The shooting of the new film by director João Nicolau began last week in Castanheira de Pêra, with musician Salvador Sobral and actors Pedro Inês and Clara Riedenstein playing some of the main roles.
While on assignment, the Lusa news agency witnessed the first filming of “A Providência e a Guitarra” (Providence and the Guitar), which took place in Carriçal, a tiny village in that mountainous municipality in the north of the district of Leiria, whose cast at the time also included Beatriz Brás and Leonardo Garibaldi.
In the feature film, João Nicolau takes as his “starting point” the homonymous short story by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), born in Edinburgh, one of the most renowned British writers of the 19th century.
Set on the slopes of Carriçal, in the backyard of an old house restored by its new owners, the film is presented as “a dive into the hardships and delights of the artistic life and an exploration of its consequences” for marital and social relationships.
A couple of traveling artists, Léon (Pedro Inês) and Elvira Berthelini (Clara Riedenstein), who make their living performing in taverns and cafés, arrive in the town of Covarronca to put on their variety show.
In a plot marked by successive adventures, “a promising rock band [which] goes into decline due to personal and artistic differences” within the group.
In these adverse circumstances, the duo ends up meeting a young Cambridge University finalist, Stubbs (Salvador Sobral), who helps them find shelter. The role in “A Providência e a Guitarra” is the composer’s film debut.
“I always had this ‘bug’,” Salvador Sobral told Lusa, recalling that he once expressed this desire to João Nicolau, on an evening when they went with friends “for a drink in Lisbon’s Bairro Alto”.
That opportunity came later, when the director invited him to be in the new movie.
In 2017, Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Amar pelos Dois”, written by his sister Luísa Sobral, with the highest score ever in the contest.
“My participation has been a brutal shock of humility,” says the singer-songwriter.
The new experience “has nothing to do” with his work on stage or in the studio in recent years.
“I’m having a lot of fun. Here, I’m just another character who has to adapt to the greater good,” he explains on a terrace decorated with hydrangeas, taking advantage of a short break between two concerts, one in Spain on the 6th, the next in Valença today and another in Sines on the 24th.
In the role of Stubbs, ironically, “I don’t like music”, reveals Salvador Sobral, admitting that the director himself warned him during the recording of a scene: “You can’t react to music”.
Clara Riedenstein is also happy with the filming, which “has been going well”. She plays the role of Elvira Berthelini in another work by João Nicolau, “a movie about love and art”.
“It’s been interesting work and a lot of fun,” Clara told Lusa.
In “A Providência e a Guitarra”, Elvira and Léon Berthelini (Pedro Inês) “are completely different people, but very connected”, so much so that “the couple is a character” in itself, according to the actress.
“The love of art saves the art of love,” adds Pedro Inês, adding that the two “share a lot” and develop the action “in a certain bubble”.
“They balance each other out, but they’re the embodiment of this,” they’re “a perfect couple who go around trying to find a place to stay,” in the town of Covarronca, describes the actor. The trio Elvira, Léon and Stubbs question “where the role of art is in society”.
“This human impulse must continue to be exercised and built upon,” argues Pedro Inês.
Produced by O Som e a Fúria, the film has the support of the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, RTP and the municipality of Castanheira de Pera.
Shooting will continue until August 7th and will end in the Lisbon area.
