24/02/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: João Canijo’s take on a family drama feels claustrophobic and sombre, yet after it gets under your skin, that’s where it stays, for better or worse

Anabela Moreira and Madalena Almeida in Bad Living

Leo Tolstoy once wrote that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This could be an accurate tagline for João Canijo’s latest offering, Bad Living [+see also:
trailer
interview: João Canijo
film profile], even though the director says he was inspired by another great writer of the late 19^th and early 20^th century, August Strindberg. A contender in the Berlinale’s main competition, this family drama feels suffocating and is at times difficult to follow, as the five women whom the story revolves around discuss many private issues and past events. Some of the conversations are overheard from behind a door or from the corridor by Piedade (Anabela Moreira), who is a key figure in this emotional conundrum. Sometimes, the audience is put in a similar position, as the director has opted for a still camera, and some of the discussions take place outside the frame or at its very edge. This tool initially causes some confusion but is an effective strategy to forge a bond with Piedade and the rest of her toxic family. It’s also a way of conveying one of Bad Living’s core themes: the inability to have a direct, open and unbiased conversation.

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Together with her family, Piedade runs a hotel somewhere in Portugal, and it’s the only thing she cares about, besides her tiny dog, aptly named Alma (“Soul” in Portuguese). She is alienated from her mother Sara (Rita Blanco) and teenage daughter Salome (Madalena Almeida), who arrive at the hotel after her father’s passing. Piedade’s sister, Raquel (Cleia Almeida), and cousin Angela (Vera Barreto) complete the female quintet. It’s soon revealed that Piedade is a black sheep, of sorts, unable to connect to either her mother or her daughter. She is also blamed by Sara for being narcissistic and neurotic, but Sara, in turn, is closer to a Mommie Dearest-type figure than a “dear Mummy” one. The pretty, yet unprofitable, hotel serves as a metaphor for their emotional state.

As the story progresses, more and more painful facts and raw emotions come to light. It seems like the women can’t deal with the ambivalence of their own contradictory feelings and the feelings they have for each other. Stuck within one point of view, licking their old wounds in a kind of frenzy, they are unable to connect or move on. All five actresses do a great job, hitting all the right notes to make the audience understand their point, even if they might disagree with it.

Watching Canijo’s mature and emotionally charged film becomes a moving journey as the protagonists clash and the nature of their own unhappiness is revealed. Or maybe it’s just one version of it. The film is an experiment, in a way, since its “reverse” title, Living Bad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: João Canijo
film profile], by the same director, is being presented in the Encounters section of this very festival. Bad Living is focused on the family and provides a look at it from the inside, while the other title adopts on an external point of view on the same situation. After all, circumstances can make all the difference.

Bad Living is a Portuguese-French co-production, with Lisbon-based Midas Filmes serving as the producer and Parisian outfit Les Films de l’Après-Midi on board as the co-producer. The worldwide rights are held by Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency.

Photogallery 20/02/2023: Berlinale 2023 - Mal Viver

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João Canijo, Anabela Moreira, Rita Blanco, Madalena Almeida, Cléia Almeida, Vera Barreto
© 2023 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it