Rating: 
Summary: A Bizarre Tale of Obsession and De Clerambault's Syndrome
Review: In 2000, João Pedro Rodrigues directed and co-wrote a dark and unusual film entitled "O Fantasma" ("Phantom" in English). The film's protagonist is a young man named Sérgio (Ricardo Meneses), who works as a garbage collector in Lisbon, Portugal usually during the predawn hours. Sérgio lives alone and has very few friends (which are mostly his coworkers), but identifies with a dog named Lorde. He is also obsessed with having casual, gratuitous sex with anonymous men, which never seems to satisfy him. One morning, while collecting trash from a private home, Sérgio meets a very attractive and muscular man named João (André Barbosa) working on his motorcycle and is immediately attracted to him. Unfortunately, João, who lives with his mother (Maria Paola Porru), becomes the object of obsession for Sérgio, who begins to unrepentantly stalk him. This and several other actions by Sérgio are symptoms of a mental disorder known as De Clerambault's Syndrome, which causes Sérgio to enter an increasingly delusional, animalistic and predatory state of mind.Filmed mostly at night, the cinematography in "O Fantasma" is usually dark, colorless and surreal. This adds to the feelings of inner darkness and loneliness that Sérgio experiences as his obsessions slowly destroy his ability to interact with others and transforms him into the anonymous, shadowy phantom wearing a tight, black, all-encompassing costume like a comic book antihero. Other memorable characters in the film include Sérgio's coworker Fátima (Beatriz Torcata), his boss Virgilio (Enrico Vieira), Mário (Joaquim Oliveira), Matos (Florindo Lourenço) and the two police officers (Jorge Almeida and João Rui Guerra da Mata, who also did the art direction and costume design in the film). Overall, I rate "O Fantasma" with 4 out of 5 stars. Clearly, the film isn't for everyone, but it was directed and acted well.
Rating:
Summary: A Bizarre Tale of Obsession and De Clerambault's Syndrome
Review: In 2000, João Pedro Rodrigues directed and co-wrote a dark and unusual film entitled "O Fantasma" ("Phantom" in English). The film's protagonist is a young man named Sérgio (Ricardo Meneses), who works as a garbage collector in Lisbon, Portugal usually during the predawn hours. Sérgio lives alone and has very few friends (which are mostly his coworkers), but identifies with a dog named Lorde. He is also obsessed with having casual, gratuitous sex with anonymous men, which never seems to satisfy him. One morning, while collecting trash from a private home, Sérgio meets a very attractive and muscular man named João (André Barbosa) working on his motorcycle and is immediately attracted to him. Unfortunately, João, who lives with his mother (Maria Paola Porru), becomes the object of obsession for Sérgio, who begins to unrepentantly stalk him. This and several other actions by Sérgio are symptoms of a mental disorder known as De Clerambault's Syndrome, which causes Sérgio to enter an increasingly delusional, animalistic and predatory state of mind. Filmed mostly at night, the cinematography in "O Fantasma" is usually dark, colorless and surreal. This adds to the feelings of inner darkness and loneliness that Sérgio experiences as his obsessions slowly destroy his ability to interact with others and transforms him into the anonymous, shadowy phantom wearing a tight, black, all-encompassing costume like a comic book antihero. Other memorable characters in the film include Sérgio's coworker Fátima (Beatriz Torcata), his boss Virgilio (Enrico Vieira), Mário (Joaquim Oliveira), Matos (Florindo Lourenço) and the two police officers (Jorge Almeida and João Rui Guerra da Mata, who also did the art direction and costume design in the film). Overall, I rate "O Fantasma" with 4 out of 5 stars. Clearly, the film isn't for everyone, but it was directed and acted well.
Rating: 
Summary: Sergio is the reason to buy this DVD
Review: No matter how you look at, the reason to buy "O Fantasma" is the actor play sexy Sergio. Yes the story is a downer, if well photographed. Sergio's character seems to be slowly going insane,
from loner to crazy. But, you do not come across many actors in gay flicks who were born to play a role and are flat out sex personified. The star of "O Fantasma" fits the bill on both counts. Ironically, the director in his commentary talks about the star wanting to appear in his next movie, but he was not right for any of the parts and went back to his small village to live. What a shame, because he is the only real reason that this film was even released in the U.S.=== albeit a very good reason.
Rating: 
Summary: O Fantasma
Review: Normally, I have a higher tolerance for "art-house" movies than most people, but "O Fantasma" was just too bizarre. And let's face it, folks: this is just a fancy, high-class porn -- a really messed-up one at that. It's just one sexually explicit scene after another without much of a story or dialogues, and what starts off as a weird, disturbing movie eventually becomes downright creepy. And what's up with the last 15 minutes of the film? I just found myself uttering "what the...?" over and over again. Also, much has been made of the fact that the movie is almost entirely filmed at night, but I found that rather annoying. It was like looking through a series of under-exposed photographs and my eyes are still hurting from squinting so much. It was "intriguing" though, to say the least. I'll give it that much.
