Obituary

Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira has died after a run lasting over 80 years. It is no surprise that the centenarian director was known more for his age than for his films, and mentions of him have almost always been prefaced “world’s oldest working director” in recent years. Oliveira was born in 1908 in Porto, Portugal. The son and son-in-law of well-off businessmen, Oliveira took care of his family businesses as a day job. Film, always his passion, took a backseat. He debuted in 1931 with the documentary Labour on the Douro River. His first feature film was Aniki-Bobo, released in 1942. A couple of decades went by until he made his next legitimate feature film. It wasn’t until the nineties, when Oliveira was an octogenarian already, that he really hit his stride. With the repressive Salazar regime, and his mundane business operations out of the way, he was finally about to focus on film. He averaged a film a year for the next two decades, in the most stunning display of late-blooming productivity ever seen in a film-maker. The old master’s films are slow and contemplative, there is almost never a hurry to tell a story or to thrill audiences. Because of his age, Oliveira had the luxury of making films without worrying about critical or commercial reception. The results, though not for every taste, are unique and fascinating. Recommendations for the cinephile: Abraham’s Valley (1993), Belle Toujours (2006), The Strange Case of Angelica (2010)