Pedro Costa at the 57th New York Film Festival. Photo by Godlis

Film Comment featured Pedro Costa’s magisterial Vitalina Varela—in theaters this week—on the cover of our January-February issue, along with an extensive interview with Costa by Jordan Cronk. We also had the pleasure of welcoming the Portuguese master as a guest on the Film Comment Podcast. To commemorate the release of what we called, “quite possibly the most beautiful film of 2020,” we asked the filmmaker, whose love of new wave and punk is evident from films like Colossal Youth to Ossos, to compile a playlist of the music that inspired his latest. He obliged and—along with a mix of opera, punk, electronic music, gospel, jazz, and Cape Verdean folk and funk—included the following note:

Dear Film Comment,

I can’t see a film before I start filming. I can’t imagine or dream or sketch a film. And music won’t help.

These songs relate to Vitalina or to the other films because they are songs I like.

Below, you have the songs in order.
Two are unheard and exclusive. They belong to a project I’m working on with Marcos Magalhães and the ensemble Os Músicos do Tejo, As Filhas do fogo (The Daughters of Fire):

“Ogne Pena più spietata” – Aria from the opera Lo frate ‘nnamorato, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Voice: Selma Uamusse
Os Músicos do Tejo, Direction: Marcos Magalhães and Marta Araújo.
Musical direction and adaptation: Marcos Magalhães

“On Suicide (Über den Selbstmord)” – Hans Eisler, Bertold Brecht
Voice: Elizabeth Pinard, Baroque guitar: Daniel Zapico
Musical direction and adaptation: Marcos Magalhães

Yours truly,
Pedro

1. “Alto Cutelo”– Os Tubarões
2. “It Will All Be Over” – The Supreme Jubilees
3. “Ogni pena più spietata” – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – Selma Uamusse, Os Músicos do Tejo
4. “Corre Riba, Corre Baxo” – Abel Lima e Les Sofas
5. “5 Violinos” – DJ Nigga Fox
6. “Blimundo” – Travadinha
7. “Pieces of a Man” – Gil Scott-Heron
8. “Stranger e um ilusão” – Os Tubarões
9. “Too High” – Stevie Wonder
10. “Lowdown” – Wire
11. “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” – Charles Mingus
12. “Über den Selbstmord (On Suicide)”– Hanns Eisler, Bertold Brecht – Elisabeth Pinard, Os Músicos do Tejo