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It’s not a secret that if you can do it, filming projects simultaneously or even back-to-back in a location, or with the same cast, can save production money. It was attempted, not completely successfully, with Superman and Superman II. It was successfully achieved with Back to Future Part II and Part III, and, of course, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Plenty of television is filmed in blocks to save on costs, usually two episodes, though sometimes an entire season will be filmed out of order to reduce cost, like the first season of Severance. Last year, Ti West made a splash with the dual release of X and Pearl, both starring Mia Goth and set in the same primary location. Unlike the other projects mentioned, X and Pearl are films with independent film budgets. I think this model is a great model for independent filmmaking because it is so hard to finance a film, but if you can sell the producers on the two films instead, that seems like it should make it easier. Whether it was an easier sell or not, that is what João Canijo did with Mal Viver (Bad Living) and Viver Mal (Living Bad), both of which are having their World Premieres at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).
Mal Viver follows the five women that run a hotel in Portugal. The drama kicks off when Salomé (played by Madalena Almeida) arrives at the invite of Sara (played by Rita Blanco), without Salomé’s mother Piedade (played by Anabela Moreira) knowing of her arrival. Salomé is grieving the recent death of her father, and Piedade suffers from some type of mental health issue, which all the other women around are quick to armchair diagnose, but not actually address. Very quickly, we can see their relationship is strained. Salomé and Piedade alternate being cold and trying to let each other in, but Piedade’s affections are restrained, except when bestowed on her beloved dog, Alma (it’s indicated this is not the first Alma).
The film does a good job of establishing the long-standing relationship between these women, but also that Salomé has been absent for a while during the dinner scene. A scene that starts with tension, shifts to mild ribbing, then lands right back in tension. You leave this scene knowing these women are all family, whether they are all blood relations or not. Fitting as the meal they are eating, as they work, is service is referred to as “family dinner.”
The paired films enrich each other when viewed together, adding additional context between scenes, but can be viewed independently without the feeling of missing something. In fact, the framing and focus of each film is done in such a way as to create a further divide between the two motifs. While the guests occasionally are on screen in this film, they are rarely the focus, and one of the few times they are, the conversation taking place between Elisa (played by Leonor Silveira) and Graça (played by Lia Carvalho) seems like the words that Piedade and Salomé are unable to voice to each other.
Like any large festival, Berlinale is broken up into sections, Mal Viver is in the Competition section where it will compete for the Golden Bear for Best Film.
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