Tabu
Portugal, Germany, Brazil, France
2012
111 Min
Black and White
1.37:1
Portuguese
Synopsis
Aurora, an elderly Portugese woman and her Cap Verdean housekeeper live next door to Pilar, who has made it her aim in life to do good. Not that she receives any gratitude for her efforts – and certainly not from the notoriously mistrustful Aurora, who prefers to spend her remaining years losing her meagre savings at Estoril casino. When the old lady dies, Pilar discovers among her belongings a letter addressed to an old lover. Pilar decides to post the letter, thus ushering in a flashback to the second part of the film – and adventurous amour fou set in colonial Africa.
Making a film without referring to film history is unthinkable for director Miguel Gomes, and it’s no coincidence that his film has the same title as Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s Tabu. In his third feature film outing Gomes playfully interprets and rearranges historical events. Whilst the first part of his film is in black-and-white and portrays a society wallowing in nostalgia, the second part delivers everything they long for: stirring melodrama, slapstick, juxtaposition and passion. –Berlinale
Director
Miguel Gomes
Miguel Gomes (b. 1972) began first as a film critic before directing a series of refreshingly eccentric short films that revealed his innate talents as a sensual visual stylist interested in an intensely image based narrative in which music plays an equal role to dialogue. Gomes’ early “musical comedies” offer important keys to his feature films by revealing the important inspiration of both musical cinema and the silent film to his uniquely playful and imaginative approach to narrative. The unique energy and puckish charm of Gomes’ little known debut, the Alice in Wonderland-meets-Jacque Rivette narrative puzzle, The Face That You Deserve, took the ludic tendencies of his cinema to a furthest extreme. The festival favorite My Beloved Month of August turned a new and important direction by responding to the “post-documentary” mode of innovative and unclassifiable non-fiction cinema championed by Costa and defined earlier by pioneering works such as Oliveira’s Rite of Spring (1963… read more
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mubianer
13Jun13
jcdc31: Or just a lazy filmmaker at work? It's easy to come up with this sort of thing in an interview later. I can't see the point of a few kids in the background wearing modern clothes. If it was really his purpose, why didn't he go further with this idea?
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jcdc31
15Jun13
It wasn't directly his purpose, some crew members noticed the shirt's kids, alerted him and told him to remove the kids, and he just said "No.". He talked about that matter in a couple interviews. Here are the links: http://www.timeout.com/paris/en/miguel-gomes-interview and http://www.hammertonail.com/interviews/a-conversation-with-miguel-gomes-tabu/
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Articles
Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
Notebook's 5th Writers Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2012
By Daniel Kasman on January 7, 2013
In our annual poll, we pair our favorite new films of 2012 with older films seen in the same year to create fantastic double features.
Anything Goes: Miguel Gomes (An Interview)
By David Phelps on December 28, 2012
Tabu, fantasy, history, cinema.
Cahiers du Cinéma's "Top Ten 2012"
By Notebook on November 22, 2012
The French film journal has unveiled their choices for the best films of the year.
Slow Walks, Half Truths and Red Bull: Being a Joint Account on the VIFF Experience
By Adam Cook on November 7, 2012
A breakdown of the VIFF experience, its qualities and traits.
Movie Poster of the Week: The Posters of the 50th New York Film Festival
By Adrian Curry on September 28, 2012
Our annual round-up of all the posters for the main slate of the New York Film Festival.
TIFF 2012. Wavelengths (P)review: Part Two – The Features
By Michael Sicinski on September 11, 2012
An evaluation of the feature films programmed in TIFF’s Wavelengths section.
Daily Briefing. Cinema Scope 50
By David Hudson on April 20, 2012
Also: A new trailer for Soderbergh’s Magic Mike.
Daily Viewing. Trailer for Miguel Gomes's "Tabu"
By David Hudson on March 28, 2012
Spend two minutes with the most cinephilic film at this year’s Berlinale.
Berlinale 2012. Golden Bear for the Tavianis' "Caesar Must Die"
By David Hudson on February 18, 2012
The full list of all the awards.
Berlinale 2012. Miguel Gomes's "Tabu"
By David Hudson on February 18, 2012
“A living, breathing demonstration of cinephilia in action.”
Daily Briefing. Clips from Miguel Gomes's "Tabu"
By David Hudson on February 13, 2012
Also: David Bordwell on what digital projection is doing to film history.
Berlinale 2012. Ten More World Premieres Set for the Competition
By David Hudson on January 9, 2012
New work by Christian Petzold, the Taviani brothers, Ursula Meier, Miguel Gomes and more.
TIFF 2012 Review: TABU is a Glorious Celebration of Cinema and Crocodiles
By Twitchfilm.com on September 6, 2012
(Tabu screens at TIFF tonight and Saturday. Here’s our review from the Berlin festival, published in February of this year.) Tabu calls to mind the oft-repeated comparison between film directors and magicians
Berlin 2012 Review: TABU is a Glorious Celebration of Cinema and Crocodiles
By Twitchfilm.com on February 18, 2012
Tabu calls to mind the oft-repeated comparison between film directors and magicians. Indeed, how else but with magic could Portuguese director Miguel Gomes have created such a joyful, enthralling film
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Reviews
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variações pindéricas sobre a insensatez
By simonadp on November 29, 2012
from the incipit of the movie:
“Under the rain and scorching sun a melancholic creature trek through jungles and arid lands for months. In the heart of the black continent, neither beasts nor… read review
[Last Film I Saw] Tabu
By lasttimeisaw on July 15, 2012
Title: Tabu
Year: 2012
Language: Portuguese
Country: Portugal, Germany, Brazil, France
Genre: Drama
Director: Miguel Gomes
Writers:
Miguel Gomes
Mariana Ricardo
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