''The Strange Case of Angelica'' ( pt, O Estranho Caso de Angélica) is a 2010 Portuguese drama film directed by
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 ...
. It was entered into 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 of the
2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 23 May 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films scr ...
.
De Oliveira conceived the idea for the film in 1946 and initially wrote the script in 1952, updating it with modern elements.
Plot
In Portugal, in the years 2000, Isaac, a young Sefardic photographer rents an apartment in a modest pension of Senhora Justina, in Peso da Régua. On a rainy night, he is suddenly woken up to help a wealthy family in an extraordinary task: to take the last portrait of their daughter, Angélica, a young woman who has died soon after her own wedding. Upon his arrival to Quinta das Portas, Isaac encounters a family in mourning for the young woman. In one of the chambers, the photographer discovers Angélica and is dazzled by her beauty. In the moment when the view through the lens becomes focused, Angélica seems bringing back to life specially for him. For a few seconds, she gives a wink and smiles.
The next day, the photographer returns to the activity that brought him to the Douro region and goes out to document the old methods of working in the vineyards, with special attention to the so-called "earth diggers". But Isaac cannot forget the image of Angelica and feels magically haunted by the young woman. He lives in pursuit of the enchanting power of the successive apparitions of Angélica's ghost, which leave him deeply in love. Gradually, the photographer becomes exhausted and more and more distances himself from the environment that surrounds him and from life and social routine, until he ends up succumbing without apparent explanation.
Cast
*
Pilar López de Ayala
Pilar López de Ayala Arroyo (born 18 September 1978) is a Spanish actress. She won a Goya Award for Best Actress for her performance playing Joanna of Castile in 2001 film '' Mad Love''.
Family
Born in Madrid, López de Ayala has an older br ...
as Angélica
*
Filipe Vargas as Marido
*
Ricardo Trêpa as Isaac
*
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 Mother
*
Ana Maria Magalhães as Clementina
*
Isabel Ruth
Isabel Ruth (born 6 April 1940) is a Portuguese actress. She has appeared in more than 50 films since 1963. She starred in '' River of Gold'', which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
Selected filmog ...
as Doméstica
*
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 Engineer
*
Ricardo Aibéo
Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname.
People Given name
*Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portugu ...
*
Paulo Matos as Homem da Gabardine
*
Adelaide Teixeira
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The demo ...
as Justina
Reception
Keith Uhlich of ''
Time Out New York
''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide.
In 2012, the London edition becam ...
'' named ''The Strange Case of Angelica'' the sixth-best film of 2010, calling it "the greatest man-falls-in-love-with-a-ghost story ever directed by a 101-year-old."
In France, ''
Cahiers du Cinéma
''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' listed it as the second-best film of 2011. ''Cahiers'' later named ''The Strange Case of Angelica'' the tenth-best film of the 2010s.
References
External links
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''The Strange Case of Angelica''at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Strange Case Of Angelica
2010 films
Portuguese drama films
2010s Portuguese-language films
2010 drama films
Films directed by Manoel de Oliveira