Pedro Costa

From its opening shot, a long take of junk being thrown out of a window on a dark night, Portuguese director Pedro Costa’s film Colossal Youth never shies away from exactly what it is: a long, deliberate 155 minutes shot on digital video in the slums of Lisbon; exploring the people who live there and how they live. The slow moving minimalist approach and lack of a real narrative appears to be a major turn off for most. The film is infamous for the mass walkouts it received at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Even in my own viewing on the last night of the films run at Anthology Film Archives, nearly 1/3 of the “crowd” left as early as 30 minutes in and as late as 2 hours. However, the nature of Costa’s filmmaking lends itself perfectly in approaching the difficult subject at hand and makes Colossal Youth one of the most haunting, powerful, and best films of the year.

Colossal Youth is Costa’s most recent film in a almost completely unseen filmography. Luckily, the retrospective of his work that premiered at Anthology is scheduled to tour the States this year. Colossal Youth follows a man named Ventura as he meets with various people of the town who he refers to as his children. Oftentimes, they just sit around and say nothing at all. Other times, characters speak for extended periods of time in single shots that run over ten minutes in length. Droll as this may sound, the film does retain an atmospheric drive through the use of time and space. There is no reference to time. The rooms are broken down, decrepit, and cramped. There are children who continue to play, as children always do, but there is little sense of joy in their retreat to play. Even while time in the film shifts back and forth to past and future, it is Costa’s intention to make it impossible to tell when or why. Life just continues for the characters. Their challenging situations seem to always continue, no matter the changing shape of the world. There is only the constant struggle day after day and a search for something better.

While many characters in Colossal Youth may not find a way out of misery, Ventura brings with his visits a sense of hope and belonging. Ventura’s “children” refer to him as “Papa” and for good reason. He gives them everything that they need in times of despair: someone to sit next to and listen to what each has to say. Though he has problems of his own, his self imposed departure from his home after being stabbed by his wife, Ventura serves as a symbol of hope for the slums and the country. Using real residents from the slums of Lisbon gives Colossal Youth an amazing authenticity. The film goes beyond realism and displays an experimental blend of fact and fiction that gives the innumerable questions raised by the film an immediacy that “normal” films lack.

Ambiguous and vague as it stylistically is, all of the elements add to the mysterious intrigue of the film. It is incredibly surprising that so many art house fans have found the film oppressively dull. Despite the DV, or maybe even because of it, the aesthetics of the film create more atmosphere, life, and character than the shiniest slickest lights that Hollywood or Indiewood can find. Granted, the free floating nature is bewildering for a while and takes some getting used to. However, there is a specific moment about an hour into the film in which many of Costa’s ideas and methods combine. From that point on, Colossal Youth continues to build its sense of individual empowerment and the need to know that someone is there. It may not solve everything, but given the situations at hand it is the best the characters can get.

A man is vigorously drawing circles onto a desk with a pen. Ventura sits next to him. He violently draws a circle, stops, and then draws violently on the exact same place. The man does this several times. All of the violence, despair, and misery are put into the drawing of this circle, a symbol of the cycle of life that just goes on and on without any hope. Then, Ventura reaches over and places his hand on top of the man’s hand and he stops drawing the violent circle. Everything becomes calm. The only thing left in Costa’s brilliantly crafted world is an incredible silence where every problems seems to be solved because of this one man. There is, at last, peace.

by James Hansen

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