O termómetro de Galileu

A whole summer long, Portuguese filmmaker Teresa Villaverde stayed with Italian cult director Tonino De Bernardi, who was working on projects including a film version of Sophocles’ Electra starring only local villagers. She sits at the table with the family in their garden, on the back seat of the car on the way home in the evening or listens to the stories told by the woman De Bernardi buys cheese and eggs from.

Villaverde’s camera transforms the incidental into the sublime. When she films the long, empty table in the garden, we can sense the family that came together here. She reveals memories by showing the present – faces and bodies and the home where they live – and by listening to what is said (and what is not). Short sentences and small movements between De Tonino and his wife Mariella are enough to show a life full of love, wisdom and sometimes sorrow.