Name: Retro Film Review: The Convent (O Convento, 1995)
Item: The Convent
Rating: 15
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Portugal had one of the more obscure cinema industries on the European continent. This is somewhat easy to explain due to that country's cinema being always in the shadow of their big Iberian neighbour. This state of affairs, however, is not going to change if more of Portuguese films turn out to be like The Convent, 1995 drama directed by Manoel de Oliveira.

The plot deals with Matthew Padovic (played by John Malkovich), American professor who wants to prove his hypothesis about William Shakespeare being Spaniard of Jewish descent. Some of the evidence might be hidden in the isolated Portuguese monastery. Padovic decides to go there, accompanied by his wife Helene (played by Catherine Denevue). There he is greeted by sinister-looking guardian Baltar (played by Luis Miguel Cintra) who quickly begins hitting on Helene, while Padovic must deal with the presence of beautiful assistant Piedade (played by Leonor Silveira).

Intriguing premise and two great actors - Malkovich and Denevue - are only two good things about The Convent. The movie had misfortune of being directed by Manoel de Oliveira, man who used to make films for more than sixty years. Unlike other octogenarians who defied their age while making films, de Oliveira defied any idea of making this film comprehensible to anyone but himself. The result is complete mess - film that meanders between genres of drama and Satanistic horror. Many of the scenes are poorly lit, while the soundtrack, consisting of Stravinsky and other examples 20th Century classical music, irritates the audience instead of creating any sort of atmosphere. The Convent runs for merely 90 minutes, but for those who must sit through that experiences, those 90 minutes would look like eternity. Whenever someone wants the example of the "art film" at its worst, The Convent would serve this purpose quite nicely.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 30th 2003)