Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl

This short feature film from Portugal's centurion director Manoel de Oliveira—the world's oldest active filmmaker—is based on a short story by Eça de Queirós that revolves around obsessive love, enormous personal sacrifice, and an almost capricious twist. Ricardo Trêpa stars as Macário, a young man who sits next to a stranger on a train and proceeds to tell him his story—in essence, the odyssey of an unambitious accountant smitten with a young beauty named Luísa (Catarina Wallenstein). Forbidden by his uncle to marry, Macário sets out to make his fortune and win her hand. For all the dialogue (it's framed as a kind of confession told to the sympathetic seatmate), Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl has the patience of a silent film, with long, still shots observing the characters until they reveal themselves through the smallest of telling actions or the slightest emotional reaction. Cinema's grand old director has become a master of miniatures, and this is a perfectly executed tidbit, a slight yet delightful story told with minimalist direction and a very European sensibility—a fairy tale for grown-ups infused with deadpan humor and wry irony. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a press conference with cast and crew from the 2009 Berlin Film Festival (70 min.) a bonus 2009 short by Oliveira (16 min.), a look at Oliveira's next film, and an essay by James Quandt. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an interesting foreign film.] (S. Axmaker)