Pedro Costa’s latest film, “Horse Money” (Cavalo Dinheiro, 2014), is ever more austere, stripped down. His ancient avatar from earlier films, the hypnotically present Ventura, is caught in a lifetime’s workings of dream, a ghost bumping through memory elongated into moment and collapsed onto another. The look is penumbra beneath penumbra atop cloacal darks, the fissures of post-colonial Portugal literalized but resistant to interpretation beyond gorgeous, obstinate portraiture. Tableau succeeds tableau, connections elided, meaning elusive. There is poetry and there is impatience. There are silences. 105m. (Ray Pride)
“Horse Money” opens Friday, January 8 at Siskel. The U.S. trailer is below.
