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Espelho Magico

Magic Mirror

Portugal 2005
produced by
Filbox - Producoes
directed by Manoel de Oliveira
starring Leonor Silveira, Ricardo Trepa, Leonor Baldaque, Luis Miguel Cintra, Glória de Matos, Marisa Paredes, Michel Piccoli
screenplay by Manoel de Oliveira, based on a novel by Augustina Bessa-Luis

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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After being released from prison, Luciano (Ricardo Trepa) finds work with wealthy Alfreda (Leonor Silveira) as her driver/right-hand man. It is Alfreda's greatest wich to have a vision of the virgin Mary, which seems to Luciano as a mere whim at first, but soon he realizes it is an actual fixation, & not only that, she has even employed a scholar, professor Heschel (Michel Piccoli) to help her make it come true ... & she is obsessed with the thought, that Mary was not a poor, simple woman - as is common belief - but in fact a wealthy woman just like Alfreda herself - as some parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls (some additional gospels that never made their way into the actual bible & are not acknowledged by the church) hint at.

After a time, her fixation even becomes disquieting, especially given her frailty, so when Luciano meets his old friend from prison, Filipe the Forger (Luís Miguel Cintra) - now Alfreda's husband's piano tuner - again, the two of them come up with an idea ... why not give Alfreda what she wants, meaning staging an apparition of the virgin Mary, just to make her feel better.

Soon, preparations are on the way, & eventually even a girl is found that looks the part, Abril (Leonor Baldaque) - whom Filipe eventually falls in love with -, but it's hard for the three of them to keep up with the expectations Alfreda has for her apparition. Then professor Heschel dkies, & Filipe, who has some idea about the Bible & the Dead Sea Scrolls, does his best to fill his place ... but eventually, Alfreda has a stroke & falls into a coma, & according to her will, her husband takes his comatose wife to some of the holy places she has chosen, like the St Mark's Cathedral in Venice & Jerusalem, all the time not knowing if she notices even a thing ...

It's only backat home that alfreda eventually comes true, & speaks of a near death experience - & somehow this experience has totally erradicted her wish to see Virgin Mary ... & somehow, the apparition that Luciano & Filipe wanted to stage never came into being, but Filipe got Abril as his girlfriend ot of it.

 

This might sound like grand drama, but actually, Espelho is more like a light comedy - that refuses to go for any cheap jokes though - with some satire about the wealthy society of rural Portugal thrown in (first & foremost  in the character of Alfreda, who desperately wants Mary to be a wealthy women to be more like her, & thinks she deserves an apparition because she could offer Virgin Mary a great conversatin she might enjoy). All that said though, the film tends to be a bit overlong (137 minutes), especially since the beginning, circa half an hour about Luciano in jail, does have little to do with the rest of the story, & thus the real story kicks into gear relatively late.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

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special appearances by
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directed by
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