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Lines of Wellington
Lines of Wellington
Directed by	Valeria Sarmiento
Written by	Carlos Saboga
Produced by	Paulo Branco
Starring	Nuno Lopes; Soraia Chaves; Marisa Paredes; John Malkovich; Carloto Cotta
Cinematography	André Szankowski
Edited by	Valeria Sarmiento; Luca Alverdi
Music by	Jorge Arriagada
Production; company	Alfama Films
Release dates	4 September 2012 (Venice Film Festival); 4 October 2012 (Portugal);
Running time	151 minutes
Countries	Portugal; France
Languages	Portuguese; French; English

Lines of Wellington (Portuguese: Linhas de Wellington) is a 2012 Franco-Portuguese epic war film and television series prepared by Chilean director Raúl Ruiz and completed by his widow Valeria Sarmiento. Its title refers to the historical Lines of Torres Vedras.

The film was in competition for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.^[1] It was also shown at the 2012 San Sebastián International Film Festival,^[2] the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival^[3] and the 2012 New York Film Festival.^[4] The film was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards,^[5] but it was not nominated.

Plot

In the autumn of 1810, the French forces of Marshal Masséna are invading Portugal and are temporarily halted by the Anglo-Portuguese army under Viscount Wellington at the Battle of Bussaco. As a bitter winter approaches, Wellington withdraws his troops towards the fortifications he has prepared in secret at the Lines of Torres Vedras. Using a scorched earth defence, he forces the inhabitants to evacuate the land in front of the Lines and destroys all supplies which could be useful to the French. The film illustrates these dramatic events by a series of vignettes which show the effects on combatants, both regular soldiers and guerrillas, and on the civilian population.

Cast

John Malkovich as General Wellington
Soraia Chaves as Martírio
Vincent Pérez as Lévêque
Marisa Paredes as Dona Filipa
Melvil Poupaud as Marshal Massena
Mathieu Amalric as General Marbot
Elsa Zylberstein as Sister Irmã Cordélia
Christian Vadim as Marshal Soult
Ricardo Pereira
Carloto Cotta as Pedro de Alencar
Nuno Lopes as Francisco Xavier
Jemima West as Maureen
Catherine Deneuve as Severina
Isabelle Huppert as Cosima Pia
Malik Zidi as Octave Ségur
Chiara Mastroianni as Hussardo
Michel Piccoli as Leópold Scheitzer
Victoria Guerra as Clarissa
Maria João Bastos as Maria de Jesus
Marcello Urgeghe as Jonathan Foster
José Afonso Pimentel as Zé Maria

Reception

Jaime N. Christley of Slant Magazine wrote "Dull but never dreary, Lines of Wellington was one of the projects in Raúl Ruiz's pipeline before he passed away last year".^[6]

According to Xan Brooks of The Guardian "This epic historical pageant 'conceived by' the late director Raoul Ruiz won't win the top prize in Venice, but it's full of life"^[7]

References

^ "Venezia 69". labiennale.org. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
^ "Zabaltegi Specials". sansebastianfestival.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
^ "Programmer's Note". tiff.net. Archived from the original on 19 August 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
^ "2012 New York Film Festival Line-Up Announced". collider.com. 16 August 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
^ "Melhor Film Português aos Oscars". Academia Portuguesa de Cinema. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
^ Christley, Jaime N. (27 September 2017). "Review: Lines of Wellington". Slant Magazine.
^ Brooks, Xan (4 September 2012). "Linhas de Wellington – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2021.