Intellect

Authors:  Paul Melo e Castro 
DOI: 10.1386/seci.6.2-3.179/1

Keywords
Belarmino, Fernando Lopes, Lisbon, 1960s, flânerie

Abstract
Taking Belarmino as a portrait of the atmosphere of Lisbon in the early 1960s rather than the cinebiography of the relatively minor sportsman Belarmino Fragoso, this article analyses how the protagonist's circulation by foot in the city is used to convey this ‘soggy grey ambiance’. Drawing on Bruno's ideas concerning film and flânerie, it is argued that by observing the protagonist's impoverished interaction with everyday urban space, with which struggle an explicit parallel with his career as a boxer is drawn, the viewer emotionally experiences the isolation and alienation of the protagonist. Supposed to stand as a metaphor for Lisbon and Portugal, this emotional access to the protagonist's plight permits Belarmino to stand, as the director wished, as a portrait of the city in a certain epoch of its history: ‘you look at Lisbon in the film and you see what Lisbon was like back then’ (Lopes).