This is another Portuguese film inspired by classic national literature. Based on a work by Camilo Castelo Branco, the film follows a Catholic priest, named Father Dinis, as he encounters mysterious characters and unravels the romantic and tragic plots of several people in mid-19th century society.
Although I love Camilo Castelo Branco's literature, I must admit that I have never read this book, and I regret it. I don't know to what extent Carlos Saboga's script is faithful to the original work, but the way it unfolds, with lots of dialogues and descriptions, and a novelistic plot in keeping with the taste of the time, is something that sounds familiar to me, and very much in line with what Camilo would have written.
Directed by Raúl Ruiz, the film is extensive and has been divided into two parts. Perhaps for this reason, it gave rise to a television miniseries when it aired on national TV. I believe this was due to the unwillingness of both, the director and the screenwriter, to cut the material, anticipating the violent criticism from the most purist core of the "Camillians". The director sought to create suspense by choosing deeply dark settings and filming locations, where light and shadows create the ideal environment for an additional dose of psychological tension. However, this hasn't always worked out well: for example, although I love Quinta da Ribafria, in Sintra, I think it has become such a common filming location that it would have been preferable to find another space that was less recognizable to the public eye. And the absence of sound effects or soundtrack, combined with the huge amount of dialogue, give the film an excessively heavy and loaded tone that induces more sleep than dramatic tension.
Throughout the film, I felt like I was almost in a box at the Royal Theatre of São Carlos during an opera: in addition to the wide distance it creates between itself and the audience, the film has a colorful plot, worthy of a Brazilian soap opera, with crossed loves and betrayals, adultery and hidden children, poetic justice and secrets carried to the deathbed. Personally, I really like something like this, but the film would benefit a lot if it weren't so distant, if it gave us the opportunity to get involved with the characters and care about them, instead of being impassive spectators of their lives and, not infrequently, their deaths.
Finally, a word about the cast: composed mostly of high-quality Portuguese actors, with consolidated careers on national and international television (for example, Ricardo Pereira and Maria João Bastos have already done several television jobs in Brazil), it is a competent cast with everything it needs to carry out its mission to a worthy end. Of course, Adriano Luz is the most eloquent and complete actor in this film, and he does not disappoint us, providing us with quality work. However, Maria João Bastos cannot be ignored in any way, even though her character and her story are so dramatic that the actress actually seems like an operatic soprano in dialogue. Ricardo Pereira evolved a lot as an actor during his time in Brazil, and now he reaps the fruits of his growth by giving us a good work in his homeland. Afonso Pimentel, João Arrais and Albano Jerónimo are equally competent as secondary characters.
