credits, a sad voice (Carlos do Carmo) intones in Portuguese "Fado da Saudade," and the lyrics are translated into English:
The sun rises on the city
Which enchants me
On my old Lisbon
Of another era
Like a lump of longing
In my throat
I listen to a fado that fades
On departing
Words placed across a black screen tell us that in the 19th century thousands of people flocked from rural regions to Lisbon, where they mixed with immigrants from Portugal's colonies in Africa and Brazil in the 19th century. From them sprang the music known as fado.
Saura divides his work into segments of historical significance, as if this were one big intuitive music history lesson.
The next scene opens in San Jon de Cabo Verde, where people are moving through corridors made up of large transparency screens. We see an informal street party, complete with drums and whistles, in the Republic of Cape Verde, a small group of now-independent islands that were colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century.
From here we cut to two musicians (Ricardo Rocha and Jaime Santos) playing string instruments for the segment called "Variação," meaning language or dialect. The screens behind them project enlarged images of the two musicians, the camera focusing on their faces, then closing in on their hands playing.
It is not until the next segment, "Moçambique," that we see and hear someone singing - singer Mariza, performing "Transparente" and interacting with a male dancer while telling through song of how African drums were once exchanged for guitars.
The movie then takes us to colonial times in a segment called "Modinhas e lunduns." A Modinha is a type of 18th-century love song. Lundu, or lundum, was originally the dance of African slaves brought to Brazil but was later adopted by the upper classes and became the country's first national dance. Set against the interior of a stately old house, the scene features young women dressed in long, ivory-colored dresses dancing barefoot and fanning themselves as a young black man (Toni Garrido) sings plaintively "Menina Voce Que Tem" ("Girl, What You Got").
From there we have a "Fado menor du Porto," or a minor fado for the city Porto. This beautiful segment is edited to intermingle the singer (Camane), musicians and six dancers - each of the six dressed in brown Grecian style gowns. Their images are projected on the screen behind them, creating a wonderfully realized dance number.
Things take a more serous tone when we move to the harsh tale of Maria Severa, the first famous fado singer. The piece is charmingly sung by Catarina Moura, and pictures are used to illustrate the story, with the camera switching to scenes from the 1931 movie about Severa, "A Severa," the first Portuguese movie to use sound.
As in Saura's "Tango," which addressed the disappearances of thousands during Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983), "Fados" also does not shy away from disturbing, violent or unpleasant historical events. A segment called "Revolucao" employs sepia-toned footage of young people in the streets to address the mid-1970s revolution that brought democracy to Portugal.
Yet, the movie ends on a cheerful note in a café where walls are covered with photos of famous performers in "Casa de Fados" and a sing-off between old and young fado singers takes place.
Even without a real plot, performers we can recognize or segment titles we can read, "Fados" is a gorgeously shot and lit - though very long - music video.
"Fados" is screening at Laemmle's Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Call (626) 844-6500.
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