Cavalo dinheiro (2014)

	Also Known As: Horse Money
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Pedro Costa
	Actors: Ventura, Vitalina Varela
	Country: P
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 07.09.2015, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Original Portuguese version with German subtitles
Synopsis: Ventura (Ventura) traverses a seemingly endless night populated by the ghosts of his, and his country’s, past. Bureaucratic questioning, and wandering through remembered spaces... and suddenly it is also then, the mid '70s and the time of Portugal's Carnation Revolution, when Ventura got into a knife fight with his friend Joaquim.
Review: The movie starts with a serie of pictures coming from old ages of Portugal accompanied by spleen music by Messiaen (master of the contemporary music). Then the movie turns into a serie of almost still pictures from the hard-to-understand story of Ventura. It is not easy to catch what he is talking about. Rememberances, his friend, bureaucratic question on his daily life. This is for me rather than an experimental or poetic movie (implying movement) as often written by the press and the festivals, a very beautiful pictural exhibition. The way the light falls on the characters or on dark rooms, the way the darkness split space, the way people are visible via the light on them or via their shadow. This is full of magnificent light-contrasted pictures. This is beautiful.  I did not see  the previous film by Costa, Colossal Youth (2006), but it could be interesting from the photographic point of view. From a movie, I expect a bit of movement and a story. And both are missing terribly in that movie. It was not to sleep even if the movie was only 93 minutes, it felt like ages.
Rating: 3 /10