Director Fernando Lopes couldn't have start better the serious leap to cinema; mixing his experience in movie critic, documentaries and shorts, jumping from TV to cinema, Lopes signs his first big movie for the magic big room, and grabs with him a great hidden subject in portuguese sport - Boxe - revealing a simple man that became a hero, but that only wanted to escape hungry and help his family - BELARMINO.
A major contribution for the astounding art quality of the film is the omnipresence of Augusto Cabrita, probably the best portuguese cameraman/photographer of the 50's, 60's and 70's. With Cabrita's sensibility and technique, combined with Lopes' imagination and accuracy, we get fabulous frames, that most certainly have influenced many other directors.
watch closely the opening credits, as well as the fantastic sequence at the jazzclub (you can even see the major expert Villas Boas descending the stairs!) and the fabulous ending shots with Belarmino washing his face at Lisbon downtown, dived in humidity and smooth rain.
In documentary terms, we not always feel that the story is being told quite impartially, but that helps to sign the fact that controversy will always be there. Who was responsible for Belarmino's short profits? Why didn't he become a major star? It's all gone, now...
For all, this is not a simple short movie, but a major exhibition of how great cinema can be, even with a very low budget.
;)RIC
