(2007) 4 Bruce Eder Anyone who doesn't know much about the fado -- the traditional Portuguese musical form -- will likely come away from Carlos Saura's Fados feeling as though it is engrained in their psyches. And this is, to be sure, a good thing. The form itself dates from the 19th century in Lisbon, and is built upon long, ornate, highly melodic and expressive ballads generally steeped in unhappiness -- shattered romances and thwarted lives -- and it's about as close to the emotional intensity of grand opera as any popular music form in the world would seem to get in 2009. Saura's documentary, which dates from 2007, is shot the way one wishes every music documentary could be done -- lots of clever camera work and editing, so that even when one is focusing upon a solo singer, the visuals never stand still long enough to become static. And, even better, the state-of-the-art sound draws out the musical textures in detail every bit as vivid as the images, so that whether one is listening to a traditional (and unamplified) Portuguese or a Spanish guitar, or a modern adaptation of the form (complete with Fender Stratocaster), we're getting an earful of rich timbres. And if the diversity of instruments takes on rainbow-like proportions, the natures and approaches of the fadistas who are depicted are downright dazzling -- from nearly 90-year-old Argentina Santos, one of the oldest active singers of the most traditional form, to young rappers NBC feat. SP & Wilson. In between are the likes of Ricardo Rocha, the Portuguese guitar virtuoso, who engages in a duel at one point with Spanish guitarist Jaime Santos; Brazilian singer Toni Garrido; and Brigada Victor Jara, a band conceived in memory of and homage to the martyred Chilean folksinger/composer, murdered by the forces of Allende. In the course of entertaining, the documentary also manages to be informative without seeming didactic, feeding us images of Amália Rodrigues, the "queen of fado," in a rehearsal. The film is well worth seeing in a theater, for the sheer opulence of the sound, though it is also shot on a scale that will translate well to the small screen in due time, though this is one documentary for which the eventual viewers at home may want to crank up their amplifiers, to get the full effect as the maker intended.

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Fados on AllMovie

Fados (2007)

Fados

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genres

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category

Documentary

directed by

Carlos Saura

countries

Portugal, Spain

release date

March 6, 2009 (USA - Limited)

run time

88 min.

produced by

Fado Filmes, Zebra Productions, Duvideo

released by

Lusomundo (Spain/Portugal), New Yorker Films (USA)

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by Nathan Southern synopsis

If references to the fado -- an ancient Portuguese form of music -- fail to strike a chord with even the most cultured American viewers, this is only attributable to the genre's longtime obscurity. A Portuguese musical mode borne out of early 19th century Lisbon, and characterized by long, ornate, emotionally heavy ballads lamenting lost loves and shattered dreams, the fado began to experience a stunning and unpredicted resurgence in the early 21st century. Carlos Saura's 2007 documentary Fados captures the musical genre at this point, as it begins to reattain popularity. As the third and concluding installment in the director's "musical trilogy" that began with Flamenco (1995) and Tango (1998), the film first traces the history of the fado form, then moves into a veritable concert of fado all-stars (or fadistas) including Mariza, Camane, Caetano Veloso, and others -- staged and filmed on a succession of elaborate sets such as a recreation of a period Lisbon bar. Saura also works in tributes to such past fado performers as Amália Rodrigues and Chico Buarque.

characteristics

- Fado

- Portugal

- Ballad