José and Pilar

It's all very easy to reduce a documentary like this to just that: a documentary. I like to think of it as a window, nay, a door. I'm Portuguese and, beside a theatre play my dad bought for me and made me stand in line to have it signed by Saramago when I was a child, I never managed to enjoy reading his books. Loved the stories, struggled with the novels.

So, it was a huge surprise when I discovered this man, playful and witty as dense and morose; when I discovered his wife, thus far a very behind-the-scenes person, very outspoken but seldom seen; and the mere thought of having heaps of footage and manage to edit years of shadowing the couple to a mere two hours, seamlessly stitched together.

I couldn't help but feel deeply moved by the episodes the film depicts, the portraits the camera takes all the way through time and the love story between a rather senior Portuguese writer and a rather younger Spanish journalist. In Portugal, we say, 'love knows no age.' It does, actually. However, it knows no time. And that's what 'José And Pilar' tells us.

I fell compelled to send a copy to all my friends who, as I, live outside Portugal. It really is that good. Watch it and make sure you take it all in.

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.

José & Pilar is a charming film that shows what the collaboration between Spain and Portugal is capable of producing. It's a shame joint efforts of this type are not more regularly forthcoming. Although it is Saramago who enjoys international renown, the film cannot be considered a hagiographic and exclusive tribute to the figure of the author. Saramago's Spanish better half, Pilar del Río occupies an equally important part. She is never overshadowed by her husband; an equal amount of that footage that does not feature the two together is very equally devoted to each individually. Thus we discover how irreplaceable Pilar had made herself in José's life as a companion, a translator, a personal secretary organizing his hectic agenda outside of those hours devoted to his literary production, a lifelong admirer and defender of his work. Any Portuguese or Spaniard who adheres to the ideals of Iberism ─ a romantic ambition to live in an Iberian Peninsula where the two countries would merge with Lisbon as its capital would find in this film the materialization of its theories. Spanish and Portuguese are the languages spoken in equal doses throughout the film, the director, Miguel Gonçalves Mendes, is Portuguese, Pedro Almodóvar is one of the various producers; the film takes us back and forth from Lanzarote in Spain where José and Pilar reside, to Lisbon or Azinhaga, Saramago's town of birth. All elements combine to create an atmosphere of total naturalness as far as being Spanish or Portuguese is concerned. Even the union between José and Pilar could be taken for a metaphor of that union between the two countries that republicans and left-wingers and romantics have worked toward. But apart from these minor observations, the core of the film is the life of the author as a creator, his ups and downs with the Portuguese government, which led to his self-exile in Lanzarote, his continuous and exhausting travels to the four corners of the earth to promote his books, attend book fairs, participate in congresses and sign copies bought by his readers and his refusal, considering his age, to simply sit down and take it easy. As he gets older the need to carry on working acquires the urgency of one who knows that death is on his tail. Above all the film is a testimony to the deep love José and Pilar profess for each other. It's not a love that manifests itself in words but rather tender gestures, mutual respect, clasping hands, the loving tone of voice used when addressing each other and at all times a love that transmits itself through the looks they proffer each other. It is truly moving the way the director has captured so much complicity and intimacy. A very surprising element in the film is Saramago's very peculiar sense of humour which Pilar often reacts to with no inferior sense of fun. The public watching this film at the Filmoteca in Madrid had a lot of laughs and as the film's credits started appearing indicating that the film had reached its end, there was a very generous round of applause for an enthralling documentary that kept us glued to our seats for close to two hours. José & Pilar was entered by Portugal in an unsuccessful bid to get it nominated in the Best Foreign Film category of the Oscars. This film is most likely not commercial enough for Hollywood. I would go even further and add that it's too good for Hollywood.

Yeah, that's a "love story."

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

A true love story indeed and a real one. The Portuguese novelist José Saramago (1998 Nobel Prize winner) knew in the second half of his life, by chance, the Spanish journalist Pilar Del Rio, more than 20 years younger than him and they fell in love with each other almost at once. They lived together till his death in 2010. From a certain moment on they went to live in Lanzarote (Canary Islands) since he found much more support from the Spanish authorities than from the Portuguese ones at the time. They eventually married each other. This movie shows the last years of their lives in a documentary form with great quality. The images speak for themselves without the need of great explanations and the dialogues between the couple and with other people are so natural, spontaneous and true and supported by a very intelligent shooting and cut that we can feel how that relationship between novelist and wife is illuminated by a true love, a love that doesn't have great visual expression in manners and attitudes but whose depth we can feel in the constant cooperation and assistance Pilar gives to José not only personal but also and very important, in his writing activities, being simultaneously a careful and loving wife and an efficient secretary and public relations. Thus she contributed very much to his literary success and we can also feel his gratitude for that. This documentary real love story will touch you more than many fiction movies of the same kind.