Film Details

Named one of 2012’s “top ten” films by Cahiers du Cinéma magazine, the new movie by rising Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes (Our Beloved Month of August) is a b&w art film divided into two chapters. The chapter headings duplicate those in F.W, Murnau’s bipartite 1931 silent film Tabu—but appear in reverse order. “Paradise Lost,” which opens Gomes’ film, takes place in contemporary Lisbon where a middle-aged woman checks in on the older, slightly batty woman living next door. Part two, “Paradise,” flashes back 50 years to the old woman’s life of privilege as a young bride in colonial Africa. But a passionate extramarital love affair with another man threatens both her personal happiness and the social order. This story of forbidden love also echoes the Murnau original, as does Gomes’ decision to film this chapter without dialogue. A 2012 New York Film Festival selection. “A gloriously cinephilic fever dream…One of the year’s most rapturous love letters to the cinema.” –Toronto Int’l Film Festival.

http://www.adoptfilms.com

118 min. 35 mm. Subtitles. Cleveland premiere.