HARD TIMES

Original British 30 inch x 40 inch Quad Poster for the 1988 João Botelho Portuguese modern-day adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel HARD TIMES (TEMPOS DIFICEIS) starring Henrique Viana, Julia Britton, Eunice Muñoz and Luis Estrela.

Set in a strangely timeless Lisbon the film is constructed for the most part from static tableaux shot in stunning black-and-white by cinematographer Elso Roque, performed with a stylised detachment, and littered with intriguing, even startling narrative ellipses, it is serious but never solemn. Indeed, for all the personal tragedy on view, much of the film is very funny with Dickens’ eccentric text complemented by and contrasted with Roque’s starkly poetic images. It’s a tale of jealousy, robbery, and disillusionment; of stern, forbidding patriarchs, downtrodden wives and workers, and orphans making good, in a world both defined and confined by its unflinching commitment to facts as opposed to feelings. The film’s manifest intelligence and profound sense of irony knocks spots off most British literary adaptations, while simultaneously constituting a love letter to cinema itself.

The poster is in fine unfolded (rolled) condition