The Ornithologist

source: The Ornithologist

Came across this accidentally perusing new additions at Netflix. I hate to say it, because I like technical aspects of the film, but after a few minutes in when oddly misplaced Chinese girls tie the apparent Portuguese protagonist up I watched the remainder mainly as a geographical documentary. Confused? Read some of the other comments here. I haven't the heart to reprise scene after scene that to me make absolutely no sense. An element of suspense becomes moot when the viewer realizes there is no "there" there. Sexual innuendo abounds. The whole thing is manipulation pure and simple. Apart from the geography, that is. The nearest place I have actually visited is Galicia to the north, and I had no idea there was such an amazing back country, replete with virgin forests, whitewater rapids, fantastic rock falls, and fjord-like bodies of water. Mind you, I think it is worth watching again for some great camera takes. But ornithology it isn't. Nor is it clearly associated with St. Anthony of Padua (Padova) except for an obvious chord of someone lost and found...unless the viewer is moved to discover religious symbolism in ordinary natural phenomena.

Is it the homosexuality in Rodrigues work that does not allow him in the Pantheon of great directors ? He has created one of the finest films in cinema, ' O Fantasma ' and ' The Ornithologist ' is quite simply one of the greatest films I have ever seen. No spoilers but how wonderful to see a Saint in the making make love to a deaf and dumb Jesus by a beautiful river. It is erotic and the nudity justified, and the combination of intense sexuality with mortality has never been so finely expressed. The lead actor is superb, and his beauty of body is equal to his capacity as an actor who can hold all of the film in the palm of his hand as everything is more or less experienced from his own viewpoint. The nature scenes in their strange wildness reminded me of Herzog but better. Everything is seen through the eyes of a visionary and in this unjust world I am appalled that he is not more celebrated. If his subject matter was not so subversive and that his eroticism was not essentially male the mafia of straight critics would be writing books about him. He has a catalogue of work that should be brought out in a boxset ( in fact more than one boxset ) and this should be considered but I guess it never will. A visionary to be discovered and cherished.

An ornithologist is out surveying birds in the wild when his canoe is swept over rapids. He is rescued by two Chinese hikers but they, due to their religious beliefs, perceive him as a threat. So they tie him to a tree. Dull, meandering and pointless. From the outset you can tell this is going to be drawn out unnecessarily, as we see long scenes of birds, and nothing else. (Yeah, yeah, Mr Director, we get it: he's an ornithologist, as if the title and plot summary didn't give it away). After all the gratuitous bird shots, the plot, what there is, just goes in random directions. Just when you think at last things might be coming together, something random and bizarre happens. Last few scenes make no sense at all. Avoid.