Manoel de Oliveira's sparkling, winking gem of a movie
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The entry ticket for films at the Toronto International Film Festival is a bit stiff, even for hard-to-find movies, so I had to do a bit of intuitive work and make a quick decision to make my one choice for this season. I had planned to watch a series of very short experimental (or art) films, mainly this one, described as:
[A] meticulous digital painting, offering one minute, one second and one frame of shimmering and breathtaking beauty through its diaphanous and forever-changing palette.At times I feel that such filmmakers are really stuck in the experimental phase. "A forever-changing palette?" Isn't it time to get out of the palette and go into some depictions? But, I can imagine that it is beautiful.
Well, tickets were sold out, so I had to think fast - the days were numbered, after all.
Recently, I had watched Fellini's And the Ship Sails On which I describe as:
Sometimes, as filmmakers get older, they infuse a certain innocent, childlike charm into their films.I remembered seeing Manoel de Oliveira in the TIFF program. He is one of those underrated masters - an unknown Fellini. I had watched a film of his made in 2006, which made him 97 years old! That short little film, Belle Toujours, which I review here, surprised me for its lightness and mischief. The main character, "[an] old man, now in his late seventies, [who] is clearly enjoying life with his cigars and whisky," was the uncontested star. But, besides this light heartedness, I recognized de Oliveira's love for sumptuous interiors, which he shoots in rich saturated colors, and a certain moral probing.
Now de Oliveira is back with this new film - Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl. That makes him 100 years old! Surely this will be a treasure, full of light touches, rich colors, a revival of aesthetics and more of his subtle nudge at morality (or immorality, as the case may be), in the sharp mischievous way that only very old folks can deliver.
This short one-hour movie was an adaptation of a short story about human frailties, deceptions and resilience, packaged in the beautiful city of Lisbon. It is a small, glittering gemstone, which winks at us.
Some memorable scenes:
* What looks like a still photograph of a tightly cropped clock tower and streetlight comes to life as pigeons fly into the air and across the tower. A flat image suddenly becomes cinematic, and even dramatic.
* Across the narrow street from Macário’s, the protagonist’s, room live a mother and her daughter. Macário can see them as they move across the window, or stand by the small balcony to view the street life below. As Macário imagines how beautiful and full of life the mother must have been in her younger days, the airy curtain is blown aside by a small breeze to disclose a portrait, clearly of the mother in her younger days, hanging in the back of the room.
* De Oliveira warns us of the blonde girl from the very beginning (although we soon forget). As she realizes that Macário is watching her from the room across the street, her young and innocent face assumes a calculating and seductive expression.
* Every scene, interior or exterior, is filled with beauty: in the furniture, the paintings, the streets, and the buildings. Even the rooming house where Macário ends up for a while has its own austere beauty.
* Clair de Lune is played on the harp during an evening of culture and poetry at the home of a rich man. Macário and Luísa are both there, where Macário declares his infatuation for Luísa. Surely, this famous Debussy piece is in honor of Luísa.
* Shots of Lisbon by the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, in full warm daylight, or in the evening hours illuminated by building and streetlights, appear regularly throughout the film.
I’ve dealt mostly with the images in the film. The story is equally compelling. It is much more austere, yet the sparseness of the story contrasts well with the sumptuous visuals. And despite its uncompromising nature, the story is a kind of a morality tale, where Macário can become a better person if he is willing to learn.
Perhaps people who live in such magnificent surroundings, despite their mundane, and even cruel, lives are urged to reach for better and elevated things, fortified by the beauty of their surroundings.
Here are two other movies by Manoel de Oliveira that I have reviewed:
- Belle Toujours
- The Fifth Empire - Yesterday as Today
