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Pereira Declares

1995, Movie, NR, 104 mins

Pereira Declares: Review

PEREIRA DECLARES | ACCORDING TO PEREIRA | AFIRMA PEREIRA | PEREIRA HOLDS | SOSTIENE PEREIRA
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One of the late, great Marcello Mastroianni's final film appearances, and one well worth catching. Mastroianni stars as Pereira, cultural editor of Lisboa, a Lisbon daily newspaper that somehow manages to remain apolitical during the broiling summer months of 1938. A civil war rages in Spain, Fascists maintain their stranglehold on Italy, Germany has begun rounding up its Jews, Portugal has started its own brutal crackdown on dissidents, and Pereira's head is firmly buried in sand. He's dying -- his doctor has only given him a few months to live -- and Pereira just wants to live out his final days in peace, translating French literature for his apathetic readers. But when he hires a young Italian subversive (Stefano Dionisi) to pen literary obituaries, the real world suddenly lays siege to Pereira's ivory tower and the old man learns a new lesson: Nothing and no one is ever above politics. Italian director Roberto Faenza deftly weaves what could easily have been a rather strident parable into a thrilling political drama that's full of dark humor and an even darker atmosphere of creeping paranoia. Mastroianni is sublime, but it's a bittersweet triumph: As the ailing Pereira, he's able to bring a heartbreaking poignancy to the role of a man who finds the courage to transform his whole life while confronting his own mortality. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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