Sostiene Pereira

A film based on a book by Antonio Tabucchi, which is certainly not lacking in quality. In the lead role, the excellent Marcello Mastroianni pulls the whole film with his acting. The story takes us into the excellently portrayed environment of Salazar's Portugal. Pereira is an ordinary man - an editor, a widower, slightly overweight, with conservative habits, who doesn't care about politics and only devotes himself to his cultural section. However, circumstances and, above all, a new colleague gradually change his mind. Pereira's character is inspiring - he shows that even an ordinary man who does not renounce decency can take action. The film is enhanced by the excellent music by Ennio Morricone. (10.07.2023)

The most valuable aspect of the film is the presence of the legend of Italian cinema, Marcello Mastroianni, for whom the role of the elderly editor Pereira was a dignified farewell to his long acting career. The view of his constantly trembling hands testifies to the fact that his health condition at that time was not the best. In front of the camera, he was joined by another significant actor, Daniel Auteuil, for whom the role of Pereira's companion and doctor was one of the goals on the path to success. It is a highly acclaimed film, but I found it too intimate, simply put, somewhat boring. The film's pronounced leftist tone also had its consequences. Of course, the creators have every right to it; after all, the ending almost certainly matches the book, which I have not read, and Salazar's conservative authoritarian Portugal really had many repulsive features and was an ally of Nazi Germany. However, this proclaimed leftist ideology is of such a nature that the film, just as it is shot, could have been made in the Soviet Union or its satellites in the 1980s. The enthusiasm of young revolutionaries for the Soviet Union is so one-dimensional and far from reflecting the complex situation of that time. After all, at the time when the story takes place, the Moscow Trials had already taken place, and mass purges were at their peak in the Soviet Union, with the gulag camp system flourishing. In neighboring Spain, the Soviet Union's attempt to control the republican movement resulted in similar tragic purges among anarchists and other factions of the republican movement. The film tells the story of a non-political intellectual who, under the pressure of events around him, becomes a politically conscious opponent of the regime. Overall impression: 45%. (17.05.2010)