Posted On: Saturday - June 10th 2023 7:44PM MST
In Topics: History Movies Geography
In answer to my question, an older lady getting off the airliner with her husband the other day told me that, before their connection at the hub, they had come from a visit to Lisbon Portugal. "Really? You've got to watch the movie Night Train to Lisbon!", I exclaimed. She said they would - due to that brief, but positive recommendation. That's what I've got here, well, a positive recommendation, but not necessarily a brief one.
First, I have noticed that Lisbon is a tourist destination. Maybe it has been for a while, but it seems like a new thing. (We may go there sometime, but then, we have other destinations in mind too.) Perhaps what's new and cool about it is that it's an out-of-the-way European city. I still have traveling on trains in mind, for which Lisbon would be not on any other route if one is touring the European continent. I guess that's an old practice now, with Ryan Air, Value Jet, and the like, so I guess it's not nearly as out-of-the-way as before. People like to say they've been somewhere that others haven't, though, and that also makes it better when one is there too - not so many damned tourists around!*
There's the scenery, I suppose. Lisbon is a coastal city, and I'm sure Portugal has its beautiful spots. However, California, Oregon, and Washington have more than enough of that to beat Portugal. The movie I'm trying to review here shows some scenery near the end, but most of it occurs in urban Lisbon (per IMDB, the Caxias area, which is the actual location of the historic drama in the movie). I have a feeling that the movie-makers and government incentivizers want movies filmed in their locales to attract tourists. I think that works.
There's the history. Like most Europeans cities, all kinds of madness and travails have occurred throughout the 2 to 3 millennium that we know about. I looked up some quick Wikipedia history on Lisbon and Portugal in general. They had it all, Roman rule, Christianity, various barbarians, Moslems**, then the Age of Exploration, colonization, (and, as of late, reverse colonization, which I'll get to shortly). Unfortunately, a huge earthquake in 1755 destroyed most of the city, and more was torn down for a different more modern cityscape during the rebuild.
Then there was the whole 20th century thing. Going along with this out-of-the-way country idea, Portugal is about as far away from the USSR and East Bloc one could get. There was no chance of it going Communist due to invasion from the east, but the southern European countries did and still do tend to get a little wonky - as in a "wonky knee" - and kind of unstable politically. Greece seems to be the worst of them. It went nearly Communist on its own for a bit. Italy too has had new governments yearly or monthly. Portugal though, somewhat like its (only) neighbor, ended up with a dictator from 1932 until 1974. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar had been a valuable finance minister earlier, seemingly the only guy who could keep to a budget. During the 1920s political turmoil, he, often unwillingly, stayed in the government, and the President appointed him Prime Minister in July 1934 of what was called the Estado Novo - "New State" - and was an authoritarian dictatorship.
Salazar was neither Fascist, Communist, nor Theocrat, though he favored Catholicism more than the other isms, which he actively hated. He was a Nationalist, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, it's just very difficult for a dictator to remain completely benevolent for very long. You make enemies, some with cause and many of them just against traditional society, like the Commies. Well, if you want to stay "benevolent dictator", you've got to crush those enemies, with secret police and the like. It doesn't end well. The end of Mr. Slazar's dictatorship in Portugal is a big part of the story of Night Train to Lisbon. It's been almost 50 years now, but that's not so long in the past - again, kind of out-of-the-way, out-of-mind for me, but not for the characters in this movie.
Jeremey Irons, the star of this one, plays Raimund Gregorious, an upper-middle-age conservative teacher of literature and such at a school in Bern, Switzerland. (For some reason, wiki and half the IMDB reviewers say he's a Professor, but, as I recall, he taught younger kids.) He's single, having been divorced a few years back - we find out later - and he understands that it's a safe but boring life he leads.
Luckily for us moviegoers, something odd happens to Raimund on the very day we are watching. Some young pretty girl was about to jump to her death off a bridge into the Aar River. Raimund saves her, and brings her to the school so he could teach his classes, but she leaves with no goodbye or contact information. What she'd left, though, was her jacket with an interesting book in the pocket.
The viewer couldn't be faulted for thinking at this point that our protagonist will chase the young lady down and things would eventually get all kissy-kissy and such, but, alas, the movie takes a different direction. He being a bookish guy, Mr. Gregorious takes to the book of wisdom he's found, A Goldsmith of Words, written by one Amadeu de Almeida Prado in Portuguese, and also finds inside it a train ticket to Lisbon, bought by that skinny young girl. Since he couldn't find her at the train station, he makes an impulsive decision, probably the first in a while, to board the night train to Lisbon. (Oh, yeah, he left the kids in the classroom that afternoon. Whaddya' gonna' do?)
