• Horse Money is easily Pedro Costa’s greatest triumph to date in 2014
  • In many ways it is similar to his previous work—his Fontainhas trilogy (which has now been expanded beyond a trilogy because all of his films from 1997 are about similar subjects and set in Fontainhas)- Ossos, In Vanda’s Room, Colossal Youth. Horse Money is clearly the work of the same, single-minded (and that is a compliment) auteur. Costa is concerned with the Cape Verde Immigrants, poverty, regret, suffering and sorrow. Characters play themselves (Vanda isn’t in this one but Ventura is) and setting (darkly lit) is as important to Costa as anything
  • So Ossos was made on film, and the next two from Costa (In Vanda’s Room and Colossal Youth) were shot on video—(I think largely the choice was to give Costa economic freedom to make the films he wanted) and for Horse Money Costa is back using video. The big difference here is the quality is now HD. We no longer have the floating harsh pixels of his previous video shoots—this is much closer to the murky Vermeer or Rembrandt paintings
  • Costa starts with a montage of black and white photographs—again these are immigrants, vacant looks on their faces, surrounded by derelict buildings – he’s stating his thesis here
  • Like Fincher and Gordon Willis- do not try to see Costa’s work in the daylight (or even with a light on in the room)- these are gorgeously rendered photographs—there is no sunlight—it all seemingly happens underground. Costa will use a single spotlight to make almost like a natural iris on the frame… corridors and hallways
  • It is easily Costa’s strongest film to date aesthetically. 17 of his most 20 beautiful images to date in 2014 are from Horse Money (the shot at 9-minutes with the exposed brick is just one of a dozen or more)

It is easily Costa’s strongest film to date aesthetically. 17 of his most 20 beautiful images to date in 2014 are from Horse Money (the shot at 9-minutes with the exposed brick is just one of a dozen or more)

  • The shots in the hospital/clinic have a very sterile while contrast— Costa doesn’t stick with it but for a second I thought we were going to get the formal work of Weerasethakul – Weerasethakul uses the sterile white clinics to contrast with his freer jungle greens in Blissfully Yours, Syndromes and a Century
  • The change from the previous very unpretty photography in his previous two films to the crisp compositions here is just one change for Costa— this is a shorter film (103 minutes)- In Vanda’s Room and Colossal Youth are each an hour longer. Costa is no longer just listening in on ordinary conversations and observing. This is much more surreal and moody– less talky. This is staged melancholy with posing/staring (closer to Roy Andersson or Ming-liang Tsai).

this is the subject matter of the Dardenne brothers with a composition that would be from Kar-Wai Wong

  • Statues and artwork used throughout—with whispering in the voice-over (giving it a dream-like ethereal tone almost like Last Year and Marienbad)- this is the voice of Vitalina Varela
  • A great doorway shot at 19-minutes, another of Vitalina in close-up that is held
  • An immaculate dueling heads composition with yellow lights in the background at 25-minutes- this is a variation on Varda’s trademark La Pointe Courte or Bergman’s shot of faces blocking each other

An immaculate dueling heads composition with yellow lights in the background at 25-minutes- this is a variation on Varda’s trademark La Pointe Courte or Bergman’s shot of faces blocking each other

  • Stark backgrounds, shadows—this is more Dreyer’s Vampyr than docudrama with Blair Witch-like video images

Stark backgrounds, shadows—this is more Dreyer’s Vampyr than docudrama with Blair Witch-like blurry video images

  • Highly Recommend/Must-See border- the only reason the film isn’t stronger is a lengthy elevator scene near the end with a toy soldier that just about stops the film dead