“SLIDING DOORS” 1998 | 1h39’ [US/UK] | CINEMA QUOTING CNMA II Cinema Screenings

Conversas com Cinema© PROSA

Ciclo CINEMA QUOTING CINEMA II

[CINEMA QUOTING CINEMA II Cinema Screenings] Curadoria de Alexandre Braga

“SLIDING DOORS” 1998 \| 1h39’ \[US/UK\] (Instantes Decisivos - PT) De Peter Howitt

Sábado Dia 26/09 às 19h30 [Saturday 09/26 at 7:30pm]

Após enfrentar vários reveses pessoais e profissionais, uma mulher vê a sua vida desdobrar-se numa realidade alternativa. *After personal and professional setbacks, a woman experiences an alternate reality.*

Spoken in English \| Subtitled in Portuguese

[IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120148/) [Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da-Mizk86AE)

Mais info e reservas: More info and reservations: [https://prosacultural.org/cinema/cinemaquotingcinema2](https://prosacultural.org/cinema/cinemaquotingcinema2)

Some films remain in our memory because of the power of their images. Others endure because they continue to reappear, discreetly, within new films. Since its very beginnings, cinema has been an art built upon memory: it quotes, transforms, revisits, and recreates. Every new work establishes a silent dialogue with those that came before it.

This idea lies at the heart of CINEMA QUOTING CINEMA, a film series dedicated to exploring the invisible connections that link different cinematic works. Rather than simply identifying influences, our aim is to understand how certain ideas travel through time, are reinterpreted, and return in new forms. Cinema thus becomes an ongoing conversation between images, filmmakers, and different historical moments. In this second edition, we bring together Blind Chance (1987), directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Sliding Doors (1998), directed by Peter Howitt. Although separated by more than a decade, both films begin with the same question: to what extent can a single moment alter the course of a life?

In Blind Chance, Kieślowski follows Witek, a young medical student running to catch a train. From this seemingly insignificant gesture, the film unfolds into three different narratives, revealing how chance can lead to radically different destinies. More than a formal experiment, the Polish filmmaker creates a profound reflection on freedom, individual responsibility, and the influence of historical circumstances on human choices.

Eleven years later, Sliding Doors revisits a remarkably similar narrative structure to tell the story of Helen, a woman whose life splits into two parallel possibilities depending on whether she misses or catches a London Underground train. Peter Howitt transforms Kieślowski's philosophical inquiry into a more accessible narrative while preserving its essential question: are we truly the authors of our own destiny, or do our lives simply unfold through an unpredictable sequence of events?

By bringing these two films into conversation, this cycle invites us to think of cinema as a space of continuous rewriting. It is not merely a matter of recognising narrative similarities, but of understanding how an idea can travel across different cultures, geographies, and artistic sensibilities, generating new interpretations and new meanings. Perhaps this movement reveals one of cinema's most fascinating qualities: its ability to return repeatedly to the same fundamental questions, while allowing each era to discover entirely different answers.

(Curatorship by Alexandre Braga)

All Cinema PROSA films will be shown on an illuminated pixel (65’’ QLED screen) in a room with a maximum capacity of 24 spectators.

Come and have a glass of wine or a non-alcoholic drink in the cinema room with us!