O bobo

The films of José Álvaro Morais show the qualities of an original and demanding artist, but O BOBO, though a “difficult” film, is by far the richest and nearly perfect. The “difficulty” of this film lies not only in the cinematographic language used (which is also one of its main strengths), but also in the extremely complex subject-matter. The narrative framework is the “white night” spent in Lisbon by Francisco and his girlfriend Rita in 1978, at the end of a day in which João, Francisco’s childhood friend, is murdered. During the dictatorship João belonged to a subversive leftist group, but just four years after the revolution he has lost all his ideals and is seeking to sell arms to mysterious fascist clients. This complex story, with its many ramifications, is blended with the rehearsals of a play Francisco is directing and playing the title role in: O BOBO, adapted from a 19th-century historical novel by Alexandre Herculano, and relating the accession of Dom Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal. (Eugène Green)