Paulo Branco Movies

Two gunmen chase after an anthropologist on the run in this convoluted, low-budget drama. In spite of several technical flaws in production and amateurish performances, the film shared prize money given by the CIGA hotel chain at the 1987 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The terrifyingly destructive power of a woman's sexual obsession provides the compelling subject for this psychological study of a woman's descent into madness from French filmmaker Alain Tanner. It is the tale of Parisian actress Mercedes who is first seen attempting to break up with the obsessive Arab Johnny, who stalks her until she meets handsome newspaper writer Pierre on the subway and goes with him for an afternoon fling. Before the sweat even dries, she finds herself hopelessly in love with him. Pierre is flattered and encourages her desperate devotion, but soon after their affair begins, he is called off on a business trip leaving the suddenly distraught Mercedes alone with her demons. Though preparing for a new play, she is unable to concentrate and barely able to function without Pierre. She quits the production, locks herself in Pierre's apartment and quietly begins falling apart until he returns. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this experimental work, director Manoel de Oliveira puts in a few left-hand punches at the world of commercial cinema. The story opens with a stage play in which a costumed flapper (Bulle Ogier) is working her way through her scene when she is rudely interrupted by a young man. He proceeds to declaim his grievances to the camera crew that occupies the first rows, namely de Oliveira and his technicians. This sequence is then rewound and repeated in two different, speeded-up styles. Next, some images of global disasters fill the screen and it is on to the second major episode. In this segment, a disfigured Job (Luis Miguel Cintra, the disgruntled man of the first segment) proclaims his woes to his wife (Ogier again), woes that are easily interpreted as exactly those of the serious cineaste in a commercial world. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Released in English-speaking countries as The Rose King, the German Der Rosenkonig is another of director Wern Schroeter's self-indulgent studies of intense, artistically expressed human passion. The scene is a large Portuguese estate. Still-beauteous widow Magdalene Montezuma lives in empty luxury on the estate with her son. This close familial relationship is shaken up, but ultimately strengthened, by the arrival of a low-born laborer. Director Schroeter unfolds his tale with the slightly surreal logic of a midsummer daydream. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In a specialized, hermetic drama about love won and lost, not necessarily by the same individuals, novice director Christine Laurent has focused on the backstage melodramas of an opera company. The conductor for an upcoming performance of the Marriage of Figaro has his mind and heart on other matters -- an entrancing diva who keeps him enraptured with her presence and voice. In the meantime, he finds fault with his cast members who cannot, of course, measure up to the woman of his dreams. As singers encounter one problem or another, it is clear that something has to be done about the conductor. Director Laurent designed costumes for both theater and opera, giving her some insight into the venue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Originally Dans la Ville Blanche, the Swiss/Portuguese In the White City features Bruno Ganz as a cinematically inclined Swiss sailor. While on liberty in Lisbon, Ganz decides to soak in the sights, committing his visit to posterity with an 8-millimeter movie camera. His ship sets sail, but Ganz remains in Lisbon, trying to explain his "escape" (which includes an affair with chambermaid Teresa Madruga) in long rambling letters to his wife. In the White City was directed by Alain Tanner, best known for his stream-of-consciousness Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When several Americans start out on their trek through a large national park, they have no idea that their lack of expertise will get them hopelessly lost -- and facing starvation, they have some grim alternatives available if they want to survive. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi