Rasganço

I these days ( 2001, December ) portuguese movies aren't made by amateurs anymore. Instead, there are good people dealing with them. "Ranganço" is a story about a series of horrendus crimes, in Coimbra, the town of students, fado and "capas negras". There are great scenes with the sunset of Coimbra, the famous university, and alot of Coimbra's traditions appears in the film. If you want to visit Coimbra, this is the movie that you want to see, to capture some interesting places for your visit.

Congratulations to Raquel Freire (Director), and Paulo Branco ( Productor ), for their nice work.

Keep up the good work. :)

It's not the first time I watch RASGANÇO, I did already watch it when it was released here in Portugal in 2001. To be honest I did enjoy it better the first time I saw it, but it doesn't mean I didn't like it this time though. What I noticed now is that the acting could have been better and the pace is too slow. Technical details that I observe and I give some importance now and I didn't at that time... However, the plot's topic and the movie's concept still good to me.

The plot is about a man that arrives in Coimbra's University when the students are celebrating an academic ritual called "Rasganço". Quickly he starts making friends (female friends!) and starts flirting with three of them: ANA RITA, a student, MARIA DOS ANJOS, an employee of the "Republica" (a house for students) where he's hosted and DRA. ZITA. While he's flirting these women, other female students start appearing violated and with words carved (with a knife) in their chest... However, since the beginning we know who the criminal is; the plot never hides it...

So, the plot is never mysterious and never tries to hide from the viewer who the criminal is. It has another point. Rather than a story of crime I think the main idea of this film is to pass a social message to the viewer. In fact, in my perspective, it hides a critic to the University and to some rules of it.

I score it 7/10. The production is not good, but I liked the plot and the movie's message.

Rasganço is a movie that is a unique vision of a subject, (the very traditional and elitist world of Coimbra´s University), that I had never seen portrayed in a movie. By unique I mean that it is a movie which doesn't glue itself to any specific genre or tries to blend some of them.

The director just tries to tell the story with her own ideas and therefore with honesty, a major quality in this movie and also in movies in general, especially when the Hollywood industry just produces variations on a handful of subjects and genres, (95% of the cases anyway).

In these conditions it's harder to make a 100% percent effective movie and in this case the picture is not totally accomplished. The fact that it portrays a reality which I am familiarized with was also interesting to me.

I just hope that Portuguese cinema starts making more movies such as this one so that people in general demonstrates more interest in it.