Viver mal

VIVER MAL is the counter-shot of MAL VIVER. The latter focuses on the operators of an old, stately hotel (three generations of mothers and daughters), while the former trains its gaze on the guests who spend only a few days there, perhaps a weekend. MAL VIVER concentrates on the pain and crippling anxiety of motherhood (with the daughters suffering alongside them), while its companion film concentrates on the pain and frustration of being a child (with the mothers present, full of power and rage). Upper-middle-class guests swim, sunbathe and have dinner, entangled in contradictory social relations: the women who serve them, who actually share their privilege, are like wallpaper to them. Everyone is blind to everything but their own all-consuming drama; everyone is possessed by this ominous space, a modernist hotel falling into slow decay; everyone falls into the abyss of the most unpleasant feelings; everyone in this hotel seems to have reached a point of no return as far as humanity is concerned. We encounter the same shot again and again where we can see the windows of every room, placing each individual drama in context. Love is an evil thing in this film, a need to possess other people until total destruction ensues. (Lucía Salas)

In the presence of João Canijo.

JOÃO CANIJO: TRÊS MENOS EU (1985), FILHA DA MÃE (1989), SAPATOS PRETO (1997), GANHAR A VIDA (2000), NOITE ESCURA (2003), MAL NASCIDA (2007), FANTASIA LUSITANA (2010), TRABALHO DE ACTRIZ, TRABALHO DE ACTOR (2011), SANGUE DO MEU SANGUE (2011), RAÚL BRANDÃO ERA UM GRANDE ESCRITOR... (2012, K), É O AMOR (2013), PORTUGAL, UM DIA DE CADA VEZ (2015), DIÁRO DAS BEIRAS (2017), MAL VIVER (2023)