User Reviews

First time making a review on IMDb.

I have to say this was better than I expected. I heard bad comments about Leão da Estrela and Pátio das Cantigas (without even watching them) so I wasn't expecting much out of this. Thankfully, I went to watch the movie anyway and I enjoyed.

First, I never watched the original one so I won't make any comparisons. Also, I think it's rather pointless to do it, the movies are 80 years apart and I'm sure it wasn't the goal of this movie to be better or worse, but be updated and different.

Personally, I didn't care for Vasco character or story. Just a guy enjoying life thanks to the work of others.

But I was impressed by Luana Martau (Alice). I didn't know her and I quite enjoyed her performance and her chemistry with Miguel Guilherme (José Caetano). The development of their relationship was the highlight for me.

A note for the aunts, with 2 great actresses - São José Lapa and Maria Vieira -, it can't go wrong and they were for the comic relief. Great accent by São José Lapa.

Overall go watch this without thinking of the original one if you watched it. It will make you laugh here and there and it has a cute story with very different characters.

Warning: This is my first review on IMDb!

To be honest, after watching the previous two movies of this trilogy, I was expecting worse from this movie. Congratulations to Pedro Varela on a very successful movie, mostly when compared with the previous ones of Leonel Vieira.

Never forgetting that this 3 movies are not pure remakes of the movies of the decades of 30 and 40, in the "A Canção de Lisboa" the original plot was transposed to the current era with greater success. In terms of argument, this film is far superior to the 2 previous movies. Perchance because it remained more glued to the original story...

As to the representations, César Mourão makes a Vasco behind the potential that his character would allow. Despite the richness of Vasco character, rarely the impersonation was actually above average. On the other hand, on the role of Alice, Luana Martau was the biggest surprise of this movie! An awesome ability to transmit feelings and to generate emotions that I confess I wasn't expecting. And, to top it all, she sings beautifully! The union between Alice and her father, Miguel Guilherme, helped that this actor had his best performance of the 3 movies. Luana Martau is the biggest asset in this film!

Another aspect that I highlight in "A Canção de Lisboa" is the soundtrack. The sounds and melodies of Miguel Araújo made the movie more enjoyable, pleasant and sentimental. A clear improvement in the trilogy.

Therefore, knowing previously that you'll not see a masterpiece, you should go to the cinema to watch this simple, light and well achieved comedy.

Adorei ver a minha faculdade e a música do final do filme é verdadeiramente bonita.

It is clear that Leonel Vieira has absolutely adhered to the fashion for remakes of very old, but well-known films. It's a trend that emanates from Hollywood and that has a certain relevance there, given the huge amount of films and stories forgotten in films that only experts in the field will still review. In Portugal, a country with a cinema that is considerably poorer in old and forgotten films, making remakes is not so attractive. There would be some films that could be suitable for a remake, a rewrite or an update. I am thinking, for example, of "O Feitiço do Império", a film that publicized governmental ideas and which was so ostracized that there is no complete copy today. I wouldn't be shocked if Vieira took what still exists and made a different story, in the final years of the Portuguese presence in Overseas Provinces, giving us a politically neutral film, with an interesting story about the people who, in the 50s and 60s, went to work there, the soldiers who went to fight, the relationship between Portuguese newcomers and African natives, that is, about a heterogeneous group of people who, in different ways, lived through the years when that "spell", that idea of a country spread across three continents, was shattered. That would be a good remake.

What Leonel Vieira has done with this film is not an interesting or necessary remake. It is very similar to what he did in "O Pátio das Cantigas" with one caveat: he seems to have learned from the mistakes made in that film: he did not make a film so insipid, so focused on flirting and intrigue, and tried to respect more the original material. He didn't make a copy, he updated the story, inserted new things and grafted a handful of scenes that, indeed, he copied on carbon paper from the original film (Vasco's final exam and his wedding are the most evident, even the dialogues are the same). There are, however, some debatable options here: transforming the character Alice into a young woman who is Portuguese but was raised in Brazil by her mother and returned to Portugal at the "request" of a father she hates is confusing, unnecessary and far-fetched. It's just an attempt to turn the film into a cultural melting pot similar to "Pátio das Cantigas", where we even saw Indians "Bollywood dancing"! It is true that we receive more and more immigrants and that our language is hardly heard on our streets, but this is not a thing that I would glorify as something really good, not least because most of them come to work almost like slaves in tasks that we, the "Mr. Doctors", tend to despise. Our conscience is then relieved by giving them what they consider good wages but, for us, are changes.

César Mourão was a good bet to give life to Vasco. He's still young enough for the role and has some musical skills that the character requires, but which are ridiculously neglected in this film, which gives a kick to fado at the expense of a set of guitar silly songs. Alright, that would be worse if the remake was from the movie "Fado: História de uma Cantadeira", which fortunately does not. The Brazilian actress Luana Martau, well known by those who follow what is done in the lands of Vera Cruz, was also a good choice and gave the character a certain strength and energy that the young Beatriz Costa did not bring to the character (although the actress has got a really huge, strong personality, as everyone who knew her personally knows). Marcus Majella was a positive addition as well. I liked São José Lapa and Maria Vieira, but I think turning their characters into a decadent lesbian couple was an error and disrespects the source material. I understand the desire to wink at the "gay" public, but everything has its place. Furthermore, I also didn't like Miguel Guilherme. The actor is good, he is perfectly capable, but Vieira instructed him in a way that completely erased the character. Comparing him to António Silva, in the oldest film, is like comparing a dwarf to a giant. Inserting a political subplot was also a wrong idea, and one that seems too far-fetched to be credible.