A Cara que Mereces [La Gueule que tu mérites] 2004

Cast José Airosa, Gracinda Nave, Sara Graça, Miguel Barroso, João Nicolau, Ricardo Gross, Rui Catalão

Francisco, comporta-te! Bem sei que hoje fazes 30 anos, que é carnaval e que vestes de cowboy na festa do colégio, cercado por miúdos que detestas. Controla-te, rapaz…! Não vês que assim já não te aturam? E depois, como é que é? Partes a cabeça, vais para o hospital, ficas com sarampo e já não tens ninguém para tratar de ti… Como à Branca de Neve, davam-te jeito sete anões… Francisco, repete comigo: “Até aos trinta anos tens a cara que Deus te deu, depois tens a cara que mereces”.

"Francisco, comporte-toi bien ! Je sais que c'est ton anniversaire, que tu as trente ans maintenant, que c'est le carnaval et que tu t'es déguisé en cow-boy pour ta fête de l'école, que tu es entouré de gosses que tu hais… Mais ce n'est pas une raison pour tirer la gueule. Francisco, répète aprés moi : "Jusqu'à trente ans, tu as la gueule que Dieu t'a confiée. Après cela, tu as la gueule que tu mérites"". L'histoire d'un homme qui refuse de grandir : ses interrogations et ses doutes au sein d'un pays qui ne cesse de se moderniser.

"Until you turn 30, you have the face God gave you. After that, you have the face you deserve." The estranged musical comedy that is Gomes' first feature film seeks to convince its protagonist, Francisco, of that saying/dogma; precisely, during his thirtieth birthday. Or maybe it’s the complete opposite, and that Francisco who dresses up as a cowboy for the school play at the school where he teaches the children he detests, seeks to convince A cara que mereces of the fatality of the little phrase. But Francisco is a trick: he knows he deserves his face and his body because of him being intolerable. And A cara que mereces, hunted hunter, becomes a claustrophobic film that seeks to run away from Francisco using cinephilia as a way of escape; boarding, as Mark Peranson has observed, to the heart of Rivette, to the train (of dreams) of the recent Godard and, finally, to an impossible (but well-deserved) version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.