The fascinating new film from Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, “Grand Tour,” has been called a travelogue because it features the sights and sounds of several Far Eastern countries, but a study in contrasts is a more accurate description. 

With a narrative about a British colonial administrator fleeing a reunion with his fiancée in 1918, the picture is not only a period piece but an ethnographic portrait of the East using contemporary footage. Portuguese actors don’t just play British characters but speak Portuguese as well, while voiceover narration in different Eastern languages relates the peripatetic tale. Scenes in color pop in now and then, variegating the mainly black-and-white cinematography. Plus, the film is cleaved in two when the initial focus on the bounder is juxtaposed with a second half centered on the determined bride-to-be.