A cinematic portrait of the Portuguese director Pedro Costa at work.
Plain and simple. This is how Pedro Costa explains his working method, in which he, in a kind of open-air performance, plays back how he shot his films "Ossos" and "No quarto da Vanda" in the poor Lisbon district of Fontainhas: "Filmmaking is quite simple, in the morning you take the bus, go to the shooting location, sit down in a café, knock on the actors' doors, and you do it every day of the year." Filming as work, as craft. The fact that the simplicity doesn't exclude what's most difficult is also shown in Tout refleurit. Costa's very own, radical working method and his relationship to the actors becomes clear through textual rehearsals, sound recording, and the long decision-making processes in the editing booth, without always being formulated as such. Along with work on "Juventude em marcha", conversations with Costa and clips from earlier films also make up parts of Tout refleurit, but not as a typical or conventional portrait of an artist, but edited in such a way that they are organically incorporated in Gerbault's own aesthetic concept. A concentrated film about a concentrated filmmaker, plainly and simply wonderful.
Birgit Kohler
Production: Qualia Films, Paris
Screenplay, Sound: Aurélien Gerbault
Cinematographer: Frédéric Serve
Format: DigiBeta PAL (shot on DV Cam), Color
Running time: 78 minutes
Languages: French, Portuguese
