Manoel de Oliveira on DVD

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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John Cope
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
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#51 Post by John Cope » Mon May 14, 2007 3:25 am

Thanks a lot, backstreet. I really appreciate it.

Paupau
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#52 Post by Paupau » Mon May 14, 2007 5:29 am


Kenji
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#53 Post by Kenji » Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:50 pm

Manoel de Oliveira has changed my life and changed it utterly. On the strength of his masterpiece Abraham Valley, which started my fascination with that wonderful country (and led me on to fado singer Amalia Rodrigues, among other things) i moved with my wife and 2 dogs to live in North West Portugal 2 years ago, and we quickly lost a lot of money and are now living in a caravan in England. Never an hour has passed when i don't yearn to return to Caminha, which just happened by coincidence to be the spot i chose to go to and the location of his film Voyage/Journey to the Beginning of the World (unknown to me at the time). I had been hoping to get to meet him when things went wrong.

He should be a household name, not only for his age. He is nearing 10 different decades of film-making, having started filming Douro Faina Fluvial in 1929. The Douro is so beautiful, and visiting sites in Abraham Valley was a dream come true. Some consider films like Abraham Valley too static, demand more camera moves and faster editing in the misconception of what is cinematic. Cinema can easily encorporate theatre and literature, a range of art forms, without being diluted/polluted/compromised- perhaps he has something in common with Jaques Rivette, there's an elusive timelessness, a sense of mystery and wide roaming intellect. I say all this having only seen a handful of Oliveira films. Would love to see Aniki Bobo and Amor de Perdicao. A film like No or the Vainglory of Command is admirable for focusing on Portuguese defeats rather than the usual triumphant national mythologising. It certainly doesn't glory in colonialism, but revels in the adventurous side of the national spirit. The Clair de Lune scene in Abraham Valley shares the beguiling mystery of Erice's Spirit of the Beehive. Oliveira is a thoughtful internationalist and humanist i think- one of the good guys.

I guess his athleticism (he was a fine all-round sportsman, tennis player and racing driver) and wide-ranging interest in life are largely responsible for his longevity. Just as i attribute Antonioni's longevity to a zest for life that became obvious on The Passenger and now can be clearly seen in his paintings. I'm delighted Belle Toujours has had good reviews, and his 3 minute Cannes short was among the more liked contributions. Yet no journalist in any British paper i read picked up on the most interesting aspect of the photo of the various directors involved: Manoel de Oliveira. He is more prolific than ever.

p.s What a surprise to find the Bulgarian Zheliazkova mentioned here. I'm convinced The Attached Balloon is among the handful of most wonderful films- not having seen it! Anyway, i agree with comments above that proper distribution of neglected countries' films are long overdue. Even Sight and Sound's international polls are dominated by Ango-American participants. Most countries never get a look in, while the usual powerful clique still holds sway.

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Don Lope de Aguirre
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#54 Post by Don Lope de Aguirre » Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:36 pm

Apparently there are several new French releases as well but I have not seen those to compare.
Apologies for resurrecting an old topic but I think it's worth stating the obvious. These Gemini releases are:

Parole et utopie
La Lettre
Porto de mon enfance
Le Principe de l'incertitude


I suggest first checking ebay.fr as these go for a fortune on Amazon.fr and not much less on alapage.com...

Stefan Andersson
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:02 am

Espelho magico (Manoel de Oliveira, 2005)

#55 Post by Stefan Andersson » Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:09 pm

Espelho magico (Manoel de Oliveira, 2005)

OK, so I finally got this Brazilian DVD of Oliveira´s ESPELHO MAGICO (Magic Mirror). Check out the thread under International DVD News for instructions how to order it. It´s the only English subtitled DVD of this title I know of. Released by Paris Filmes, apparently a Brazilian distributor.
The video and audio quality is fine, Renato Berta´s fine camerawork is done justice, the letterboxing is approx. 1:66, compositions look good though my TV probably does slight overscan (in the main titles, the first letter of each name is only visible as a sort of phantom image, extreme left). English subtitles are well-written, with the literary quality I expected from Oliveira dialogue, plus occasional small errors in word choices (and such) that a native English speaker would not commit. The extras are a short Portuguese-language synopsis, a very short cast & crew list plus trailers for European movies I´ve never heard about. The audio gives a choice between Portuguese audio and "Portuguese in Portugal 2.0" audio (??). The disc opens with a short amount of non-optional commercials and movie trailers.

The movie itself, based on the novel THE SOUL OF THE RICH by Águstina Bessa-Luis (Oliveira has filmed several of her novels and she co-wrote IL CONVENTO), is very stimulating, extremely well-made in Oliveira´s usual stately minimalist style with deliberately non-naturalistic dialogue performance, and specks of deliberate, I think, deadpan humor and satire à la late Bunuel.

