''The Convent'' ( pt, O Convento) is a 1995 film by Portuguese director

Manoel de Oliveira Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira (; 11 December 1908 – 2 April 2015) was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about Wo ...

, starring

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model, and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recogni ...

and

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...

and is inspired by an original idea by

Agustina Bessa-Luís Agustina Bessa-Luís, GOSE (; 15 October 1922 – 3 June 2019) was a Portuguese writer. From 1986 and 1987, she was director of the daily '' O Primeiro de Janeiro'' (Porto). From 1990 to 1993, she was director of the D. Maria II National Theatre ( ...

in her novel '' As terras do risco''. It was entered into the main competition of the

1995 Cannes Film Festival The 48th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 1995. The Palme d'Or went to '' Underground'' by Emir Kusturica. The festival opened with ''La Cité des enfants perdus'', directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and closed with '' The Quick and t ...

Plot

The film opens when a Paris-based American professor Michael Padovic and his elegant French wife Hélène arrive at an ancient Portuguese

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

in Arrábida where he believes the documents needed to prove his theory might be in its archives:

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

was born in Spain named Jacques Perez, and was Jewish. The couple is greeted by an enigmatic stranger who refers to himself as Baltar; he is the guardian of the monastery. Baltar introduced them to Berta, the housekeeper and his assistant Baltazar. For his research work, Padovic spends most of his days in the library with the beautiful librarian Piedade, while Hélène is accompanied by Baltar who eventually professes his love towards the elegant lady. As the tension increases to its dramatic climax, the film ends with an epilogue in the form of on-screen text from a fisherman's report. Baltar and Piedade went missing after a forest fire; Michael and Hélène "left immediately" and are leading a normal life in Paris; Michael abandoned his research on Jacques Perez and is studying

occult sciences The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion, religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as Ma ...

instead. It nevertheless warns the audience that the fisherman's report might not be reliable.

Cast

as Hélène *

as Michael Padovic *

Luís Miguel Cintra Luís Miguel Valle Cintra (born 29 April 1949) is a Portuguese actor. He has appeared in more than 60 films since 1970. In 1973 Cintra founded the Teatro da Cornucópia with Jorge Silva Melo. Selected filmography * ''A Ilha dos Amores'' (1982) ...

as Baltar *

Leonor Silveira Leonor da Silveira Moreno e Lemos Gomes (born 28 October 1970) is a Portuguese film actress who made her film debut in '' The Cannibals'' for director Manoel de Oliveira in 1988. She appeared in most of Oliveira's subsequent films. She is the d ...

as Piedade * Duarte de Almeida as Baltazar * Heloísa Miranda as Berta * Gilberto Gonçalves as Fisherman

Music

The film centers at the question of Evil vs Good and Devil vs God. Essential to the brooding atmosphere is Oliveira's choice of music by

Sofia Gubaidulina Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (russian: Софи́я Асгáтовна Губaйду́лина, link=no , tt-Cyrl, София Әсгать кызы Гобәйдуллина; born 24 October 1931) is a Soviet-Russian composer and an established ...

('' Offertorium, Sieben Worte''), and portions of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

’s “''The Rake’s Progress''” and

Toshiro Mayuzumi Toshiro Mayuzumi (黛敏郎 ''Mayuzumi Toshirō'' ; 20 February 1929 – 10 April 1997) was a Japanese composer known for his implementation of Avant-garde music, avant-garde instrumentation alongside traditional Japanese musical technique ...

’s “''Prelude, for String Quartet''.”

Reception

In Portugal, the film was the most popular Portuguese film in 1995 with admissions of 35,000. It received positive reviews in the U.S. from

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

and

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

References

External links

* * 1995 films Portuguese thriller films French thriller films Films based on Portuguese novels Films based on thriller novels Films based on works by Agustina Bessa-Luís Films directed by Manoel de Oliveira Films produced by Paulo Branco English-language French films English-language Portuguese films 1995 thriller films 1995 drama films Films shot in Portugal 1990s French films Films scored by Toshiro Mayuzumi {{Portugal-film-stub