Leaving January 1

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.