Self-inflicted Delusions...
To actually meet the Virgin Mary was the main delusional obsession of the lead role (Alfreda) in "O Espelho Mágico", the latest film from 96-years old Manoel de Oliveira. After almost two hours into it, us viewers became restless wanting ourselves to witness the Apparition. Everything is in place, the girl who's going to do the trick (depicted in the picture above) has been briefed, and the semi-comatose Alfreda will surely fall for it.. Then, to our amazement, the screen shows a Muslim woman dressed all in white, tchador included, chanting the pray for Allah.. Stupefaction!.. What is Oliveira trying to convey here? "Has he converted to Islam?" - someone whispers totally baffled. Then follows eight more painfully long minutes of praying women in Sarajevo... And then the film ends abruptly.. All of us, cinephiles who had rushed to Madrid's Filmoteca to see the magical mirror, are in shock.. Only more than five minutes later, when the speculation on the meaning of Oliveira's latest oeuvre was already turning wild, we get the information that there had been some kind of problem with the last film roll. Oh Oliveira, please forget us! Nostra culpa, nostra culpa..
(Everything became clear when one was reminded there was a film about Sarajevo which would be viewed later in the week).
But for a time we actually believed the Old Master of European cinema had lost his marbles... Instead of crying out loud that the King had no clothes left, we, cinephile minions, frantically tried to instill some sense into that irruption of Islam...
It was the type of hyper-contemporary post-modern epiphany that the New York avant-garde would die for...
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