The Courtyard of the Ballads

A courtyard in Lisbon. In the houses around it everyone is in everyone else's business. Evaristo and Narciso have been squabbling for years, and their fights are the courtyard's entertainment. Two of the young people there are in love, and the families' feud gets in between them. New arrivals, gossip, wedding preparations, and songs every evening. The film does not tell a large story; it tells the noise a neighbourhood makes among itself. Francisco Ribeiro directs the Portuguese comedy; two hours and five minutes, with António Silva as Evaristo and Vasco Santana as Narciso. It was made in 1942 and is one of the best known films in Portugal; it was remade in 2015.