O Sangue (Blood)

Pedro Costa is best known for his film trilogy shot in and around Libson’s Fontainhas neighborhood (Colossal Youth, In Vanda’s Room, and Ossos), which explores themes of displacement and memory in the face of modernism’s unrelenting march. All of these ideas already appear fully formed in his astounding debut: 1989’s O Sangue (Blood). A fable-like tale of two brothers coping with their father’s death endows Costa with the opportunity to synthesize the earthy lyricism of Dreyer, Bresson, and Murnau with the twilight atmospherics of Tourneur and Laughton’s Night of the Hunter. One of the final films shot by Martin Schäfer (Kings of the Road, Radio On), a master of inky black-and-white cinematography, O Sangue is more than just a wellspring of mesmerizing images. It is cinema reborn from its own shadows. “A prodigious debut film bursting with visual and narrative ideas, homages and a desperate romanticism.”—James Quandt

Bing Theater | $10 for the general public; $7 for LACMA members, seniors (62+), and students with valid ID; $5 LACMA Film Club members | Price includes both films on double-bill | Tickets: 323 857-6010 or purchase online.

35mm print supplied by