Three by Manoel de Oliveira
Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira was, like his movies, something of a miracle. Born in 1908, he directed well into his hundreds, weaving beguiling tales around melancholic romances, the mysteries of mortality, and the conjuring act of cinema itself. Cherry-picking from Portugal’s rich literary tradition, he brought sly unpredictability and modernist elegance to each film’s storytelling, and shot with luminous painterly textures that today confirm him as a genuine leading light in digital filmmaking. This trio of films—all released after he was 100, but as enchanting and inventive as ever—show Oliveira’s talent for mining deep implications from thorny premises, sometimes with a sting in the tail.
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The Strange Case of Angelica
Directed by Manoel de Oliveira | 97 mins | 2010
When a photographer is asked by a grieving family to shoot a funeral portrait of their deceased daughter, she miraculously appears to come alive. So begins a typically enchanting and richly detailed ghost story from Oliveira—one of his masterpieces,... -
Gebo and the Shadow
Directed by Manoel de Oliveira | 95 mins | 2012
Oliveira’s triumphant swansong turns a family dinner into a percolating drama of mortality and morality as a bookkeeper and his wife reckon with their estranged son’s thievery. The cast is a roster of arthouse legends: Michael Lonsdale as the aging ... -
Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl
Directed by Manoel de Oliveira | 63 mins | 2009
In Oliveira’s rueful romantic tale, an accountant grows obsessed with a formidable young woman he spots in a window across the street, and tries to court her despite his uncle’s snobby disapproval. Ricardo Trepa, who was both Oliveira’s go-to lead a...
