''Down to Earth'' () is a 1995

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Pedro Costa Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood. Biography After com ...

. The film is set in

Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

, a former

Portuguese colony The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

. This drama film is characterized by its reduced

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

, and photographies of the

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the Crust (geology), crust of a Planet#Planetary-mass objects, planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and volcanic gas, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Ear ...

in the Cape Verde islands. The title literally means "a house of

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

". The film has been described by some reviewers as Costa's remake of

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...

's 1943 film, ''

I Walked with a Zombie ''I Walked with a Zombie'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Pictures. It stars James Ellison, Frances Dee, and Tom Conway, and follows a Canadian nurse who travels to care for th ...

'', and Costa himself has suggested that his original intention for ''Down to Earth'' was for it to be a remake of Tourneur's film. Costa's work has often been compared by some to modern updates of classical Hollywood films, with Jonathan Rosenbaum pointing out that ''

Colossal Youth ''Colossal Youth'' is the only studio album by Welsh post-punk band Young Marble Giants, released in February 1980 on Rough Trade Records. Young Marble Giants were offered the opportunity to record the album after Rough Trade heard just two son ...

'' may be viewed as Costa's remake of

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

's 1960 film ''

Sergeant Rutledge ''Sergeant Rutledge'' is a 1960 American Technicolor Western film directed by John Ford and starring Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers, Woody Strode and Billie Burke. Six decades later, the film continues to attract attention because it was one ...

''. ''Casa de Lava'' was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

The film tells a story of Mariana, a

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

who leaves

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

to accompany an immigrant worker in a comatose sleep on his trip home to Cape Verde. The devoted Portuguese nurse took a journey only to find herself lost in abstract drama. There she finds that "she brought a living man among the dead."Quoted from the distributor's official synopsis
/ref> Costa made the film in a densely

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

style. Cryptic ellipses, cinematographic precision, narrative abstraction and lingering imagery of people and place, notably

Mount Fogo Pico do Fogo is the highest peak of Cape Verde and West Africa, rising to above sea level. It is an active stratovolcano lying on the island of Fogo. The main cone last erupted in 1680, causing mass emigration from the island. A subsidiary ven ...

, the highest

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano which is either erupting or is likely to erupt in the future. An active volcano which is not currently erupting is known as a dormant volcano. Overview Tlocene Epoch. Most volcanoes are situated on the Pacific Ri ...

of Cape Verde, are features in this melancholic meditation on love and loneliness.

Cast

Inês de Medeiros Inês de Saint-Maurice Esteves de Medeiros Victorino de Almeida (born 15 April 1968) is a Portuguese actress and politician. She won a Golden Globe in 1996. A member of the Socialist Party, she was a deputy in the Assembly of the Republic from 20 ...

– Mariana (as Inês Medeiros) * Isaach De Bankolé – Leão *

Édith Scob Édith Scob (21 October 1937 – 26 June 2019) was a French film and theatre actress, best known for her role as the daughter with a disfigured face in '' Eyes Without a Face'' (1960). Early life and family Scob was born Édith Helena Vladimirov ...

– Edite *

Pedro Hestnes Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

– Edite's Son *

Isabel de Castro Isabel Maria Bastos Osório de Castro e Oliveira (August 1, 1931 – November 23, 2005) was a Portuguese film actress. Biography She was born in the capital Lisbon in 1931 to José Osório de Castro e Oliveira (Setúbal, 27 January 1900 - Lisbon ...

Influence of the making of the film in Costa's future career

In an interview with

Jean-Pierre Gorin Jean-Pierre Gorin (born 17 April 1943) is a French filmmaker and professor, best known for his work with ''Nouvelle Vague'' luminary Jean-Luc Godard, during what is often referred to as Godard's "radical" period. Jean-Pierre Gorin was a student ...

, Costa has stated that ''Casa de Lava'' was the gateway to making his films in Fontainhas. When he left Cape Verde after filming, many people gave him letters or presents to deliver to their friends and relatives back in Lisbon. Costa went to the shantytown of Fontainhas to deliver the letters and became enraptured with the environment, its smells and sensations (which he called spicy).

References

External links

* *
Casa de Lava
{{Pedro Costa 1990s Portuguese-language films 1995 films Films set in Cape Verde Films directed by Pedro Costa 1995 drama films Films produced by Paulo Branco Portuguese drama films