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Portugal, Spain · 2007
1h 30m
Director Carlos Saura
Starring Carlos do Carmo, Mariza, Camané, Chico Buarque
Genre Music, Documentary
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Using Lisbon as its iconic backdrop, the film explores the intricate relationship between the music and the city. With grand spectacles, lighting effects, and extravagant musical numbers, the film presents Fado's evolution over the years from its African and Brazilian origins up to the new wave of modern Fadistas.
Saura is formally ambitious--a troupe travels through the film, articulating lyrics in dance--but the movie missteps when departing wholly from the intrinsic nostalgia of its subject, as the seventysomething director imposes his idea of contemporary cool.
San Francisco Chronicle by Jonathan Curiel
For those who've never before heard fado, Fados will be a revelation - a window into a music that (like blues music) can be poetic, heartbreaking, melodramatic and redemptive, all at the same time.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
A centerpiece of the film is a tribute to the late, legendary Amália Rodrigues, a woman of commanding, majestic beauty and presence, who is seen with her pianist in rehearsal, searching out every nuance of a song she is to perform. Unfortunately, Fado's other performers are not identified.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Fados connects today's leading interpreters with legendary fadistas of the past. And it's the last title to be released under the banner of the venerable New Yorker Films.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
This veteran Spanish director has, in his latest, created both a tribute to an art form and a performance archive.
There are no talking heads, but lots of singing heads and sexy dancing bodies, many of them belonging to stars in Spain. In total, there are more than a dozen performance pieces, all stylishly lensed.
As a production, Fados is pretty with its reflected surfaces and many projected images. But at times it hurts for the bite and texture of life outside that studio. For all the dolorous singing about and shots of streets, it'd be nice to hit one.
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