Raimund's search for the author of this book (1 of only 100 copies made, per a guy at the bookstore back in Bern), Mr. Prado, soon turns his trip to Lisbon, hence the movie, into a detective story. He has no P.I. license, and doesn't work for $200 per day + expenses like Jim Rockford*****, unfortunately, and this investigation is into goings-on in Lisbon from 50 years back (well, 40 when this movie was made, in 2013). Luckily, most of the people that his investigation involves are still living, in the movie. So, rather than a street-smart taco-eating ex-con with a business card printing press in his Firebird pretending to be an insurance salesman, we have a multilingual straight-talking intellectual with a penchant for history having tea at old townhouses, coffee shops, and nursing homes. Instead of a jive-turkey sidekick who's of no help whatsoever, he's got a nice middle-aged lady optician he met, who spends the time to help him dig into this most interesting past.
The past in question was the time at the end of the Salazar dictatorship. It was a time when revolution was in the air - pardon me a minute while I cue up an old ABBA song. There are no Fernandos that I recall, but the long flashbacks that come from Raimund's interviews of the characters in the present bring to life a bunch of idealist young people with Spanish-sounding names - Portuguese, of course - with plans and plots. The young Amadeus Prado, he the author of that great book of philosophy that started our protagnists' quest, was a very bright medical doctor involved in these plans along with his ex boarding school roommate/close friend.
Then there's the girl. She was young in the past, so not the girl from the bridge back in present-day Switzerland. This very pretty young lady was heavenly, make that heavily, involved in the plots, her having an amazing enough memory to keep all contact info on the many plotters in her head. See, now that's why we use thumb drives now, because you just KNEW she was going to ruin things due to LUV. You keep the women out of these things, I could have told them, and I did actually, but it's just a big screen, this was 50 years ago, and they weren't real people then even.
There's not very much action as we are used to in modern movies, but the story is complex enough to be very interesting. Besides the love story from the Salazar era, there's a mild one in the present too. I'll leave the story line at that, except to note that the ending in the present time was pretty good. There's not a lot of humor in Night Train to Lisbon, as it is a serious story. However, there's the running theme of Mr. Gregorio's headmaster or fellow teacher back in Bern calling his mobile phone occasionally asking when he's planning on coming back. He doesn't know.
Production values? Yet again, I don't know. It wasn't blurry. Also, it was nice that the dialogue was in English.
Well that was probably one of Peak Stupidity's longest movie reviews. No problem though - you should have had enough time to read it on the night train to somewhere. Any readers who've been to Lisbon, please comment here with your experience there please.
That's a wrap! I'm done for the week. Have a good Sunday, folks.
* I wonder how many Chinese tours go there. The Chinese tourism in general has tailed off since the Kung Flu Panic started.
** The fighting men of Portugal were able to expel these Moors from their lands about 3 1/2 centuries before the Spanish did.
*** They had Henry the Navigator, but they really could have used a Henry the Geographer with that S. American deal with Spain. As I recall, the dividing longitude line they agreed on - and even I, a Euro-colonization non-apologist, see that as pretty arrogant - was a bad deal for the Portuguese. Next time, don't sign anything without a good map in hand!
**** It's not just the reverse in geographical direction, but the reverse of the colonization process, aka, things go backwards in a de-civilizing process.
***** Yeah, you can find something like 10 Rockford Files posts all in here.
Comments:
SafeNow
Sunday - June 11th 2023 2:25PM MST
PS
Thank you for the review, and for explaining the historical and geographic context. I normally enjoy sedate, civilized, talky films, so maybe I will enjoy this film that had slipped through the cracks for me. However, the critics normally are positive about such films, and from what I can see, the critics blasted this one. Maybe that is because there is something unwoke about this movie (aside from the fact that the Hitler guy is in it.)
Thank you for the review, and for explaining the historical and geographic context. I normally enjoy sedate, civilized, talky films, so maybe I will enjoy this film that had slipped through the cracks for me. However, the critics normally are positive about such films, and from what I can see, the critics blasted this one. Maybe that is because there is something unwoke about this movie (aside from the fact that the Hitler guy is in it.)
The Alarmist
Sunday - June 11th 2023 12:30PM MST
PS
On the Azorean ihla do Terçeira, the locals love to tell the story of how their ancestors used cattle to chase the Spaniards back to the sea.
This guy tells it OK:
https://www.curiositymag.com/2018/07/25/alcatra-bulls-terceira-azores/
On the Azorean ihla do Terçeira, the locals love to tell the story of how their ancestors used cattle to chase the Spaniards back to the sea.
This guy tells it OK:
https://www.curiositymag.com/2018/07/25/alcatra-bulls-terceira-azores/
Moderator
Sunday - June 11th 2023 11:57AM MST
PS: Yeah, the Azores might be nice, Alarmist. Thanks for the report too Mr. Blanc, be it 45 years old or not.
