pbeno-49876 Dreary, dull exhibition of post-modern amoralism. Not a single interesting, likeable, or unlikeable character from top to bottom. Almost watched the whole thing til I realized I could have listened to The Ramones instead.

John Car Oliveira asked Agustina Bessa-Luís to write him an adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary for contemporary Portugal. The result was Abraham's Valley, the romance that served as the basis of Oliveira's script. The book and the film are very different. Comparing them is not a fruitful exercise. Fortunately, Oliveira had no reverence for Agustina's fabulous writing and used her text with total freedom.Agustina placed the story in Douro, a most romantic and sensual Douro, "a land predestined to suffering" incomparably filmed by Oliveira. Abraham's Valley is a story of rebellion and frustration that flows through the spaces of that region: houses, palaces, gardens, vineyards and the river, to which Ema (Leonor Silveira) offers herself in the end: "You are beautiful, said the princess, but you didn't arrive in time to this place." Abraham's Valley is maybe Oliveira's most loved film. I won't dare to say it is his best. But between Vermeer's hypnotic aura and Agustina's and Oliveira's cruelty, it is certainly one of the most beautiful and provoking films ever made.

kingsaladas I thought it was Rio Paiva. Definitely not Ribeira Grande. But then I discovered the beauty of Douro connection with Paiva. First of all, this is not a movie. There are no: high budget, jet set, studio tricks, special effects; neither any interest on that subject/form of film-making. Which is good, because it identifies Portuguese history (time and space) trough still images, giving some approach to Portuguese society and its complexity in terms of traditional behavior. This is a good film to fall asleep and then watch it sleeping. The process in which the narrative is constructed is very similar to other great Oliveira's masterpieces. As a film that you can watch sleeping, I do not pretend to make my statement as cynical as some would guess. But, instead of that, I pretend to clearly point this movie as one of the most potential surreal films I've ever watched. The plot makes it own sense if you really want to get involve in its own poetry. This is not a star system production, fortunately. Therefore, "watch it, then argue into the night".

valadas Well the resemblance of the plot with the Flaubert's novel is very superficial after all. This is much more than a story of bourgeois adultery. It's the story of an intelligent and sensitive young woman brought up in the frame of the society of mid-20th century northern Portugal in an atmosphere of bigotry and social stagnation who marries a man she does not love and whose life has no way out. The plot develops itself in old rural mansions under the eyes of a silent witness, the deaf-and-dumb servant Ritinha who sees everything and understands everything without speaking or intervening by any means but forming with Ema the main character, a strong union of love and mutual understanding. The visual images develop themselves in a slow poetic movement which is Oliveira's favourite. The scenery however, is beautifully located in the Portuguese river Douro one of the most beautiful rivers in the world.