VOYAGE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Strand Releasing Director: Manoel De Oliveira Writer: Manoel de Oliveira Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Yves Gautier, Leonor Siolveira
Maybe the Europeans should leave the road movies to the Americans. "Voyage to the Beginning of the World," which takes place largely in a car travleing over the roads of Northern Portugal, is the sort of film that has the viewers wondering, "Are we there yet?" When we get there, though, there's no payoff, just the pretentious chatter of uninteresting people who are fond of talking in metaphors.
This latest film of a ninety-year old director has nothing in common with his 1970s works which critics admire for their modernist complexities, and seems world apart from his more accessible 1995 film, "The Convent," which featured a crackerjack role for John Malkovich. Perhaps it will be marketed as a tribute to great Marcello Mastroianni, who died in 1996 at the age of 73 shortly after appearing in "Voyage," too soon even to see a screening of the movie.
The journey from France to Portugal is undertaken by a Portuguese director, his small company, and a French actor who is hired to do a TV shoot with them in the Iberian country. The Frenchman, Afonso (Jean Yves Gautier) was brought up in France by a French mother and by a Portuguese father who died young and did not teach the boy any of his language. Afonso uses the trip as an excuse to visit his father's town where he hopes to meet his dad's surviving sister, and since the Portuguese director, Manoel (Marcello Mastroianni) and the two actors can translate for him, they agree to go with him to the village. Reminiscing is apparently contagious: director Manoel, who looks more old and tired than his 73 years and wallows in self-pity, describes the past as a time that "it's good to remember" since the days "will not come back." He describes the horniness of his earlier years, his strict education under the Jesuits, and insists that he could never become a priest as the mere sight of a woman would make him forget about celibacy. In a roundabout way he even suggests a liaison with the attractive Portuguese actress in the car, Judite (Leonor Silveira), who is not engrossed but who, despite her name, has no interest in beheading the director. Much is made of a mustachioed statue they encounter on the road, a statue which takes on great metaphoric weight as a man whom "no one can set free." When the troupe arrive at the old aunt's house, the crone at first refuses to believe that Afonso is her nephew, but is convinced of their relationship when she touches his arm and somehow senses that they are of the same blood.
While Manoel's dad seems to be an interesting dude, one who left ol' Portugal and its spartan ways to fight in Spain, bought his way out of a Republican jail, and wound up in France, Manoel, Afonso, Judite et famille are crashing bores. Manoel carries a walking stick and protests that he is but a lame old man and Judite seems to have her stick stuck to her spine.
Traveling from a hip, modern area of France to a backwoods village in Northern Portugal is indeed a journey back to the dawn of time. Though the picture is a mere 95 minutes, the viewers can't be blamed for feeling that they themselves have had the experience.
Not Rated. Running time: 95 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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