Lisbon Story

Philip Winter, a sound engineer, receives a postcard from Friedrich Munro inviting him to Lisbon to record sounds for his forthcoming film. The invitation frames the city’s noises as the core of the project. Winter contemplates how sound might shape cinema as much as images.

Winter arrives in Lisbon and goes to Friedrich's house, only to find it filled with editing equipment and reels, while the director is absent. The scene suggests a project in limbo and a director who has vanished. Local children who have worked with Friedrich hint that he will return, but cannot say when.

With Friedrich missing, Winter launches a street-by-street search through the city to locate the director. He follows clues he finds in houses, studios, and conversations, tracking the arc of Friedrich's recent work. The quest reveals Winter's quiet determination to complete the film on his own terms.

Winter experiments with an early hand-cranked motion picture camera, attempting to document Lisbon in a raw, unmediated way. He speaks of 'pretending that the whole history of cinema had never happened' as he runs film through the device. The effort highlights the tension between old techniques and the new urges for unseen imagery.

Friedrich's motive becomes clear: he wants to capture the 'unseen image' of the city, one that is not shaped by a filmmaker's point of view. He aims to present something that can be shown to no one, so the source of the photo does not 'die' with the viewer. Winter listens, torn between documentary ambition and this radical notion.

To realize the unseen image, Friedrich imagines strapped-on or concealed cameras—rolling on his back or placed in holes-cut bags—that would film without a conventional, aimed gaze. The idea embodies a radical rejection of typical spectatorship. The setting centers on Lisbon as his obsession with the city drives the experiment.

While Friedrich pursues the unseen image, Winter leans into sound as his principal medium, recording the city’s ambience and voices. His focus on auditory texture contrasts with Friedrich’s visual experiment. The divergent approaches set the stage for a future collaboration rather than separation.

The film features appearances by the Portuguese folk group Madredeus and by filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, anchoring the story in its Portuguese cultural context. Their cameos underscore the fusion of cinema, music, and reality. These elements blur the line between documentary-like observation and fiction.

As the pursuit progresses, Winter records a sound message for Friedrich, hoping to reconnect and coax him back to the project. The message serves as a bridge between their separate visions and hints at a shared path forward. The moment concentrates the emotional core of their collaboration.

Winter and Friedrich finally meet and acknowledge the value of combining the old camera with sound to realize the unseen image together. They decide to pursue the original project afresh, but now with a hybrid approach. The reunion signals a hopeful turn for their film within a film.

Friedrich explains his discomfort with the commercialization of images, which motivates his pursuit of an unseen image beyond market-driven viewing. He questions what cinema means when images are commodified for mass audiences. The exchange clarifies his artistic stance and the film’s critique of media culture.

Lisbon Story blends fiction with semi-non-fictional elements, including real-life figures and cultural cameos that ground the story in Lisbon. The meta-cinematic approach mirrors its themes about seeing, listening, and the circulation of images. The film’s structure mirrors Friedrich’s pursuit of an image that cannot be simply watched.