The Art of Amália
8.8 /10 1 Votes8.8
Genre Documentary, Biography Initial release December 8, 2000 (USA) Running time 1h 30m | 8.6/10 IMDb Duration | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Music director Alain Oulman, Alfredo Marceneiro, Frederico Valerio, Alberto Janes, Raul Ferrao Screenplay Bruno de Almeida, Artur Ribeiro, Frank Coelho, Vitor Pavao dos Santos Cast Amalia Rodrigues , John Ventimiglia , Joaquim de Almeida , Alain Oulman , David Byrne Similar movies Portugal movies, Movies about singing, Documentaries | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The art of am lia part 1 intro
The Art of Amália is a documentary by Bruno de Almeida on the artistic career of Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999), the celebrated Fado singer from Portugal. This 90-minute film is based on a previous five-hour made-for-television mini-series on the singer that dealt with her life and career; it was also de Almeida’s fourth cinematic project celebrating Rodrigues’ career.
Contents
The film opens with an on-screen introduction by David Byrne, who praises the singer for “singing in these fado songs about the sadness of the universe, not only about a personal sadness or a tragedy in her own life or in the writer's life, but she was expressing the sadness of existence." The Art of Amália mixes rare film, television and concert footage from different periods of Rodrigues’ career. The film also presents a previously thought lost clip of a rare appearance (billed only as “Amália”) on U.S. television in 1953, where she performed her hit song "Coimbra" (better known to U.S. audiences in the English-language version "April in Portugal").
The Art of Amália also includes the last filmed interview by Rodrigues, who died one week before production was completed.
The film had its U.S. premiere in March 2000 at a United Nations benefit, and its theatrical premiere in New York in December 2000. The DVD is now available to the public.