Colin, I appreciate the extra history. I didn't mean to imply they were somehow better than the Spanish in this regard. They just had 3 centuries more of Christianity and less of the Moslem influence.
Colin, I appreciate the extra history. I didn't mean to imply they were somehow better than the Spanish in this regard. They just had 3 centuries more of Christianity and less of the Moslem influence.
Moderator
Sunday - June 11th 2023 11:54AM MST
PS: Not a bad job, Dieter, considering she may have never sung it before in her life - she couldn't quite get the high notes like a man... wait, what, Steve Perry doing falsetto could.
How about ELO, with "Night Train to London" (Pretty obscure, but I remember this one - the chorus has a good melody, but the verses are not great.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up4WjdabA2c
How about ELO, with "Night Train to London" (Pretty obscure, but I remember this one - the chorus has a good melody, but the verses are not great.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up4WjdabA2c
Colin Wright
Sunday - June 11th 2023 11:24AM MST
PS 'The fighting men of Portugal were able to expel these Moors from their lands about 3 1/2 centuries before the Spanish did.'
Kind of cheating. First, the English who went on the Second Crusade detoured and gave the Portuguese a leg up by helping them take Lisbon. Nobody did the same for the Spanish.
Second, 'Portugal' became that modest chunk of Iberia the Portuguese had nibbled off. Three and a half centuries before 1492, the Spanish-to-be had just as much of Iberia as the Portuguese did; they just went on to take the rest while the Portuguese stood pat.
Kind of cheating. First, the English who went on the Second Crusade detoured and gave the Portuguese a leg up by helping them take Lisbon. Nobody did the same for the Spanish.
Second, 'Portugal' became that modest chunk of Iberia the Portuguese had nibbled off. Three and a half centuries before 1492, the Spanish-to-be had just as much of Iberia as the Portuguese did; they just went on to take the rest while the Portuguese stood pat.
MBlanc46
Sunday - June 11th 2023 7:32AM MST
PS I spent a week or so in Lisbon in 1977. Something of a backwater, as you suggest, but that was part of its charm. I quite enjoyed the Algarve, the south coast of Portugal. Of course, that was all 45 years ago, so a lot has likely changed.
The Alarmist
Sunday - June 11th 2023 4:33AM MST
PS
Lisbon is ok, but I’d rather go the the Azores. Better scenery and bucolic charm.
Lisbon is ok, but I’d rather go the the Azores. Better scenery and bucolic charm.
Conductor's Assistant on a Night-Train
Sunday - June 11th 2023 3:15AM MST
PS
Here's traces from a JOURNEY on a Night Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esIYtWPKACs
don't msis the shining .f.a.c.e.s. in the mall in the last third of the video
The sociologists say this about our modern societies - these turn into .e.x.p.e.r.i.e.n.c.e.-societies with travel as one of the great medias for the sudden occurence of the nimbus/of the OMinous/ the transcendent/ the everyday wonders//magic-touches people are so very much longing for - the more secular modernity gets.
- But - they don't want to talk about neither reflect these - touchy - subjects too much - unless the talk/the reflection takes on the approved form of the travel-story: Been there, experienced that - - -felt the XXX (=the magic) of it! -
Traces of the lost soul, lingereing around - - necessarily, that is - - elsewhere - - .
Here's traces from a JOURNEY on a Night Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esIYtWPKACs
don't msis the shining .f.a.c.e.s. in the mall in the last third of the video
The sociologists say this about our modern societies - these turn into .e.x.p.e.r.i.e.n.c.e.-societies with travel as one of the great medias for the sudden occurence of the nimbus/of the OMinous/ the transcendent/ the everyday wonders//magic-touches people are so very much longing for - the more secular modernity gets.
- But - they don't want to talk about neither reflect these - touchy - subjects too much - unless the talk/the reflection takes on the approved form of the travel-story: Been there, experienced that - - -felt the XXX (=the magic) of it! -
Traces of the lost soul, lingereing around - - necessarily, that is - - elsewhere - - .
SafeNow, though I looked up a couple of things on the IMDB page, to tell you the truth, I didn't check out any other reviews. I don't know if they would have biased me or not.
I am not SO EXCITED! about this movie, but, as compared to the average on you pick up semi-randomly, thinking "this looks OK, at least" this turned out to be pretty good. I like the one "In Bruges" that I reviewed a month or two ago, better. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that one.
Oh, yeah, I had 3 more paragraphs in here on the geography and exploration era wrt Portugal, but I realized it had no business being in there, and the post was that much longer before! OK, it'll just be in another short post, since I spent time on it.
Thanks for reading.