The Portuguese Nun

Poetry and mischief mix to idiosyncratic effect in the latest from Eugène Green, one of European cinema's most distinctive voices (The Living World, Le Pont des Arts). Largely shot in Portuguese, this is at once a film about film, a sidelong tribute to Portuguese cinema (more than one Oliveira regular appears in the cast) and a love letter to the city of Lisbon. Perversely, Green casts a Portuguese performer, Leonor Baldaque, as a French actress who comes to Lisbon to shoot a minimalist costume romance. Exploring the city, Baldaque's Julie forms connections with, first, a solitary aristocrat (Diogo Dória), then her co-star (Adrien Michaux) - but her most telling encounters prove to be with a young orphaned boy and with the nun of the title, the real-life counterpart to her film role. Adding a further layer of self-reference, the French director of Julie's film is none other than 'Denis Verde' - Eugène Green himself, on affable form. As in all Green's films, Raphäel O'Byrne's photography adds luminous grace to a stylised conception, while ample interludes of fado music make this a film that will be equally hard to resist for Green fans and lovers of Lisbon.

Jonathan Romney