DIRECTOR: JOAO CANIJO
STARRING: ANABELA MOREIRA, RITA BLANCO, MADALENA ALMEIDA, CLEIA ALMEIDA, VERA BARRETO
RUNNING TIME: 2 HRS 7 MINUTES
In a family run hotel, by the Portuguese northern shore, lives a group of women from different generations of the same family, whose relationships with each other have grown poisoned by bitterness. They try to survive in the declining hotel, as the unexpected arrival of a granddaughter to this oppressive space stirs trouble, reviving latent hatred and piled-up resentments.
STARRING: ANABELA MOREIRA, RITA BLANCO, MADALENA ALMEIDA, CLEIA ALMEIDA, VERA BARRETO
RUNNING TIME: 2 HRS 7 MINUTES
In a family run hotel, by the Portuguese northern shore, lives a group of women from different generations of the same family, whose relationships with each other have grown poisoned by bitterness. They try to survive in the declining hotel, as the unexpected arrival of a granddaughter to this oppressive space stirs trouble, reviving latent hatred and piled-up resentments.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“Everything’s so difficult, isn’t it?”
Bad Living is the International Feature submission for Portugal. The film takes place in a once formidable traditional family hotel. It’s seen better days, and with a lack of guests and lots of repair work needed, the hotel is at risk of closure. Salome has recently arrived back to the estate to be reunited with her mentally unstable mother, Piedade. Salome’s father recently passed away, and so her grandmother, Sara, thought it would be best for Salome to return back to the hotel, to be with her mother and to help run it.
Piedade takes care of the front desk and is the hotel manager. Her cousin Raquel works as a maid and a waitress, while her girlfriend Angela is the chef. Sara owns the failing hotel. Together with Salome, the five of them run the place trying to take care of the guests and the hotel. But this dysfunctional family of five bicker often in different rooms around the hotel. Granddaughter and grandmother get along just fine, partly united by their mutual dislike of Piedade. Raquel sleeps with some of the hotel guests, to Angela’s disapproval. Maternal affection has skipped a generation in this heartbreak hotel, that has seen better days, and that Sara is now contemplating to sell.
This bleak drama lays out the foundation that some people are incapable to love, and that some parents just don’t love their children. Piedade doesn’t do it on purpose, to be loveless. She’s just not able to think about anyone else but herself. She has created a world inside of her, almost like her own reality, her own schedule. If anything happens to be a bit different from what she thought, it makes her panic. Piedade panics about panicking. But nobody can program life. Not down to the millimetre. And having Salome back in her life, after living with her father since the age of twelve, has created an unbearable anxiety for her. Piedade lives under a net, full of mud, all tangled up and unable to get free. And the worst part, is that she refuses to get help.
But Piedade isn’t the only problem. Her mother and her daughter are all sordid people stuck in a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. It’s been passed down from generation to generation. And it’s the only life they know: toxicity. They refuse to move on and live elsewhere, they refuse to find medical help, they are unable to effectively communicate, and they verbally abuse one another when they do engage in dialogue. They all have a void inside themselves, and it’s never enough. Everything they touch dies. And they’re always rushing to get to nowhere. This film is a raw family portrait framed in loneliness and despair.
The hotel stands as a clear representation of their ruin, of their bad living situation, of all of them unable to realize that they’ve overstayed their welcome and that they’re only path for a bright future is to break free and start fresh somewhere new.
REVIEW: B+
(This review contains spoilers.)
“Everything’s so difficult, isn’t it?”
Bad Living is the International Feature submission for Portugal. The film takes place in a once formidable traditional family hotel. It’s seen better days, and with a lack of guests and lots of repair work needed, the hotel is at risk of closure. Salome has recently arrived back to the estate to be reunited with her mentally unstable mother, Piedade. Salome’s father recently passed away, and so her grandmother, Sara, thought it would be best for Salome to return back to the hotel, to be with her mother and to help run it.
Piedade takes care of the front desk and is the hotel manager. Her cousin Raquel works as a maid and a waitress, while her girlfriend Angela is the chef. Sara owns the failing hotel. Together with Salome, the five of them run the place trying to take care of the guests and the hotel. But this dysfunctional family of five bicker often in different rooms around the hotel. Granddaughter and grandmother get along just fine, partly united by their mutual dislike of Piedade. Raquel sleeps with some of the hotel guests, to Angela’s disapproval. Maternal affection has skipped a generation in this heartbreak hotel, that has seen better days, and that Sara is now contemplating to sell.
This bleak drama lays out the foundation that some people are incapable to love, and that some parents just don’t love their children. Piedade doesn’t do it on purpose, to be loveless. She’s just not able to think about anyone else but herself. She has created a world inside of her, almost like her own reality, her own schedule. If anything happens to be a bit different from what she thought, it makes her panic. Piedade panics about panicking. But nobody can program life. Not down to the millimetre. And having Salome back in her life, after living with her father since the age of twelve, has created an unbearable anxiety for her. Piedade lives under a net, full of mud, all tangled up and unable to get free. And the worst part, is that she refuses to get help.
But Piedade isn’t the only problem. Her mother and her daughter are all sordid people stuck in a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. It’s been passed down from generation to generation. And it’s the only life they know: toxicity. They refuse to move on and live elsewhere, they refuse to find medical help, they are unable to effectively communicate, and they verbally abuse one another when they do engage in dialogue. They all have a void inside themselves, and it’s never enough. Everything they touch dies. And they’re always rushing to get to nowhere. This film is a raw family portrait framed in loneliness and despair.
The hotel stands as a clear representation of their ruin, of their bad living situation, of all of them unable to realize that they’ve overstayed their welcome and that they’re only path for a bright future is to break free and start fresh somewhere new.
REVIEW: B+
