Original subtitles

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This DCP originated from the UltraHD digitisation

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

of an interpositive image preserved by the Cinemateca in 2019.

The colour correction was done using a vintage copy as a reference.

The sound was digitised from the optical band

of a 35mm synchronised copy preserved by the Cinemateca.

In memory of Carl Th. Dreyer

A Film by João César Santos on

SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER ANDRESEN

Assistant Camera Operator, Emílio Pinto

Assistant Director, Jorge Silva Melo

Sound Editor, Alexandre Gonçalves

Director of Photography, Abel Escoto

A Production of Ricardo Malheiro

Stanzas and children as you bring to the world?

As on the beach the shadows of corals converse you?

As of anguish the deep nightfall?

As one who splits and scatters oneself?

As one who might kill you?

Or as one who shall never return to you.

JORGE DE SENA

"And so the Girl of the Sea sat on the boy's shoulder and said:

"I'm so happy, so happy, so happy.

"I thought I'd never see you again.

"Without you the sea, despite all its anemones,

"seemed sad and empty.

"And I spent my entire days sighing and didn't know what to do.

"Until one day the King of the Sea gave a big party.

"He invited many whales, many sharks and many important fishes.

"And he told me to go to the palace and dance at the party.

"At the end of the banquet the time came for me to dance,

"I entered the cave where the King of the Sea was with his guests,

"sitting on his nacre throne surrounded by sea-horses.

"And then the dog-whelks started singing a very ancient song

"that was invented in the beginning of the World.

"But I was very sad and so my dancing was very poor.

"Why is your dancing so terrible?, asked the King of the Sea.

"Because I'm filled with longing, I replied.

"Longing?, said the King of the Sea, what's that all about?

"And he asked the octopus, the crab and the fish what had happened.

"They told him everything.

"And so the King of the Sea felt sorrow for my sadness

"and felt sorrow for a ballerina that didn't know how to dance anymore

"and said: come to the palace tomorrow morning.

"The morning of the next day, I returned to the palace

"and the King of the Sea sat me on his shoulder

"and took me up to the surface of the waters.

"He called a seagull, gave it a bottle with an anemone filter

"and sent it looking for you.

"And that's how I got you back.

"Now we'll never be apart again, said the boy.

"Now you'll be strong as an octopus, said the octopus.

"Now you'll be wise as a crab, said the crab.

"Now you'll be happy as a fish, said the fish.

"Now your land is the sea, said the Girl of the Sea.

"And all five of them went through forests, sands and caves.

"The following day,

"there was another party at the palace of the King of the Sea.

"The Girl of the Sea danced all night long.

"And the whales, the sharks, the turtles and all the fishes

"were saying: we've never seen such perfect dancing.

"And the King of the Sea sat on his nacre throne,

"surrounded by sea-horses,

"and his purple robe floated on the waters."

Did you like it, Xavier?

Yes, but you could have used a more natural voice.

A more natural voice? How would that be?

A natural tone.

- It's not yours! - It's not mine?

"The earliest thing I remember is a bedroom facing the sea,

"inside of which, on top of a table, there was an enormous red apple.

"From the shimmering of the sea and from the redness of the apple

"there arose an irrefragable, naked and unbroken bliss.

"It was not at all fantastic, it was not at all imaginary:

"it was the very presence of the real I was discovering.

"Later the work of other artists

"would confirm the objectivity of my own gaze.

"In Homer I recognized the same naked and unbroken bliss,

"that splendor of the presence of things.

"And I also recognized it, intense, alert and ablaze

"in the painting of Amadeu de Souza-Cardoso.

"To say that the work of art is part of culture

"is rather scholarly and artificial.

"The work of art is part of the real

"and it is destiny, fulfilment,

"salvation and life."

He who seeks a just relation with the stone, with the tree,

with the river, is necessarily led

by the spirit of truth that inspires him

to seek a just relation with Man.

He who seeks the amazing splendor of the world is,

by force of logic,

led to see the amazing suffering of the world.

He who sees a phenomenon wishes to see the whole phenomenon.

It is simply a matter of attention, sequence and rigor.

And that's why poetry is a moral act.

And that is why the poet is driven to search for justice

through the very nature of his poetry.

Like Antigone, the poet of our time says:

I'm the one who did not /earn to yield to disasters.

Even while speaking merely of stones and breezes,

the work of the artist will always tell us this:

That we are not merely animals

sharpened by the struggle for survival,

but that we are rather, by natural right,

heirs to the freedom and dignity of being.

Oh Sophia, if I were to look back on my life,

in the end, the assessment I would make is precisely the one

I have made many years ago when I wrote Coral, which is this:

I believe in the nudity of my life.

I don't believe in biography, which is life told by others.

In the end, all there is, the only biography I have

is the one in my poetry.

And, essentially, what I have sought was that sense of nudity,

to put oneself in the face of each thing,

as if it had never been seen

and start looking from the first moment

as if it was the first day of the world,

and, in essence, when I say "I believe in the nudity of my life"

it's the same thing...

Oh I can't stand it, Xavier, I can't, I can't, absolutely not!

Xavier, why all this?

These people, whose face is at times luminous

and at times rough

here reminding me of slaves there reminding me of kings,

rekindles my taste for fighting and fraying

'gainst the vulture and the snake, the pig and the fork-tailed kite

For the people whose face is chiseled by patience and hunger

are the very people on whom

an occupied country writes its name

In the face of these people, ever ignored and tramped on

like the stone on the ground and, further than the stone,

humiliated and crumpled,

my chant reawakens and I resume the search

for a liberated country, a pure life

and fair times

I'm not at all a nostalgic person.

For me, things, the things I care about,

are those things that are still actual, that are still alive,

that are still active.

If they ceased to be active it is because they have ceased to exist,

it is because they did not truly exist.

I deeply believe that we choose eternity while in this world,

that is, it is here and now that we build and create eternity.

And that which we will find later is that which

we were capable of finding here and now.

If we have not found it here,

then we will not be able to find it later.

It makes no sense to talk about Isadora Duncan,

because nobody can understand the kind of relationship that existed

between her and my mother from an early stage.

Even if they did, it's not their business,

because the truth about a person is not a spectacle

and the public is here to be entertained.

Someone, do you recall who it was that said

that first you have to decide according to own mind

and your own taste

and afterwards have the time and the courage

to express all your thoughts

with regard to the chosen subject.

So, one must say everything in simple way,

setting as one's goal not seductions

but rather convictions.

All my life I recall seeing my mother dancing when we were little.

All the time my mother would dance

and put flowers on her head and do dance-steps,

while speaking to herself as she walked down the corridors.

One of the funniest things when we were kids

was that mother sometimes called us and said she was going to make a film

and using the living-room or bedroom lamp

she made animals appear on the walls, huge shadows.

This is a rabbit, this is a wolf,

this is an animal,

and she would make up stories in forests

through those animals that she cast on the walls.

When I die I will return to reclaim

The moments I did not live by the sea