Mists
Encyclopedia
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 (uncommon situation in Portuguese film production) 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 Ricardo Costa’s films. For him, narrative involves necessarily mise-en-scène and that’s why documentary
(real life) tends to turn into fiction
. This tendency is fully assumed with Mists, the third Costa’s docufiction
, after Changing Tides
(1976) and Bread and Wine (1981). Mists is the first film of a new trilogy.
It is premiered at the 60th Venice Film Festival
(New Territories – 2003) and released in Portugal on 16 November 2006.
She now tells the story of her life. She repeats life-giving gestures, illuminating childhood dreams. The camera follows those steps, moves backwards, and then it lurches forward, suggesting a disquieting outcome of situations of these days, like those of the 11th September of that same year. The boys who live around her tell the same story in a different way. To make that possible, all it takes is a flick-knife, a handsaw, a broom stick, bamboo canes, floaters from the sardine nets, a few magic tricks.
Towers crash. The unpredictable Atlantic swaying under the splendour of the mists. Time (CIT. producer’s synopsis ).
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Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
feature-length film 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...
.
It is an auto-biography, a voyage to childhood
Childhood
Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood , early childhood , middle childhood , and adolescence .- Age ranges of childhood :The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a...
. Shot with no state funds (uncommon situation in Portuguese film production) it is an art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
. Formal simplicity – associated with a non conventional, sober and fluid narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
of time and human condition – is common to most of Ricardo Costa’s films. For him, narrative involves necessarily mise-en-scène and that’s why documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
(real life) tends to turn into fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
. This tendency is fully assumed with Mists, the third Costa’s 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 ....
(1976) and Bread and Wine (1981). Mists is the first film of a new trilogy.
It is premiered at the 60th Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
(New Territories – 2003) and released in Portugal on 16 November 2006.
Synopsis
More than fifty years later, the hero meets Maria José again. She used to be a maid at his parents’ house, when he was a child. From her he has heard the most implausible stories. She was then eighteen and he was about six. The young woman became an elderly lady: a wrinkled mother, then a grandmother and a great grandmother, with the sea embedded in her soul. She lives in a fishermen’s village with white and diminutive houses perched at the edge of a cliff in Peniche, an ancient fishermen's town, at a neighbourhood known as "Windows of the Sea".She now tells the story of her life. She repeats life-giving gestures, illuminating childhood dreams. The camera follows those steps, moves backwards, and then it lurches forward, suggesting a disquieting outcome of situations of these days, like those of the 11th September of that same year. The boys who live around her tell the same story in a different way. To make that possible, all it takes is a flick-knife, a handsaw, a broom stick, bamboo canes, floaters from the sardine nets, a few magic tricks.
Towers crash. The unpredictable Atlantic swaying under the splendour of the mists. Time (CIT. producer’s synopsis ).
Production
- Producer – Ricardo Costa (filmmaker)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...
- Director – Ricardo Costa
- Production year – 2001
- Format – 35 mm Dolby SR
- Release – September 2003
- Locations – Peniche, PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
- Image studios – Concept and 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...
- Image master and sound mixing - Téletota (Paris)
- Premiere - 60th Venice Film FestivalVenice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
2003 (New Territories)
Cast
- The hero – Ricardo Costa
- The grandmother – Maria José
- Her grandson – Rudolfo
- Her grand grandson – David
- Her daughters – Isabel, Beta
- Her sons – Henrique, Paulo
- Her friends – Maria Velha, Maria Joaquina, Maria Bernardina
- The ancient prisoner – António Dias Lourenço (sea also NYT article)
- The old photographer – Luis C. Peixoto
- The hero’s friend – Isaura
Credits
- Producer and director - Ricardo Costa (filmmaker)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...
- Script - Ricardo Costa
- Photography, camera, sound, editing - Ricardo Costa
- Assistant director - Maria José Silva
- Image assistant - Maria José Silva, Lígia Pereira, António A.B.C. Marques, António Maurício, Ricardo M. Costa
- Editing assistant - João Brandão
- Image supervisor - Vitor Estêvão a. i. p.
- Sound editor - Ricardo Sequeira
- Sound mixer – Jean-Paul Loublier (see Jean-Paul Loublier)
- Music - Manu ChaoManu ChaoManu Chao , is a French singer of Spanish roots . He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Galician, Arabic and Portuguese and occasionally in other languages...
and Nuno Rebelo (see Nuno Rebelo) at the ballet school of Museu Municipal de Peniche (Lifecooler)
Further reading
- Lisbon Debates the Fate of an Empty Building With a Dark Past - New York Times article
- The Peniche Museum (fortress and prison) at Texas A&M University page
- Museu Municipal de Peniche at Lifecooler
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- Mists - Movie Reviews - print
- Village Voice — Films opened March 23, 2011
External links
- Mists: pressbook with pictures (English, French, Portuguese)
- Mists at Film Up (Italian)
- Mists at The Complete Index To World Film since 1895
- Mists at the 60th Venice Film Festival: line-up at IndieWire (2003)
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- Mists runs at the QUAD cinema in New York City (March 25 to April 2, 2011)
- Mists – Portuguese American Journal, News, 22 March 2011
- Mists – Brown UniversityBrown UniversityBrown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, News, 22 March 2011 - Mists – Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationCalouste Gulbenkian FoundationThe Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private foundation of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education, and science...
News, 23 March 2011