Journey to the Beginning of the World

Released Oct 6, 1997

1h 35m

Biography

Drama

List

67%

Tomatometer

6 Reviews

76%

Audience Score

100+ Ratings

Manoel (Marcello Mastroianni), an aging film director, takes a road trip across Portugal with his actors, Afonso (Jean-Yves Gautier), Judite (Leonor Silveira) and Duarte (Diogo Doria). Along the way, he points out various spots of personal importance. However, the trip is really for the benefit of Afonso, who is part-Portuguese, and who feels compelled to visit his aunt Maria (Isabel de Castro) in a remote village. But bonding will be tough, since Maria is skeptical of outsiders.

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Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

A lovely look at memories, the past, and endings. It's slightly talky, but beautifully autumnal, oddly relaxing and very moving.

May 26, 2006

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 4/5

Jun 11, 2005

Full Review

Scott Von Doviak

Film Threat

A motivational speech disguised as a travelogue - a cross-country Chicken Soup for the Soul

Sep 26, 2001

Full Review

Rachel Sanders

Apollo Guide

Rated: 70/100

Sep 24, 2001

Full Review

Peter Henne

Film Journal International

An unrushed journey, a loose summing up but not a dreary final testament, through a director's history, conducted by the filmmaker himself.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Harvey S. Karten

Compuserve

Rated: 6/10

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

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Audience Member

Hillarious movie about the memories, to which the Road movie Aesthetics gives even more beauty. It's genuine when even in real life old man rememebers his childhood, and in cinema it's even more genuine if This man is Marcello Mastroaianni , and he does such thing in such beutiful way like it's here, during stoping at various places from his past and especially at Outside the Hotel . It's very much like Ceylans "Once upon a time in Anatolia" but , in "Anatolia" melancholic style of memory retelling drives characters to Change lives, while here memories stay as they were and don't make much difference to present lives of heores. On the other hand here we also face the arrival to the roots , Like Afonso does when he arrives to his fathers village to Portugal to meet his aunt and also it's another clash of memories to reality, this time memories of Afonso's father. The best detail in this film I think was statue of pedro macau, man with huge log on his shoulders, and in my opinion it defines life, shows that anyone on the planet is Pedro Macau his own, and all of us has to carry such heavy load and no one can help us, it's ourselves and only ourselves who can deal with the difficulties of our lives, and the memories itself, which can be good or bad, are the part of that heavy load too. Beautiful , relaxing and thoughtful movie which I think is one of the most underrrated films I have ever seen. For me it's one of the best of 90's.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

Fascinant rÃ (C)cit des origines et de cinÃ (C)ma.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Almost painfully simple in construction but with depth beyond comprehension. Apparently the most interesting thing about film director Manoel de Oliveira is his age (Yes, he's 101 and named the oldest working film director). When people remember this great director for his age, his films seem to get forgotten. Journey to the Beginning of the World is a film that feel like it could only have come from a person who has spent (at the time it was made) almost a century on this earth. Veteran actor Marcello Mastroianni plays the director Manoel in a journey across Portugal as the director recalls his childhood and french actor Afonso searches for the small country town where his father grew up and the aunt he's never met still lives. A poetic musing on nostalgia, fading childhoods memories and lost heritage. Words can't quite do the films subtle majestic power any justice at all.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good film, especially notable for being Mastroianni's last film. Oliveira succeeds with this one.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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Audience Member

the last Mastroianni's appearance in a film before his death, and what an honnour it should have been for Manoel de Oliveira, and even the other way around. two masters of the cinema, working together, for the first and last time. Oliveira has a very reflective style in directing his films for what i've noticed. they're very slow paced, the lines are indirect and somehow poetic, and sometimes the characters speak to themselves and even for the camera. This Voyage isn't a masterpiece, its more like a life thought.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

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Manoel de Oliveira

Director

Marcello Mastroianni

Manoel

Jean-Yves Gautier

Afonso

Leonor Silveira

Judite

Diogo Doria

Duarte

Isabel de Castro

Maria Afonso

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Synopsis

Manoel (Marcello Mastroianni), an aging film director, takes a road trip across Portugal with his actors, Afonso (Jean-Yves Gautier), Judite (Leonor Silveira) and Duarte (Diogo Doria). Along the way, he points out various spots of personal importance. However, the trip is really for the benefit of Afonso, who is part-Portuguese, and who feels compelled to visit his aunt Maria (Isabel de Castro) in a remote village. But bonding will be tough, since Maria is skeptical of outsiders.

Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Screenwriter: Manoel de Oliveira, Jacques Parsi
Distributor: Strand Releasing
Genre: Biography, Drama
Original Language: Portuguese
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 6, 1997, Original
Release Date (DVD): Apr 18, 2000
Box Office (Gross USA): $24.6K
Runtime: 1h 35m
Sound Mix: Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 35mm