As you have doubtless heard, Manoel de Oliveira, the protean Portuguese filmmaker, has passed away at the more-than-ripe age of 106 on the second of April 2015.
Wiki sez ...
"Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira GCSE, GCIH (Portuguese: [mɐnuˈɛɫ doliˈvɐjɾɐ]; December 11, 1908 – April 2, 2015) was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about World War I. In 1931 he completed his first film Douro, Faina Fluvial, a documentary about his home city Porto made in the city symphony genre. He made his feature film debut in 1942 with Aniki-Bóbó and continued to make shorts and documentaries for the next 30 years, gaining a minimal amount of recognition without being considered a major world film director. Among the numerous factors that prevented Oliveira from making more films during this time period were the political situation in Portugal, family obligations and money.
"In 1971 Oliveira made his second feature narrative film Past and Present, a social satire that both set the standard for his film career afterwards and gained him recognition in the global film community. He continued making films of growing ambition throughout the 1970s and 1980s, gaining critical acclaim and numerous awards. Beginning in late 1980s he was one of the most prolific working film directors and made an average of one film per year past the age of 100. In March 2008 he was reported to be the oldest active film director in the world, and was possibly the second oldest film director ever after George Abbott, who lived to be 107 and 7 months. He was also the only filmmaker whose active career spanned from the silent era to the digital age. Among his numerous awards were two Career Golden Lions from the and the French Legion of Honor."
Here are his credits.
And here are three of his best films. Enjoy!
(A Talking Picture)
(Mon Cas)
(Le Soulier de Satin)
*
p.s. Hey. This weekend Mr. E takes over this place in tribute to the recently late filmmaker extraordinaire and ageless beacon Manoel de Oliveira. He offers a triple bill of three of Oliveira's films and suggests you watch one-to-all of them at your leisure, as do I. Enjoy everything, and thank you mightily, David! ** James, Hi. Oh, I can see that. Huh. The new apartment is in the 4th arr. It's on rue St. Antoine close to Bastille, if you know where that is. ** Armando, Hi. Ah, yeah, to each his own on Clark films, on Korine, and, well, on everything in the world, I guess. Zac is a visual artist, my great beloved friend, and my collaborator on a bunch of projects, including the film, which he directed. The film is called 'Like Cattle Towards Glow'. It's a feature, 93 minutes. It's in five parts. We shot it last summer, and we're doing the final post-production work on it right now. Sorry you're feeling bad, pal. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David, and thank you again so very much for the weekend's enlightenment and entertainment. I don't know Jean-Claude Biette's work at all. In fact, I don't think I've heard his name before. I don't know if that speaks to his presence in French cinema appreciation or not. In any case, I'll investigate him and his work. Thank you for the alert. ** Steevee, Hi, man. Thanks about the apartment. It's a relief, for sure. Ouch, about the hot food's temporary damage. Egg rolls can be like fresh lava. Yes, today is Record Store Day here too, and I'll be venturing out to see what France's version offers up and hopefully find something exciting enough to score. Let me what you get. ** Thomas Moronic, Thank you kindly, fellow gif aficionado/reinventor. ** Cal Graves, Hi, Cal! Thank you. Moving, urgh, yeah. Yes, exciting about your slot in Zach's shebang! Can't wait to read it! Oh, I suspect the slaves market is very full of fantasizing fakes, so it could be the same slave or some guy pretending to be a slave who wishes he looked like the guy on tumblr. I hope all of your upcoming work goes really well. Consider me to be, like, an angel on your shoulder or something? Wow, that sounds creepy, never mind. Is it work you're anxious in the good way to be doing, I hope? Rummagingly, Dennis ** MANCY, Hi, Stephen. Thank you. No, I haven't heard the new Swervedriver. Holy shit, I need to. It's great? That's very exciting. Awesome, I'll download it today. Thanks, man! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Thanks, Jeff. The bloody helicopter gif is from some video game, but I don't know which one. Cool that you got to hit the Walker. I've never been. What's the Turrell like? I've never seen Grant Hart perform. I never even saw Husker Du live, sadly and weirdly. I haven't listened to his most recent stuff, but the earlier post-HD stuff seemed pretty spotty. I read about 'The Argument'. I think what I read was pretty critical. But it sounds quite ambitious, and that's interesting enough. I'll try it. Cool, I'll look into Frank Stanford, for my own sake and hopefully for the blog's too. Thanks a lot! ** Casey McKinney, Hi, Casey! Really awesome to see you, man! Yeah, Joel told me that I just missed you in LA. That sucks. Thank you so much about the gif thing, and, yeah, big thanks for publishing Joyelle's interview with me. It was so great to get to talk with her. I admire her and her mind and her work a lot. Ah, the pier, the rides, ... sweet. I remember watching you down a king's ransom's worth of oysters there. Lots of love to you! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben, thanks. Cool that Art101 thing went so well. But, shit, man, so sorry about the accident. I'm glad you're okay apart from some superficial wreckage. Spring for the taxi, yeah. Or for Uber. Do you have Uber there? Have a peaceful and creative weekend, buddy. ** Keaton, I think a lot of the best poetry is drunken and maybe even bad. May Godard twist and turn your weekend, as only he can. ** Kier, Hi, K! The new apartment us cool. Yeah, it's much bigger than my Recollets room. That'll be weird. It's old and kind of gloomy, but I think that'll be alright, and the location is fantastic, yeah. I'll miss the 10th arr., which I really love, for sure, but the new place is even more central, which is good. I'm sorry you haven't been very happy. What's up, or, rather down? If you want to say? Maybe this weekend will be magical? I'm good. We're almost finished with the film's sound mix. We got the official rejection from Cannes, but that wasn't a surprise. We're submitting to four other festivals this week. And I'm working away the scenario for our next film. And I'm about to go to Germany again to do what I think will be the final work on Gisele's new theater piece. I mean final in terms of getting the piece's text cemented and the shape/direction finished so the performers can start rehearsing the thing itself. Really, I hope you have a big, surprising flood of happiness this weekend. Love, me. ** Sypha, Hi. Yeah, at that length, I would have guessed. Got your post! Thank you! I'll launch it next Saturday. Thank you! Have a great, great weekend! ** Okay. Head back up into the cinema now, please, and glue your faces to the center of its frame, and let loose. See you on Monday.