O Pátio das Cantigas (1942)

Directed by

Ribeirinho

Genre

comedy film

Country

Portugal

Runtime

1h 45m

Rated

M/6

Rating

8.7 of 10 from 43 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In a Lisbon courtyard during a festive season, neighbors deal with romantic misunderstandings and life lessons. The film follows their close-knit community with a mix of comedy and sentiment.

lightheartednostalgicwarmhumoroussentimentalmusicallivelygentle

What happens

O Pátio das Cantigas (English: The Courtyard of the Ballads) is a 1942 Portuguese comedy film directed by Francisco Ribeiro (better known as Ribeirinho), and produced by his brother António Lopes Ribeiro. A classic example of the comédia à portuguesa genre, the film is set in a typical Lisbon courtyard during the Marchas Populares festivities. It follows a close-knit community of neighbors through a series of romantic entanglements, misunderstandings, and moral lessons, offering a humorous and sentimental portrayal of traditional urban life. The screenplay was written by António Lopes Ribeiro, Ribeirinho and Vasco Santana and the later two also star in the film alongside António Silva, Laura Alves, and Maria das Neves. O Pátio das Cantigas was Ribeirinho's only work as a film director. The film has been noted for its musical numbers and character-driven humor, and has also been interpreted by scholars as reflecting values associated with the Estado Novo regime. Despite the film only being screened for four weeks upon release, it cemented itself in the Portuguese culture, due to extensive screenings on Portuguese television during the 1960s and 70s. This led to the popularization of characters and expressions, such as the teasing of António Silva "Evaristo, tens cá disto?". A remake of O Pátio das Cantigas directed by Leonel Vieira was released in 2015. It became the most-watched Portuguese film of all time at the time, surpassing previous records with over 392,000 viewers and box office revenues exceeding 2 million euros. The remake featured a cast of well-known Portuguese actors and humorists and was part of a trilogy project celebrating classic Portuguese cinema. The director emphasized that the trilogy was intended as a homage to the original films while updating them for modern audiences. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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