Metaphors
The Body as Ornament
The Last Dive is a film of facets. By this, I mean that through a narrative consisting of events that take place over a single night, it transforms the concepts of loneliness, companionship, and, above all, physical expression into a feature film. These characteristics, marked by a veil of coincidences, guide an increasingly intimate discussion.
As intimacy intensifies, we gradually witness a degrading story of a Portugal that emphasizes local culture and the detail of being—or not being—someone in relation to another. In other words, Portugal is a character. That being so, how can a country be not only part of a narrative but also a faithful aggressor of such characters?
The Absence of Companionship
The point was never about companionship, because it does not exist. There are details that show how human beings may be searching not for solutions, but for pastimes. Elói is a failure as a person: he seeks the moment, the now, and even if it is sad—lived through a brief moment of pleasure—he is still seen as a man of honor, because he does what society as a whole judges to be success.
On the other hand, Samuel is someone in need of help and attention. Samuel reveals himself as different from Elói when he allows himself to be perceived as a person—definitively, this happens in Elói’s company. Therefore, opposite people meet in the contemplation of a relationship, in conversation, in companionship. But why does the film function as a metaphor?
The Dive
Before we move on to a phase increasingly “submerged” in metaphors, let us develop an even more niche point: the dive. On an ordinary night, there is the planning of a last dive, and we are not talking about death, but rather about an innocence that has been lost.
Samuel was not in control; he was in dexterity, fear, anguish… And amid carnal desires and drinks, Samuel does not feel present. I say this not from the idea that it is immoral, but rather from his openness to experiencing love, even if it is in its worst phase. Love is an opening that comes through liberation, but also through surrender; it is about imagining that, in a near future or not, there is a connection.
Samuel’s connection with that girl is not about intense love, but about the way feelings complemented one another: neediness, desire, and loneliness.
Farewell and Paradise
And finally, the metaphors. “The Last Dive” is a sentence of farewell. Through the title, we are offered a whole range of possibilities. It is about questioning one’s destiny, as Elói says: “your trip to paradise can wait.” But then, what is paradise?
Paradise is a concept of peace, which logically presupposes that life—the real, the tangible—is a punishment: you will receive your reward after suffering in life. But here enters the film’s most interesting question: in life, there was no punishment, only phases.
Samuel’s phase lasted one night, the same as Elói’s. It is as if individuality were increasingly divided and intensified according to each character’s point of view. It is a metaphor that considers the being as an individual and the divine as a mediator. Contrary to what religion states, paradise is not a reward, but, like life itself, a phase.
Dance as Freedom
With this, we enter one of the film’s most poetic moments: the dance. Dance is an abstraction of freedom. Beginning with Brazilian dance, sensuality emerges as a new character, a figure that intensifies other feelings—sensuality as a path to be followed.
Imagine a street: this street would be sensuality, and the traffic signs would be feelings. Therefore, sensuality does not cancel out other emotions, but is instead influenced by them. And through this, sadness carries traces of fear, loneliness… and this makes the film’s melancholy something more human, more capable of being perceived as real.
The Final Dance
And the dance does not end here; we go deeper: the final dance. The main metaphor lies in the delicacy of the movements. Gradually, the dance reveals the despair of each character; the dancer ceases to be merely a random person and becomes the entire cycle represented through movement.
What once represented sensuality quickly transforms into each character’s relationship with the night: imprisonment for Samuel; sensuality and neediness for the girls; and Elói’s harsh, aggressive, and sorrowful side. I emphasize that Elói is a character who lives within his own degradation.
Samuel still lived through a night—a night that could have been his last—but Elói’s night definitively ended.
The Metaphysical Resolution
Finally, we are presented with a film that imagines metaphors as a true representation of reality, a poetic license. In The Last Dive, that poetic license concludes in a metaphysical resolution.
Metaphysics becomes a monologue reflecting on abandonment, decadence, and the precision with which loneliness affects our entire cycle, acting as an invisible impact—one that we do not feel directly. And why is that? Because decadent feelings do not exist on their own.
No one feels decadent; instead, one coexists with decadence through other sensations. Suddenly, sadness becomes a comfort zone, fear becomes a caress… And the film reflects deeply on this: how living in decadence is a secondary part of the problem, which ultimately is a true way of living—sadness, loneliness, and decadence taking their final dive.
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