2015 was yet another strong year for movies, so much so that we had over 100 films submitted by our numerous contributors for consideration. In the end, these are the 30 that made the cut for PopOptiq’s Best of the Year. Enjoy! 30.) Shaun the Sheep Aardman Studios is the stop-motion clay animation equivalent …
In spite of its seemingly monumental ambitions, Miguel Gomes’s Arabian Nights has never been in danger of being weighed down by pretensions. From the opening minutes of Volume One, Gomes has maintained an effervescent tone, albeit one tamed somewhat in the darker Volume Two. Even there, Arabian Nights keeps its focus on its main subject: the Portuguese people, and the ways in which they’ve felt the impact of austerity. As such, Gomes’s film always true to itself and never seems to stray from the director’s vision.
After a joyous, energetic opening, the second installment of Miguel Gomes’s Arabian Nights, subtitled The Desolate One, takes a turn, appropriate to its title, for the darker. The humor which makes the opening such a blast certainly hasn’t entirely disappeared, but it’s become more subdued, and at times even cruel.
As each separate volume stresses in its title sequence, this is not an adaptation of the original book Arabian Nights. While it’s not a surefire adaptation, Miguel Gomes’ series certainly takes a lot from it, including the structure (which the films admit to) and the lead character of Scheherazade.
From a simplistic description, Miguel Gomes’s film Arabian Nights could sound unbearably self-important. Taking its name from a foundational collection of folk literature and running at a total of over six hours, the film almost sounds like a parody of arthouse excess. Add in the political goals of depicting life in contemporary Portugal under the pain of its economic collapse, and the mere concept of the film threatens to implode in self-seriousness.
Arabian Nights Directed by John Rawlins Starring Jon Hall, Maria Montez, and Sabu USA, 86 min – 1942. Part of a series of exotic pictures released by Universal in the 1940s (the others of which include Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and White Savage), Arabian Nights places the Hollywood spin on the classic tale …