Henrique Viana Movies

The effects of the Spanish Civil War on Portugal are examined in this Portuguese-Spanish historical drama. The story is in 1936 during the summer and centers on a group of young adults who have gone to the seaside for a vacation. Among the revelers are Mercedes, her brother Ramos, and his friend Jorge, who develops a crush on the woman. Their fun is interrupted when news of the newly erupted conflict reaches them. Each of the vacationers have their own take on the war and heated arguments ensue. An impassioned Ramos decides to journey to Spain and fight against the fascists. Meanwhile, Portugal's conservative dictator, Salazar, becomes increasingly oppressive. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Miguel (Luis Miguel Cintra) is lucky that his income will only level off if he neglects his business as a financier, and his wife and family will be well supported. Why? Because he has begun hearing noises that no one else hears, noises that bother him a great deal, and that make it impossible for him to bear human society. His wife (Jessica Weiss) is thoroughly put out by this radically changed behavior in her formerly good husband, but though she considers leaving him, she stays by his side. Deep in the mountains, Cecelia (Rita Dias), a devout, pure young cowherd, has been brutally raped by an old man. Her boyfriend (Pedro Hestnes) has killed the rapist, and fled the area. As a result of the rape, Cecelia is pregnant. One day, while driving in the mountains, Miguel gives Cecelia's boyfriend a ride. The two of them chance upon her sitting amid the rocks with her infant baby. The image is so like that of the Madonna that Miguel is thunderstruck. Not only that, the noises that plagued him have gone, and he can return to his patient wife a happier man. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Little is explained in this enigmatic drama. Vincente (Pedro Hestnes Ferreira) and Nino (Nuno Ferreira) have learned to cope so well with their father's frequent unexplained absences that when he apparently disappears for good, they have no difficulty continuing as before. The equilibrium they have established is more precarious than it seems, however, as relatives come to the house seeking clarification of the situation, and it is broken completely when some gangsters who have had some dealings with their father come and try to beat information out of them. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This classy drama is an updated version of Dickens' novel. Filmed entirely in black and white, the tale is set in the Portuguese industrial town of Poco do Mundo (World's End). The story centers on the schoolmaster's two children. The sister is married to a prominent factory owner. She is terribly unhappy. Her brother works in her husband's factory. All of the main characters have terrible secrets that they hide. Eventually the secrets destroy them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In a melancholy and well-photographed tale, a Portuguese family is in mourning over the loss of one of their sons, a young man who was killed in Mozambique. During the mid-1970s, Mozambique rebelled against 450 years of Portuguese colonial domination and after much bloodshed, independence was declared in June, 1975. Black-and-white footage dramatizes that conflict. Now ten years have gone by, and the mother still cannot forget her dead son, though the topic of the war has long been dropped from conversations. She and her husband go to visit their younger son in Lisbon, and as events unfold, it becomes apparent that all these issues have taken their toll on the mother's health and psyche. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This four-hour epic romance in the style of Romeo and Juliet is based on an 1862 novel by Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco. Set in the seaside town of Oporto, the romantic tragedy centers on the doomed love affair between two teens; Teresa (Cristina Hauser) and her lover Simao (Antonio Sequeira Lopes) both come from highly-placed, aristocratic families. Their relationship is forbidden by their illustrious parents, who are competitive and antagonistic towards one another. Teresa's family orders her to marry her cousin, and from that moment onward, the stage is set for tragedy. This is the fifth film from acclaimed Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In 1974, not long after the death of Portuguese dictator Salazar, who had ruled Portugal from the early '30s to the late '60s, a group of disgruntled Army officers held a coup. They were even more disgruntled when they realized how the coup was being manipulated by leftist officers to instigate genuine elections and establish a constitution for the first time in Portuguese history. Though their intent was to form a radical socialist state, circumstances prevented this, and a genuine parliamentary democracy emerged. This film explores the circumstances of a right-wing businessman during those times. The man is an old-fashioned authoritarian, whose attentiveness to the needs of his mistress, wife and son is crude where it exists at all. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi