Manoel de Oliveira

The town of Oporto, each scene followed by a glimpse of the work of the water colourist Antonio Cruz.Read More »

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Inasmuch as Manoel de Oliveira’s films convey what Randal Johnson describes as a cinematic hybridity that illustrates the amorphous nature of representation, No, or the Vain Glory of Command also reflects a temporal hybridity, where time is presented as a conflation of seemingly arbitrary, but integrally connected history. Opening to a long take of a large ancient tree shot from a moving camera platform in the African wilderness, the correlation between enduring image and its representation through a constantly shifting point of view also serves as a contemporary metaphor for Portuguese history itself, where its consequences continue to be re-evaluated through the shifting perspective of an increasingly marginalized legacy. Read More »

In this artful film by 85-year old director Manoel de Oliveira, the heroine, instead of being powerless in the face of a world ruled by men, finds herself to be far too powerful. Beginning when she was a child, Ema (Leonor Silveira as an adult) had the kind of looks and manner that could stop cars when she came up to a street — or cause accidents. As time goes by, she explores her power over men and, as a mature woman, chooses to marry a man who has virtually no machismo so that she can continue having affairs and exploring this mysterious ability of hers. Eventually she seeks to transcend her unusual limitation and accomplishes her death with astonishing serenity. This haunting story is based on a novel by Agustina Bessa-Luis.Read More »

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Ignoring the alarmed advice of his noblemen and counselors, young King Sebastian fuels his religious obsession to go to war with the Muslims. They warn that Portugal can’t afford it, but he brushes them off. Even his mother, Queen Catarina, cannot sway his fervor to fight the infidels, expand his kingdom and achieve glory. A mysterious figure called the Holy Cobbler challenges his fanatical ideas, calling down ghostly voices to talk to him. But he is no wiser the next morning.Read More »

A docu-drama that follows Manoel de Oliveira’s life during the times of dictatorship in Portugal.

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73-year-old De Oliveira decides to make a personal movie that his audience will only know once heis dead. In 1982, the director takes the decision to make a movie about (and in) his (ex) house, in which he lived for over 40 years. The initial still shot is held for a long while with the presence oftrees in the garden of his house in Oporto. De Oliveira himself introduces the film and speaks all the credits out. The voices of a man and a woman guide us for most of the first part, in a sort of preliminary and formal tour around the totality of the house. They remain out of frame and the camera perspective is not necessarily theirs.Read More »

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In this artful film by 85-year old director Manoel de Oliveira, the heroine, instead of being powerless in the face of a world ruled by men, finds herself to be far too powerful. Beginning when she was a child, Ema (Leonor Silveira as an adult) had the kind of looks and manner that could stop cars when she came up to a street — or cause accidents. As time goes by, she explores her power over men and, as a mature woman, chooses to marry a man who has virtually no machismo so that she can continue having affairs and exploring this mysterious ability of hers. Eventually she seeks to transcend her unusual limitation and accomplishes her death with astonishing serenity. This haunting story is based on a novel by Agustina Bessa-Luis.Read More »

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I’m Going Home (French: Je rentre à la maison, Portuguese: Vou Para Casa) is a 2001 French-Portuguese film written and directed by Manoel de Oliveira.

Gilbert Valence (Michel Piccoli) is a grand old theatre actor who receives the shocking news that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have been killed in a car accident. As time passes, Valence busies himself with his daily life in Paris, turning down unsuitable roles in low-brow television productions and looking after his 9-year-old grandson. When an American filmmaker (John Malkovich) miscasts him in an ill-conceived adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Valence finds himself compelled to make a decision about his life.Read More »

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Inquietude, also known as Anxiety, is a movie in three parts; a one-act play, a short story, and a fable, bringing them all together brilliantly. It may seem talky at first, but there is some genuine thought going on behind the talk, and some of the images are gorgeous.Read More »

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A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.Read More »