After many years, I’ve found a rule of thumb that really works with movies about music, musicians and musical groups: If you like the style of music, or the musician, you’ll greatly enjoy the movie. If you’re not a fan of the style, or the genre, stay home.
"Fados," which opens today, is a Portuguese musical style. Similar to the Spanish tango music, fados is folk music played with passion, sung with passion, danced with passion. Its lyrics are love songs, which mostly are sad songs, and political songs designed to raise awareness and send people into the street.
Carlos Saura, the great Spanish writer and director, is at home here; his movies on Spanish music and dance are marvelous. As a director and co-writer, working with two brilliant cinematographers, Jose Luis Lopez-Linares (Saura’s "Salome" and "Iberia") and Eduardo Serra ("The Girl With the Pearl Earring"), Saura is right at home with music and dance, and working with "fadistas," as the women singers are called, is much like working with the tangos he knows so well.
Mariza, the sensual blond singer, is featured, as is archival footage of Amalia Rodrigues, who died 10 years ago but whose song-and-dance exploits are still remembered. There is gorgeous work with 12-string guitars, and even an explosion of rap, which shows the longevity of the music. There’s no story, just an hour and a half of a concert film featuring some of the best singers and dancers – present and past – that Portugal has to offer.
At the Plaza Frontenac
-Joe