Cinema’s centenarian Manoel de Oliveira (born 1908) transposes a 19th-century tale of romantic pursuit to 21st-century Lisbon, retaining, to rich and strange effect, every anachronistic detail of courtship and social convention.
De Oliveira celebrates his 100th birthday with a blithe shaggy dog story that shows his storytelling at its simplest and most pleasurable... a perfectly formed miniature.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl 2009
Singularidades de uma rapariga loura
Cinema's centenarian Manoel de Oliveira (born 1908) transposes a 19th-century tale of romantic pursuit to 21st-century Lisbon, retaining, to rich and strange effect, every anachronistic detail of courtship and social convention. A young clerk spies the eponymous blond beauty at her balcony from his office directly across the street. His subsequent pursuit of her is an affair of tests, challenges and surprising discoveries. — BG
“Actorly stiffness and precise diction in opulently lit and exquisitely framed shots are a powerful measure of the forcefulness of belief of these characters, as well as the underlying depth and richness of such simple drama within such strict social mores... Pure as rain water and just as lacking in pretension... the film is as deliciously droll about its romantic quest as the light rustle and the subtle transparency of the layers of curtains covering the young girl's window are simmering and sensual.” — Daniel Kasman, The Auteurs