O Pão e o Vinho
Encyclopedia
O Pão e o Vinho is a 1981 Portuguese
documentary
feature film
produced and directed by Ricardo Costa
, his second docufiction
after Changing Tides
(Mau Tempo, Marés e Mudança) – 1996/7. The third is Mists
(Brumas) - 2003.
Homem Montanhês (Mountain Man), a series of four documentary feature films that Ricardo Costa was shooting on the mountains in remote villages: Castro Laboreiro (film), Pitões a village of Barroso, Far away is the city and Further ahead on this road.
They are all ethnographic film
s, with one exception: Bred an Wine is not a pure documentary
, since fictional elements have been added as part of the film narrative, in order to strength drama
and highlight the nature of the subject (see visual anthropology
). Bread and Wine is both docufiction
and ethnofiction
.
A common denominator for these films is that no conventional narrative is used. The story is told with poetic ellipse
s linking alternate actions and situations. Meaning arises from the flow of pictures, from the harmonic association of shots, slowly drawing a human portrait: a survivor.
All the Portuguese “ethnographic” films of these period involved passion (the portrait should be touching) and that means they are art films. António Campos
, António Reis
and some other left .important living “documents” of patrimonial interest that will be seen with emotion any time.
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)..
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
produced and directed by Ricardo Costa
Ricardo Costa (filmmaker)
Ricardo Costa is a Portuguese film director and producer.Most of his filmography consists of documentary films, many of them being contaminated by fiction...
, his second docufiction
Docufiction
Docufiction is a neologism which refers to the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction. More precisely, it is a documentary contaminated with fictional elements, in real time, filmed when the events take place, and in which someone - the character - plays his own role in real life...
after Changing Tides
Changing Tides
Changing Tides is a Portuguese feature-length film by Ricardo Costa, his first docufiction, preceding Bread and Wine and Mists ....
(Mau Tempo, Marés e Mudança) – 1996/7. The third is Mists
Mists
Mists , 2003, is a Portuguese feature-length film by Ricardo Costa.It is an auto-biography, a voyage to childhood. Shot with no state funds it is an art film. Formal simplicity – associated with a non conventional, sober and fluid narrative of time and human condition – is common to most of...
(Brumas) - 2003.
History
O Pão e o Vinho is contemporary to the tetralogyTetralogy
A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....
Homem Montanhês (Mountain Man), a series of four documentary feature films that Ricardo Costa was shooting on the mountains in remote villages: Castro Laboreiro (film), Pitões a village of Barroso, Far away is the city and Further ahead on this road.
They are all ethnographic film
Ethnographic film
An ethnographic film is a documentary film related to the methods of ethnology. It emerged in the 1960s as an important tool for research in the domain of visual anthropology, when filming human groups in society...
s, with one exception: Bred an Wine is not a pure documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, since fictional elements have been added as part of the film narrative, in order to strength drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
and highlight the nature of the subject (see visual anthropology
Visual anthropology
Visual anthropology is a subfield of cultural anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media...
). Bread and Wine is both docufiction
Docufiction
Docufiction is a neologism which refers to the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction. More precisely, it is a documentary contaminated with fictional elements, in real time, filmed when the events take place, and in which someone - the character - plays his own role in real life...
and ethnofiction
Ethnofiction
Ethnofiction is a neologism which refers to an ethnographic docufiction sub-genre, a blend of documentary and fiction film in the area of visual anthropology. It is a film style in which the portrayed characters play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.Jean Rouch is considered...
.
A common denominator for these films is that no conventional narrative is used. The story is told with poetic ellipse
Ellipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
s linking alternate actions and situations. Meaning arises from the flow of pictures, from the harmonic association of shots, slowly drawing a human portrait: a survivor.
All the Portuguese “ethnographic” films of these period involved passion (the portrait should be touching) and that means they are art films. António Campos
António Campos
António Campos was one of the pioneer filmmakers of visual anthropology in Portugal. Mainly using pure documentary techniques, he shot ethnographic films and tried docufiction...
, António Reis
António Reis
António Reis was a Portuguese film director. He was married to Margarida Cordeiro, co-director in most of his films. He is considered as one of the most important directors of his country, due to the originality of his style.-Filmography:...
and some other left .important living “documents” of patrimonial interest that will be seen with emotion any time.
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 VeroniqueVéronique
Véronique is the designation of a French sounding rocket with liquid fuel drive that was developed partly by German scientists who worked in Peenemünde. The Véronique was built between 1950 and 1969 in several versions, of which the versions P2, P6 and R were only experimental models. They were...
rising in her hands a sheet with the bloody face of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
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 (native poet)
- Anastásio Pires (native poet)
- Gil Quintas (native poet)
- Vitorino (singer)
- Janita Salomé (singer)
- Grupo de Cantadores do RedondoRedondoRedondo is a municipality in Portugal with an area of 370.0 km² and a population of 7,020 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 2 parishes, and is located in the District of Évora....
(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 PortugalRádio e Televisão de PortugalRádio e Televisão de Portugal, S.A.,commonly known as RTP, is Portugal's public service broadcasting organization. It operates four terrestrial television channels and three national radio channels, as well as several satellite and cable offerings....
) - Director – Ricardo CostaRicardo CostaRicardo Costa may refer to:*Ricardo Costa , Portuguese*Ricardo Costa , Portuguese*Ricardo Costa *Ricardo Valter da Costa, Brazilian footballer*Ricardo Mion Varella Costa, Brazilian footballer...
- Music – Extracts from Four SeasonsThe Four Seasons (Vivaldi)The Four Seasons is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season...
by Antonio VivaldiAntonio VivaldiAntonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
and from pieces of Portuguese music of the 15th century (Segréis de Lisboa) - Laboratory – Tobis PortuguesaTobis PortuguesaTobis Portuguesa was created on June 3rd 1932, in order to support and foster the development of Portuguese cinema, goal that kept during its 75 years of activity.-History:Tobis originally focused its activity on film production and lab processing...
- Locations – RedondoRedondoRedondo is a municipality in Portugal with an area of 370.0 km² and a population of 7,020 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 2 parishes, and is located in the District of Évora....
and AlandroalAlandroalAlandroal Municipality is a municipality in Portugal located on the eastern frontier with Spain along the Guadiana River in the Central Alentejo region...
– Alentejo - Premiere: RTP, 1981
- 1st theatrical show : Vila ViçosaVila ViçosaVila Viçosa is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 195.0 km² and a total population of 8,745 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 5 parishes, and is located in the District of Évora....
, summer 2004
Bibliographic references
- O Cais do Olhar by José de Matos-CruzJosé de Matos-CruzJosé de Matos-Cruz is a Portuguese writer, journalist, editor, high-school teacher, investigator, encyclopedist. From 1980 to 2010, he works at the Cinemateca Portuguesa , in Lisbon...
, Portuguese Cinematheque, 1999 - Ricardo Costa and the flowing pictures, article by José de Matos-Cruz
External links
- O Pão e o Vinho – producer’s web page (English, French and Portuguese)
- Ricardo Costa and the flolowing pictures - article by José de Matos-CruzJosé de Matos-CruzJosé de Matos-Cruz is a Portuguese writer, journalist, editor, high-school teacher, investigator, encyclopedist. From 1980 to 2010, he works at the Cinemateca Portuguesa , in Lisbon...