Plot
Vera and John are two teenagers in love. Apparently, their life does not present them with any problems. They both have family and friends who love them. As the teenagers that they are, their whole life has been defined by others. The couple feels they have no space, and especially no time, to live their passion. Besides being busy with their studies, their homes are far apart. But the biggest problem is that they feel that their own time does not allow them to love each other. Trying to define their future, Vera and João start an escape plan. With the same innocence with which they participate in a children's game, they flee from their homes, and move away from their land. The couple isolates themselves in a forest. There, they make a pact: they will never be separated "for anything in this world." Vera tells John a secret that she had never revealed even to her family. She describes an experience, memory or imagination, from when she was a child. She found herself in danger, trapped in a place with no way out. With all her faith, Vera asked Mother Nature to open a crack that would allow her to get out of there. A giant rock moves, freeing her. Upon hearing the story, João believes her. A bond of complicity between the couple and union with the Nature of the forest gradually becomes more intense. But Vera, on the other hand, begins to feel weaker and eventually falls ill. João finds himself in a dilemma: on the one hand, he does not want to break the pact that they will not be separated "for anything in this world," but on the other, he wants to leave her alone to go for help. He carries her and they lay on a boat. Many years later, a child sees them laying in the boat, she suspects they're dead but cannot confirm. The child tells her mother and she tells her to go to sleep.Cast
Production
Development
Gomez became interested in the concept of the film after reading an article in 1993 about the suicide of a couple. In her words: When developing the story into a screenplay, Azevedo Gomes integrated fragments of literary texts by poets likeFilming
The filming took place in thePost-production
The filmmaker's intense involvement extended into the post-production phase. Besides the transition to black and white, the lack of direct sound forced the dubbing of the characters by the actors and the subsequent composition of environmental sounds. In her words: The sound problems also triggered new dialogue rewrites, in addition to the inclusion of a poem, Menina e Moça, by Bernardim Ribeiro, which led to the invitation to filmmaker Mário Barroso to interpret it as narrator.Themes
For Gomez, cinema is the territory of communion of poetry, of reality or memory, of nature and dream: "cinema is the right place to represent the coexistence of stones and ghosts". In this way, Fragile as the World starts from a premise of a children's fable and Shakespearian tragedy, but takes a modern approach to image and sound. In fact, something characteristic of the cinema of Rita Azevedo Gomes, the film results from a fusion of imaginary legends and literary references that, in this case, enhance the romantic elements of the work, about impossible love, the perishability of the body, the communion with nature, and the perception of human fragility. Besides the poetry in evidence, music and painting are elements included in Fragile Like the World that reinforce all this symbolism. The work also makes use of the literary voice as an additional layer: "the narration works a bit like music. But music is an abstract thing and voice, on the contrary, its able to make the image subjective. In other words, while the camera makes the image objective, by bringing (...) an image closer to reality, the narration makes them subjective". The film also stands out for the careful composition of the shots, for a lethargy in acting and action, but also for the oneiric simplicity of the scenarios. In fact, the fog assumes preponderance throughout the work, taking over the image, in an omen that anticipates the fate of the protagonists. All this imagetic charge of the film places it in a timeless universe, which is neither purely classical nor contemporary cinema. The filmmaker justified the option for the softened black-and-white image as an attempt to unite all the realities, memories, and fantasies evoked throughout the narrative. Even so, as a contrast, there are some shots in color, such as the initial panorama in a ruined house that refers to a forgotten memory. In the second half of the film, a flashback to a forest again introduces color to the work, giving the place an enchanted component and suggesting that the scene may result not only from memory, but also from imagination. Although the sequence is interrupted by black and white, the image resumes coloration when the camera reveals the unrealistic tones of the forest and the specters around the couple.Release
Frágil como o Mundo was released in Portugal by Atalanta Filmes, having its premiere in July 20, 2001, in the King (Lisbon) and Charlot (Oporto) cinemas. Atalanta Filmes would also publish Fragile as the World in VHS. In France, the film hit the theaters on August 25, 2002, through Gémini Films.References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fragile as the World Portuguese drama films 2001 films 2000s Portuguese-language films