Silvestre (1981)

Decades of Disneyfication (or at the very least, the post-Walt material) have transformed the cultural concept of a fairy tale into sanitized, decent stories to shut up young children with. But João César Monteiro's blender tale of everything from Bluebeard to traditional Portuguese folk tales belongs to the older tradition of fairy tales, more Brothers Grimm than corporate clean. Silvestre is a fantastical psychosexual fantasy/nightmare. A young girl Silvia lives with her father and older half-sister. She is engaged to a guy who acts more like he belongs in an episode of Seinfeld. One night while the father is away, a bearded traveler tricks her into allowing him to stay the night. He feeds her sister a drugged orange and rapes her. Also, he has a glowing hand and can communicate with the devil. Silvia slices his hand off. More betrothals follow, a dragon shows up, is killed, and never mentioned again. Towards the middle Silvia (played by a heartbreakingly adorable seventeen year old Maria de Medeiros (later of Pulp Fiction fame))disguises herself as the knight Silvestre to save her father's life. Some rather suggestive intrigues take place between "him" and "his" lieutenant. The entire movie is filmed as a hyper-stylized, highly theatrical fragmented fever dream. Monteiro places his characters in front of matte paintings, and everything revels in its purposeful artificiality. What I have seen so far of Portuguese cinema is entirely unique, and the Portuguese filmmakers have created a highly original cinematic perspective. This is one of the most exciting discoveries I have made recently, and I highly encourage checking this one out.