Synopsis
Things happen, you just have to believe.
Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, an ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.
2016 ‘O Ornitólogo’ Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues
Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, an ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.
Blackmaria House on Fire Itaca Films Le Fresnoy ICA Ministério da Cultura RTP CNC Ministère des Affaires Étrangères Institut Français Agência Nacional do Cinema - ANCINE
鳥類学者, L'ornithologue, Der Ornithologe, L'Ornithologue, El ornitólogo, Az ornitológus, 鸟类学家, O Ornitólogo, Орнитолог, Орнитологът, 조류학자의 은밀한 모험, عالِم الطيور
There's absolutely something to be discovered at the heart of The Ornithologist, but whether or not you stick around to find out is up to you. The film is much more surrealist than I was anticipating. The protagonists journey is one that is both biblical, existential, and sexual. There are undercurrents of homosexual eroticism and natural realism that clash, perhaps intentionally, with the surrealist experiences that the protagonist endures. Overall, I'm supportive of what this tries to be, even if I don't so much like what it is.
João Pedro Rodrigues knows how to create provocative, erotic gay fantasy with Portuguese identity, and in The Ornithologist, a sexy, nudist Jesus crosses paths with two Chinese Christian lesbian lovers in a bizarre, highly metaphorical fever dream that's equal parts pious and heretical.
Largely based on the life of St. Anthony of Padua, the famed saint of Portugal, The Ornithologist microscopically details the painstaking journey of the protagonist's self discovery, while dropping breadcrumbs of metaphors and symbolism along the trail, providing the already visually sparkling experience an extra layer of religious complexity.
Even taken at face value, The Ornithologist is a rather enticing tale of survival where the blue-eyed Paul Hamy strives to find his way out both realistically and figuratively. João Pedro Rodrigues' perfect bridging of religious vignettes with homoerotic desires works wonderfully, and the end result is simply a stylish, memorable experience one could never take eyes off of. Highly recommended.
49/100
Entire St. Anthony allegory flew over my theologically ignorant head, which wouldn't be a huge problem were there anything else to grab hold of. Unlike, say, mother!, this isn't a film that invites multiple interpretations or rewards surface-level attention (apart from that provided by Rodrigues' typically sinuous mise-en-scène); absent the intended grounding/reading, it's just random absurdism—not as unpleasant as the most abject stuff in O Fantasma (a film I truly despised back in 2000, though I suspect I'd be at least a little more open to it now), but not terribly interesting for its own sake, either. Unless you get what Rodrigues is doing—which arguably also requires recognizing him when he appears onscreen, which I did not—you're simply at…
My man nearly drowns in a kayak accident, gets tied up and robbed by Chinese tourists, hunted down by a cargo cult and shot at by topless deer hunters. Scratch birdwatching from my hobby list, it's too fucking dangerous.
At once both beguilingly seductive and painstakingly meditative, it’s not so much glacial pacing that restricts The Ornithologist from freely soaring into the sun, but the weight of heavy-handed symbolism scattered throughout. That being said, João Pedro Rodrigues’ homoerotic incantation explores some interesting questions surrounding spirituality and faith, unearthing his ideas through the beauty and primal energy of nature so artfully, it’s almost impossible to look away.
It’s a frustratingly beautiful journey that will test the patience of those unprepared for its existentialist delivery, but will no doubt offer some food for thought, regardless of its shortcomings.
The most dangerous game. The homoerotic dangers of the flesh, the sinister allure of nature, the sainthood of lust. The film is safer than it wants to be, risk is submerged to authorial effects in a manner desire usually isn’t in Rodrigues previous work, to given to current festival approved tableaux to quite achieve the anti via crucis of desire it is striving for. JP is a very talented guy and most of this is seductive, but I can’t shake the feeling it is all rather academic as well.
Director and co-writer João Pedro Rodrigues called his film The Ornithologist a: “purposefully transgressive and blasphemous reappropriation of the saint’s life.” That Saint, of course being Saint Anthony of Lisbon. I’d be foolish to try and put the plot of this marvelously parabolic masterpiece into words of my own, so instead I quote the man who made it. I will say that this film is exactly what I look for in an experimental piece of arthouse cinema. Deliberately slow-paced, tranquil in tone, beautifully shot and acted; there’s nothing quite like this in how it blends religion with natural, visual splendor. From the moment we first meet our main character, a man by the name of Fernando, I was totally and completely transfixed by…
At the center of The Ornithologist, surrounded by gorgeous visuals and an enigmatic narrative structure, there is... something. I have no idea as to what that something is, but to say this film is hollow would be inaccurate.
Its rich atmosphere evokes a sense of dread, a dream-like paranoia that something is rotten below the surface. A key sequence with an owl makes me think that this may have something to do with identity and perception -- this man has gone out into the wilderness to observe, yet he ends up being his own subject. The pacing of particular sequences was a definite issue for me, and I was nowhere near immersed in the film as it demanded I be.…
Petition to stop ending arthouse movies with pop songs PLEASE
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2021 edit: i was so dumb and wrong in 2017, check comments below for insightful analysis of the ending song
If you meet Jesus drinking goat's milk by the river, you have to fuck him.
Baffling, gorgeous and wickedly entertaining queer reclamation of Christian iconography. Would've liked it more when I thought it was about Christian lesbian vampires, but every insane detour won me over with its delicious silliness.