Ossos

Costa's got a style I enjoy, but I had a hard time getting into this movie. The problem is that I couldn't relate to the characters very well... in fact, I often couldn't understand them or their motivations. Costa seems to go out of his way to withhold information, which is sometimes an interesting way to subvert expectations... but sometimes just a frustration. I really wanted to like this film, and in a lot of ways I was intrigued, but ultimately I felt unsatisfied.

Like L'Enfant with a much more pronounced Bressonian style (although actually while watching it Bartas came to mind as an even closer comparison). In other words, textbook "contemplative cinema" arthouse miserablism, although interestingly done for what it is.

Perhaps it's because I'm going through Costa's filmography chronologically, but this struck me as a hard right turn. I'm not sure how I feel about it. In contrast to the dreamy unintelligibility of his first two movies, OSSOS is incredibly direct about its subject matter. There aren't any questions to be asked or mysteries to be curious about, there's only what's on screen; and what's on screen is unmitigated destitution and emptiness.

While I liked it, I'm not completely sold on this one. It was very strange, to me, with its realism and quite engaging story mixed with sparse, stylized dialogue and intermittent long close-ups of expressionless faces. I have only watched one Bresson, but one can definitely see the influence. The approach is interesting and it gradually won me over, yet I was never as fully involved as I had hoped. Have not watched the Criterion supplements yet, though, so they might illuminate it more for me.

An hour and a half I'll never get back. Another pointless, ugly, nihilistic "art film". Ghetto dwellers wallowing in their mire. Still not sure if a few of the characters were men or women.

Another boring and pretentious criterion release. Late 90's festie bait.

Ossos was Costa's first film that he shot in Fontainhas and his last to use a traditional crew and professional actors. The grimy painterly sensibility that would later define his work is present, but he was still refining his own film language--the influence of other film makers is still readily apparent--and he hadn't quite figured out how to place his camera around Fontainhas to achieve a rare intimacy that reflects its singularity and its inhabitants' impoverished existence in time-space.

The total absence of expression of the characters, to demonstrate the reality of daily life of those people, who doesnt do more than survive, do not portray the reality by any means. Also, didnt understood the need for such long scenes when there is not a dramatic intensity, nor a good photography that justifies it. A movie that tries to be artistic and a punch in the stomach, but in the end, its just pointless.

I will give them credit for randomly throwing in a Wire song.

Navigated in silence is the need for connection despite a physical and emotional tragedy. Unbearable at first but met with understanding as relationships are explored.

An incredible piece of filmmaking from Costa. The rich imagery and stunning sound design of this downbeat area of Lisbon gives the film its vitality, while the pacing, the barely moving camera, and the non-expressive characters suggest the near-absence of life in this section of the city. And yet, the regular sounds of chatter, laughter, and animals suggest that life continues on, vibrant, full, and most of all, somewhere else.

Vanda Duarte is incredible. But it's pure heroin chic.

Almost a Bressonian documentary--with the characters drained of all life by the slums they live in.