Eccentricities Of A Blonde Haired Girl

Eccentricities of a Blonde Haired Girl, an hour-long dramatic fable by Portuguese centenarian director Manoel de Oliveira, constitutes an intriguing and arresting, if not entirely successful, adaptation of a short story by 19th century author Eca de Queiroz.

The film opens in present-day Europe. Ricardo Trepa stars as Macario, a despairing young accountant. At the outset of the film, he sits on a train and relays a personal story to a complete stranger (Leonor Silveira) -- a life-changing event that occurred during his bookkeeping job at the clothing shop owned by his disciplinarian uncle (Diogo Doria) in Lisbon. One afternoon, Macario’s gaze fell on...