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José and Pilar

Original title: José e Pilar
  • 2010
  • 1h 57m
IMDb RATING
8.2/10
2.6K
YOUR RATING
José and Pilar (2010)
BiographyDocumentary

A documentary on Nobel Prize Winner José Saramago and his feelings over his wife, his country and life, as a whole.A documentary on Nobel Prize Winner José Saramago and his feelings over his wife, his country and life, as a whole.A documentary on Nobel Prize Winner José Saramago and his feelings over his wife, his country and life, as a whole.

  • Director
    • Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
  • Stars
    • João Afonso
    • Àngels Barceló
    • Pilar del Río
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.2/10
    2.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
    • Stars
      • João Afonso
      • Àngels Barceló
      • Pilar del Río
    • 16User reviews
    • 33Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 6 nominations total

    Photos13

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    Top cast18

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    João Afonso
    • Self
    Àngels Barceló
    • Self
    • (voice)
    Pilar del Río
    Pilar del Río
    • Self
    Juan Echanove
    Juan Echanove
    • Self
    Oscar Filho
    • Ele - Repórter
    Gael García Bernal
    Gael García Bernal
    • Self
    Gabriel García Márquez
    Gabriel García Márquez
    • Self
    Tarja Halonen
    • Self
    Paco Ibáñez
    • Self
    Tomás Eloy Martínez
    • Self
    Fernando Meirelles
    Fernando Meirelles
    • Self
    César Antonio Molina
    • Self
    María Pagés
    • Self
    Luis Pastor
    • Self
    Miguel Ríos
    Miguel Ríos
    • Self
    José Saramago
    José Saramago
    • Self
    José Sócrates
    • Self
    • (as José Socrates)
    Pasión Vega
    • Self
    • Director
      • Miguel Gonçalves Mendes
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews16

    8.22.5K
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    Featured reviews

    9pimentel-mar

    A Beautiful Love Story

    José Saramago's figure was outstanding. One had to read his books till the end. But, most fascinating was his relationship with a more outstanding woman, Pilar del Rio. This tender documentary really shows us the ties that put them together along the years. A love story that outfits time and space. A real thing. The director shows us the daily routine of José and Pilar and the tenderness of gestures, beyond words. One understands very well what they felt for each other from the day they first met till the death of Saramago and the desire of Pilar to fulfill a true wish: to have his ashes divided in Lanzarote and Portugal, the founding of a Foundation in Lisboa, and the visits to his birthplace Azinheira do Ribatejo.
    random-70778

    Very European; When you are 54, dump your wife and kid and marry a woman 28 years younger

    Yeah, that's a "love story."

    ...or given the message of his books, profoundly hypocritical in his own life
    10helenagmartins

    not a documentary, a love story. not based in real facts, real facts

    José e Pilar isn't (just?) a documentary, it's a well crafted story that no one wrote, that unfolded as the 4 years of filming passed by.

    You won't just see the Nobel award winner José Saramago, his love for writing and the tremendous respect for the people he wrote for. You will see first hand and for real how two people can be so in sync, so complementary and yet so different.

    And how life spins more and faster than the Earth. How some people actually do live forever. And how people sometimes take a long time to find their calling and their true love.

    Corny as it may sound said by me, you'll find nothing but beauty in this film.
    10joaotatocosta

    Amazing

    I'm a José Saramago reader for about 15 years. This documentary it's just mind blowing. I saw it we my girlfriend and at the end I find myself thinking that the love between José and Pilar was a beautiful thing to see. In this documentary, you can really understand what about a relationship should really be. Fernando Meirelles did a great job showing everyone how brilliant and talented José Saramago was. I think everyone will be really touched with their love: "If I died at 63 before I meet Pilar, I would died a lot older then I am right now..." hi said. Really miss his books. "I think we are blind. Blind people who can see, but do not see" J.Saramago
    RResende

    crossed roads

    It's so hard to make an engaging documentary. The usual process is to make the facts of stories you're supposed to be told into a coherent narrative line, even if in reality that line isn't so clear. That will provide the audiences with a story, something to follow. But how you follow that story is usually in a more external way than how you watch fiction, because in documentary you can't or won't have the same devices to fold you into the thing. You have always that trick on reenact some stuff, if the theme is history. That's lame to me, and lazy.

    Now here you have something really interesting. The film shows us countless excerpts of the lives of the 2 protagonists throughout the course of about 2 years. The film is presented as a reportage, more than a documentary, meaning that images are what you make of it, words come up apparently loosely. No bent narrative is delivered to you. Or so it seems.

    Underneath this apparently random display of images, there's a subtle layered structure. The life of the couple José/Pilar in the period of the film mapped to the story of the elephant in the book Saramago is writing. The story that this film displays mapped into the larger story of Saramago's life, with all its weight in the story of literature and Portuguese culture, as we get it in between the lines in several moments of the narrative. The whole idea of journey and encounter mapped into the love story of José and Pilar.

    And ultimately, as the title denounces, that story is central here. The idea of a pair of people bound by the art of one of them, who chooses to share it, allow the other half to be a part of it. Live as one, that's the beautiful part of the story. I'm glad they chose to share a bit of that story with as, by allowing us to get into it.

    His art matters. He is a humanist, has profound ideas, truly powerful ideas, and changed language, invented a new way on which people can express.

    There is one moment when the metaphor for journey mapped into people's lives is perfect: in Saramago's hometown, one street has his name, another street which crosses the other one has her name. Crossed paths.

    My opinion: 4/5

    http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

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    Related interests

    Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, and Geraldine James in Gandhi (1982)
    Biography
    Dziga Vertov in Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
    Documentary

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Portugal's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.
    • Quotes

      José Saramago: Chaos is an order to decipher.

    • Alternate versions
      The US version was shortened a few minutes.
    • Soundtracks
      O sonho
      Written and Performed by Adriana Calcanhotto

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 2012 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Portugal
      • Spain
      • Brazil
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • Portuguese
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • José y Pilar
    • Filming locations
      • Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
    • Production companies
      • JumpCut
      • El Deseo
      • O2 Filmes
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $15,392
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 57m(117 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

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