Rating:
Summary: A Bizarre yet Uniquely Pungent View of Obsession
Review: O FANTASMA is not a movie for the casual audience. This dark and seamy vision of sexual confusion is almost unremittingly harrowing, but director Joao Pedro Rodriques drives his vision of a young lad (who lives on the periphery of society and longs to be wanted and loved, even in the 'forbidden world' of same sex attraction) from reality to surreality. Metaphors abound: the hero works in garbage disposal on the night shift - a stance that sums up the world's view of his persona. Apparently the actor Ricardo Meneses was selected for the lead simply on the basis of his presence and his animal appeal. This is a rich performance of a boy with an approach/avoidance to his sexuality and Meneses is unafraid to bear it all in his portrayal of passion on the edge. The drive for sexual gratification is dark, sensuous, and bordering on dangerous. His eventual transformation as a 'comic book-like' predator seems natural in the way both director and actor drive this story to its inevitable ending. The film is VERY dark photographically (it is afterall intended to be a night drama) and while this technique matches the message, it is difficult at times to visualize the action. The noisy musical scoring becomes almost unbearable at times. But despite these reservations O FANTASMA suggests the debut of a remarkable diretorial talent and certainly gives heed to a major screen presence in Ricardo Meneses! Not for everyone, but for those with an eye for something original then try this little film. In Portuguese with subtitles.
Rating:
Summary: powerful and uncompromising
Review: Portuguese director Joao Pedro Rodriguez has created a film of austere beauty and sinewy power, dark and brooding like its striking protagonist. Ricardo Meneses, as the sensual, very sexual Sergio, gives a truly astonishing performance - especially considering his youth and inexperience, the nature of the material, and that this was his first and, I'm sorry to say, only film. Sergio is a lithe, muscular young garbage collector working the graveyard shift in Lisbon, but all we see of the city are its fringes. He roams forsaken moonscapes (the dumping grounds), jungle-like parks, forsaken roads. Sergio's compulsions and the force of his lust are reflected in these primitive terrains, and manifested in the increasing aberrance of his sexual behavior. The action takes place almost entirely indoors, or outside in darkness and shadow. There is, symbolically, only one moment of sunlight in the entire film when a magnificent Sergio stands, his lean body beautifully and boldly bare, on the roof of his pensione.
Ricardo Meneses, who was born to play this extraordinary part, is sensuous, narcissistic, exhibitionistic, and profoundly sexy. Mr. Rodriguez draws us into Sergio's life like voyeurs as the camera follows him, drinking in his flawless feline form as he showers, swims, admires and touches himself, prowls his habitat, has sex (with his girlfriend, his lover, his boss, a policeman, tricks), and stalks a handsome swimmer with whom he becomes obsessed. It is this last ephemeral human connection - one awkward gesture towards a world with sun - that dooms the boy. Sergio quietly asks his paramour for help and is coldly rebuffed. He becomes ever more animalistic, spiraling unremittingly downward. The tragedy which ensues is startling and seductive, like Sergio himself.
Rating: 
Summary: Good first 20 minutes then falls way flat.
Review: Saw this at the theater. First twenty minutes is exciting and the storyline seems like it would go somewhere. However, after that it's just a waste of time. I mean c'mon the guy ends up drinking leachate from a landfill and eating almost composted fruit? Something really went awry for the filmmaker.
Rating:
Summary: How did it get financing?
Review: The first hour of this film is truly dull, with only a few bright spots. This is one you definitely want to watch on fast-forward unless you have an extremely high threshold for boredom. As we visit - unfortunately - every detail of a garbageman's workday existence we do have the few bright spots contributed by his reluctant object of lust that he encounters on his route.
When the most excitement you get is wondering how the garbage service differs from the one offered within your own geography, you're in trouble with the film. But the lead character is so empty, and the other characters one or two dimensional at best, so everyone and everything is an oddity. And the commentary track reveals there is SUPPOSED to be a dreamlike quality to the story. But the is-this-a-fantasy element passed me by. Surreal, evidently, for those looking for it, but ultimately uneven, unrealized, dull, and boring. It's amazing this was financed at all.
Rating:
Summary: How did it get financing?
Review: The first hour of this film is truly dull, with only a few bright spots. This is one you definitely want to watch on fast-forward unless you have an extremely high threshold for boredom. As we visit - unfortunately - every detail of a garbageman's workday existence we do have the few bright spots contributed by his reluctant object of lust that he encounters on his route.
When the most excitement you get is wondering how the garbage service differs from the one offered within your own geography, you're in trouble with the film. But the lead character is so empty, and the other characters one or two dimensional at best, so everyone and everything is an oddity. And the commentary track reveals there is SUPPOSED to be a dreamlike quality to the story. But the is-this-a-fantasy element passed me by. Surreal, evidently, for those looking for it, but ultimately uneven, unrealized, dull, and boring. It's amazing this was financed at all.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: The movie is darkly explicit. It's weird sex, little dialogue, alienation, and a truly interesting character study. The main character, Sergio, becomes less and less a person, more a latex-clad animal. It's engaging, very visceral. The scenes of Lisbon at night are beautifully photographed, and support the tone of the story.
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