A Talking Picture Critics Choice 2025
Genre
SPECIAL PROGRAMME
Release Date
12 Jul 2025 (Sat)
Category
--- (HK), ---(Macau)
Running Time
96 Minutes
Language
Portuguese, French, Greek, English and Italian
Subtitle
Chinese and English
Director
Manoel de Oliveira
Cast
Leonor Silveira, Catherine Deneuve, Irene Papas, Stefania Sandrelli, John Malkovich
Synopsis
On a contemporary grand tour from Lisbon to India along the Mediterranean Sea, stopping at cities such as Marseilles, Naples, Athens, Istanbul, Cairo and Aden, history professor (Leonor Silveira) and her young daughter visit the most significant of historical sites – some of which now only remain as ruins.Encounters with interlocutors from different cultures and identities prompt them to muse on how the cradle of civilisation – The Mediterranean – was (and is) also the centre of evolving cultural conflicts, and the rise and fall of kingdoms and legends, while wars erupt in succession, and they debate the contradictions arising through the foibles and excesses of human intelligence.These reflections extend to modern time hegemony and idiosyncrasies in the dining table dialogue with the American cruise captain (John Malkovich) and his lady guests (Catherine Deneuve, Irene Papas, Stefania Sandrelli).Ostensibly presenting itself as a travelogue, with a splash of his distinguished formal inventiveness, the film holds dear the enduring variety of civilisation we have created for ourselves, and is a fable of the precarious circumstances of such abundance when civilisation itself is threatened.
With a 10–15-minute introduction in Cantonese by film critic Kiki Fung.
With a 10–15-minute introduction in Cantonese by film critic Kiki Fung.
On a contemporary grand tour from Lisbon to India along the Mediterranean Sea, stopping at cities such as Marseilles, Naples, Athens, Istanbul, Cairo and Aden, history professor (Leonor Silveira) and her young daughter visit the most significant of historical sites – some of which now only remain as ruins.Encounters with interlocutors from different cultures and identities prompt them to muse on how the cradle of civilisation – The Mediterranean – was (and is) also the centre of evolving cultural conflicts, and the rise and fall of kingdoms and legends, while wars erupt in succession, and they debate the contradictions arising through the foibles and excesses of human intelligence.These reflections extend to modern time hegemony and idiosyncrasies in the dining table dialogue with the American cruise captain (John Malkovich) and his lady guests (Catherine Deneuve, Irene Papas, Stefania Sandrelli).Ostensibly presenting itself as a travelogue, with a splash of his distinguished formal inventiveness, the film holds dear the enduring variety of civilisation we have created for ourselves, and is a fable of the precarious circumstances of such abundance when civilisation itself is threatened.
With a 10–15-minute introduction in Cantonese by film critic Kiki Fung.
With a 10–15-minute introduction in Cantonese by film critic Kiki Fung.
