The Strange Case of Angelica

Reviewed by J. Lunden on September 27, 2011

Manoel de Oliveira’s previous film, Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl, left me feeling impatient and begrudgingly suspicious that I had somehow missed a crucial element. In my review, I suggested that, due to the Portuguese film’s social and political layers—to which I was admittedly ignorant—I might revisit the film to investigate further. I did just that. I squirmed a tad less during my second viewing. I still have great respect for a filmmaker who, at 102 years of age, must have a broad and rarified view of cinema, and I believe glimpses of this view can be seen in Oliveira’s work, from his mostly stationary compositions, to his often silent era-esque use of score. And having now seen more of de Oliveira’s films, I have become more partial to his deceptively simple mise-en-scene and less impatient with his seemingly mundane stylistics. Yet, his films do not linger in my mind much further than it takes to hammer out their respective reviews.

Such is the case with Oliveira’s more palatable, but still ultimately unsatisfying, The Strange Case of Angelica.

The film is a quasi-farcical love story about a morose photographer called Isaac (Ricardo Trêpa) whose lifelong bout of existential woe turns metaphysical when he falls in love with the spirit of Angelica (Pilar López de Ayala), a recently deceased woman of privilege. Isaac is called upon by Angelica’s mother to photograph the corpse and, while framing his shot, the dazzling beauty comes to life for him, but only through the confines of his viewfinder. Isaac then begins to see her animate through his drying photographs. Her spirit eventually materializes as a glowing apparition that flies Isaac through a dreamy nightscape like Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder (seriously, she drops him at one point). This, of course, sounds like an achingly romantic conceit, but Oliveira’s supernatural dalliance feels burdened by his wry sensibilities and complete lack of characterizations. Isaac’s suffering is expressed through plodding outer-monologues and Angelica is given no traits beyond smiling and obligatory transparency. Does Oliveira believe these two characters were destined to be soul mates, or do ghosts simply fall in love with the first person to photograph them? While I do not expect any filmmaker to be overly explicit in these matters—nor do I demand that an erotic pottery session take place—but so often Oliveira’s actors seem like they are playing caricatures stuck on rails, obeying only his scripted choreography. Their surroundings are splendidly composed, but their lives seem essentially inauthentic.

Even Oliveira’s best scenes feel overly contrived. For example, there is a comical breakfast scene where Isaac overhears his lovingly overbearing landlady (Adelaide Teixeira) and her guests discussing scientific theories which happen to correspond to Isaac’s supernatural predicament. Could the secret to the “other side” be hidden within the Large Hadron Collider’s ring? Why not? We may have just proven Einstein wrong. Who’s to say if Casper isn’t in there somewhere, too? Of course, the scene is basically a red herring, another of Oliveira’s clever deviations.

I think therein lies my essential dissatisfaction with Oliveira’s films. I see a filmmaker capable of great imagination and great cynicism, yet I do not think he has struck a balance between the two. And without that harmony, Angelica’s case, strange as it may be, is rather insubstantial.

The Strange Case of Angelica comes to Blu-ray in its original widescreen aspect ratio. The transfer utilizes the AVC codec, takes up 23GB of space on the disc, and has a video bitrate of 24.93Mbps.

I’m assuming the drab and somewhat muted color palette of Cinema Guild’s Blu-ray disc is true to the original production. Manoel de Oliveira is by no means a flashy filmmaker, though there are some very attractive scenes, specifically the film’s opening, which are strongly aided by the careful transfer. The film has good detail with fine grain structures. Black levels skew a bit light, but that may, again, be a product of the production. I noticed no egregious digital manipulation. However, the image is strangely windowboxed. The Blu-ray case states an original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, but other sources state 1.66:1. This transfer looks to be somewhere in the middle. Still, this is only a minor hindrance.

The Strange Case of Angelica is presented here with both a 24-bit uncompressed Portuguese DTS-HD MA 5.1 track (at 2782Kbps) and a 24-bit uncompressed Portuguese DTS-HD MA 2.0 track (at 1511Kbps). English subtitles are presented in glorious white.

I’m still without a surround system (soon, very soon), so I opted for the 2-channel mix. Dialogue comes through cleanly and the film’s delicate score resonates well even with fewer channels at its disposal. I noticed no bothersome hiss or other distortions and, frankly, I didn’t really miss the surround. It’s a fine track.

Commentary:
Film critic James Quandt gives an insightful view into Oliveira’s film, history and process. However, Quandt speaks as if he’s walking a layperson through home theater calibration, so the track can be a bit of slog.

Douro, Faina Fluvial (19min):
Presented here is Oliveira’s first film from 1931, Douro, Faina Fluvial (Labor on the Douro River). Presented in 1080p, the print is in surprisingly good shape.

Absoluto (35min):
A great 2010 conversation with Oliveira.

Oliveira L’Architecte (63min):
Here we have an excellent documentary on Oliveira by Paulo Rocha.

Theatrical Trailer:
The film’s theatrical trailer.

Booklet:
Included is a 4-page booklet featuring an essay by Haden Guest, Director of the Harvard Film Archive.

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