Manoel de Oliveira: the misunderstood genius
Manoel de Oliveira: the misunderstood genius
Manoel de Oliveira was a Portuguese director who won the most awards. He was not always a consensual figure, but quite the opposite.
Manoel de Oliveira died this Thursday in Porto at the age of 106. He is considered the best Portuguese filmmaker of all time. However, the director with the most awards in Portugal was not always a consensual figure.
The story of the director is tied with the history/story of Portuguese cinema. The Porto native went through every phase of Portuguese cinema, from mute to sound, from black and white to color, from 1930s till now.
He was featured in the most important movie festivals in the world where he debuted many films and won prizes. A lot of prizes.
From movies such as «Amor de Perdição» (Doomed Love, 1978), «Francisca »(1981) and «Le Soulier de Satin» (The Satin Slipper, 1985) he received the critics award in Venza festival. He also won Leão de Ouro for his work. In Cannes, he won the Jury Prize for his movie «A Carta» (The Letter, 1999) and he won the Golden Palm in 2008 as a recognition for his work.
A lot of countries paid tribute to Manoel de Oliveira and gave him distinctions. He received the French National Order of the Legion of Honour, World of Arts Valldigna from Valência’s regional government., The Golden Circular Medal of Fine Arts of Madrid and he was even given the Order of Merit (Order Infante D. Henrique.) from the president of Portugal.
Throughout his career, he was featured in the most prestigious publication in the world of cinema such as the French publication «Cahiers du Cinema». The publication did not fail to pay tribute to Manoel Oliveira when he passed away.
So it is justifiable to say that Manoel de Oliveira’s importance extended beyond The Seventh Art, he was an ambassador for Portuguese culture and language abroad.
However, it is important to point out the importance of Oliveira aboard as much as it is important to understand how he impacted Portuguese cinema, how he was not always a consensual figure and how his work continues to divide the audience.
Some say his films are slow, without rhythm and others say the movies are boring and sometimes sad.
But what separates Oliveira films from the Portuguese public? There are no clear explanation, but there factors that might have contributed to the issue.
The director have always had his own brand which distinguished him from others. This might have made his work attractive, but at the same time it caused it estrangement from the Portuguese audience which is used to certain ways of viewing films.
Film scholars consider his cinema a privilege, a presentation of theatre with a primordial influence while others say his films are great stages that presents the reality we live in: pain, violence, love or dreams - portraits of humanities.
In his work, actors have their own space and time, the movies are made of contemplation and the shots have freedom and time to breath. There is no rush, the spectator is invited to come in, to stay and to be involved.
Those characteristics are the opposite to those of the entertainment cinema. In popular movies, the shots are shorter, the scenes have more rhythm and there is a greater speed in the development of the narrative and the action.
Given the dominance of entertainment films in the industry, many experts argue that viewers are used to this type of fast, instantaneous language which can repulse them from a different style, which is unfamiliar to them.
Another reason is, the relationship between the Portuguese public and national cinema. Portuguese films, contrary to what happens in other European countries, are not exactly the most viewed in the country, according to the figures presented by the Film and Audiovisual Institute.
In this sense, Manoel de Oliveira could be considered the only one among several directors who is distant from the Portuguese public.
Orignial Source: https://goo.gl/K4kfY9
Chosen by: Daniela & Luisa.
Translated by: Badriah.
Revised by: Luisa.
I decided to translate an article about Manoel de Oliveira (a topic Daniela & Luisa have suggested before) because of his importance in Portuguese Cinema. I remember attending a tribute done by the University of Toronto to Manoel de Oliveira's work and that is when I discovered the genius director. I think it is important to talk about him in our blog so movie lovers can get to know his work. The first work from him that I have seen was Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo, but he directed more than 63 movies, so out readers can pick and choose.
- Badriah.
1 comments
This is a very good article. The title should be The misunderstood genius.
ReplyDeleteLeão de Ouro is the Golden Bear (Berlin Film Festival); Venza is a misspelling, I suppose. You're certainly talking about the Venice Film Festival.
Correct subject-verb agreement problems.
There are no clear explanations, but there are factors that might have contributed to the issue.
The director has always had
his films are great stages that present the reality we live in: