Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 197: Wed Jul 25

Casa de Lava (Costa, 1995): Close-Up Cinema, 8.30pm


This film is part of the Jacques Ranciere: Philosophy and Cinema season at Close-Up Cinema. You can find all the details of the season here.

Chicago Reader review:
My favorite Pedro Costa feature to date, an inviting "Open, sesame" to all his work, is his second (1994), a very personal remake of Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With a Zombie (1943). It follows an obscurely motivated Lisbon nurse (Ines de Medeiros) accompanying a construction worker in a coma (Isaach de BankolĂ©) back to his native village, on a spectacular volcanic island in Cape Verde, once a hub of the slave trade. (The film's original and much better title is "Casa de Lava," or "House of Lava"). While she waits for him to wake she gets to know some of the villagers, including another European (the terrific Edith Scob) who unlike her has succeeded in going native. Gorgeously shot, with fabulous Creole music, this mysterious and voluptuous spiritual adventure has afforded me far more pleasure than any new film I've seen this year. In Portuguese and Creole with subtitles.
Jonathan Romney


Here (and above) is the trailer.

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