Change of Life

After the success of The Green Years, shot in Lisbon, Paulo Rocha continued his mission to reshape Portuguese cinema, stifled by Salazarist censorship and by the ideology of “proud isolation” to which the dictator had consigned the country. Yet winds of change were reaching Portugal from both Brazil and the rest of Europe. For Change of Life, Rocha invited Brazilian actor Geraldo Del Rey, known for his work with Glauber Rocha. Del Rey’s naturalistic portrayal of Adelino, a fisherman born in a village by the ocean who returns home from the war in Africa, places him on a par with the inhabitants of Furadouro cast as extras. With a sure command of contrast, Rocha weaves together melodrama and documentary observation of the daily lives of the poor, tradition and progress, masculinity and femininity, the force of the sea and the shifting sands of the beautiful beach into which the fishermen’s feet sink. Adelino disappeared for years without a trace; now he returns to a world that rejects him. His beloved Júlia has married his brother, and the wounds he sustained in the war prevent him from taking up the punishing labour of life at sea. Is there any future for him here? Wild and transgressive, Albertina (Isabel Ruth) will show him a way out. Elso Roque’s neorealist cinematography, dialogue by the poet António Reis, and music by Portuguese guitar virtuoso Carlos Paredes lend the film the stature of a masterpiece.

Agnieszka Szeffel, João Ricardo Oliveira

Kinooceany. Portuguese Film Week

Paulo Rocha (1935–2012) was one of the most important figures in modern Portuguese cinema and a driving force behind the Cinema Novo movement of the 1960s. Born in Porto, he studied law in Lisbon, where he became involved in the anti-regime film club movement. He later moved to Paris to study directing at IDHEC, where he worked as an assistant to Jean Renoir. After returning to Portugal, he collaborated with Manoel de Oliveira on The Hunt (A Caça, 1963) and Rite of Spring (Acto da Primavera, 1963). In 1963, he made his debut with the now-canonical The Green Years, which won an award at Locarno and ushered in the era of Portuguese Cinema Novo. He followed it with Change of Life (1966); both films were produced by António da Cunha Telles. Rocha later developed his own production model through Suma Filmes, where he produced both his own work and films by other directors, including João Viana, Rita Azevedo Gomes and Manuel Mozos, whose Xavier he helped rescue from oblivion. Between 1975 and 1983, he served as cultural attaché at the Portuguese Embassy in Tokyo, and his fascination with East Asian culture found a clear reflection in his work. He also taught cinema at the Escola Superior de Cinema in Lisbon, becoming a key reference point for several generations of filmmakers. If I Were a Thief… I’d Steal (Se Eu Fosse Ladrão, Roubava, 2012), starring his muse Isabel Ruth and Luís Miguel Cintra, turned out to be Rocha’s final film.

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