The main character is Mrs. Alfreda (Leonor Silveira), a devout, childless wife of a rich tradesman, who spends days in her mansion longing to speak to the Virgin Mary over tea (an obsession since childhood) and discussing the soul of the rich and Mary´s family´s degree of wealth with a priest, a monk and a Bible scholar, who tells her Mary and Jesus came from wealthy families.
She then gets a chauffeur, an ex-con who loves his dead mother and sister and was convicted for a crime he didn´t commit. He tries to alleviate her increasingly severe religious fixed ideas, but also, a bit mysteriously, goes along with a scheme to present Mrs. Alfreda with a Virgin Mary doppelganger found and trained by his old pal, a former counterfeiter who never gives a reason for this scam. Maybe he sees money in it.
The scam is never pulled off because Mrs. Alfreda´s fixed ideas drive her into depression and coma. Comatose, Mr. Alfreda, who usually spends his time and money training musically gifted local children, takes her on a tour of Venice and Biblical sites in Jerusalem. Over the door to the Venice hotel, there´s a Renaissance painting of the Virgin Mary, and, inside, a Renaissance mural of the Crucifixion and crypt-laying of Jesus Christ.
A cobra appears in one of the short shots of Gethsemane (probably shot in any Portuguese olive tree grove), all we see of the Jerusalem visit. The Venice and Gethsemane scenes are seen in the mirror in Mrs. Alfreda´s bedroom while she stares, unblinkingly, still comatose, into it, as she did in the film´s opening, where the mirror showed her as a schoolgirl being inspired by nun talk to dream of meeting the Holy Virgin.
At the end of the mirrored memories/reverie/dream, there´s a shot of light bouncing on water, earlier seen by Mrs. Alfreda while hearing a male voice softly calling her. Later, it is reported, Mrs. Alfreda regained consciousness; she understood the light imagery as the "light at the end of the tunnel" common to reported near-death experiences; the counterfeiter and Mary doppelganger fell in love; the chauffeur, bitter about women, elects for bachelorhood.

So, what´s this slow, deliberately paced film, shot in static one- and two-shots and medium long shots, about? I´m guessing it´s a satire on religiousness and on rich people´s fear of being soulless and/or therefore losing out on a place in Heaven. Mrs. Alfreda also reminds me a bit of madame Bovary, a well-off, dreamy woman whose discontents and imaginings sets her mind off-kilter. Though she´s no caricature, neither is anyone else in the film.

The light on the water is probably intentionally ambiguous. Either it´s the woman having an imagined epiphany, or, God exists, but epiphanies cannot be willed, they can only be experienced as and when they occur.

The cobra scene is probably a mischievous reference to a private nurse´s remark when they discuss the nature of comatose states. The nurse say´s it´s not like Mrs. Alfreda was poisoned by a "mamba negra". Or else Oliveira sticks a snake into Gethsemane just to throw us off-kilter. Probably both.

Marisa Paredes, Almodóvar regular, plays a Spanish nun who visits Mrs. Alfreda. I think she belongs to the chauffeur´s family, a Paredes-like figure is seen early on, praying at his family grave. What it means I´m not sure about, though, like a few other scenes, it smacks of Oliveira paring down his source novel to essentials.

The music is classical, the end credits lists Saint-Saens Carnival of Animals and Dance of Death (?), along with Wagner, Kreisler etc. Some of the music is really upbeat and, played over "temps morts" shots of garden walks etc. gives a feeling of merriment, like the music was Oliveira´s way of marking a gentle form of postmodern self-irony.

I´ve read a few online reviews of ESPELHO MAGICO. None of them go very deep into the film, so I thought I´d share these observations.

E-mail correspondence with Films du Paradoxe tells me that Manoel de Oliveira´s BELLE TOUJOURS will have a French DVD release in 2008.

There´s also BELLE TOUJOURS listed at the Spanish Fnac site (www.fnac.es).

Apparently Anthology Film Archives ran Oliveira´s O QUINTO IMPERIO (along with ESPELHO MAGICO) a few years back. Could this result in a US DVD of O QUINTO IMPERIO?

As far as I know it´s only available on an Italian DVD, no Eng subs.

fred
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:28 pm

#56 Post by fred » Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:03 pm

It wasn't a few years back, it was a few months back. And no, there's definitely no way it would result in a US dvd. The films were both sourced from their production companies. There is no US distributor for either film.

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John Cope
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#57 Post by John Cope » Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:36 pm

There may be some hope yet. Here's what I don't understand. If you go to this site you will find listed a copy of this film distributed through Lusomundo. This is a different edition than the Italian one you mentioned above. Anyway, I would get this in a heartbeat if I thought it actually had English subs--it lists the only available subs as Portuguese. However, if you check a little further on this page, you will see that they also carry the Lusomundo edition of Espelho Mágico. It, too, is listed as having only Portuguese subs but I'm curious about this as I have a number of the Lusomundo Oliveiras and they all feature English subs. Possibly the current disc is a stripped down local version but it seems very likely that if that is the case they would make another edition available as well, especially as the other films they have made available are not necessarily Oliveira's most highly in demand (i.e. Palavra e Utopia). Also, you'll note that the cover of the Lusomundo Espelho Mágico is identical to the Brazilian disc from Paris Filmes, which leads me to hopefully speculate that Quinto Império may sooner rather than later receive the same treatment. If you find out anything further, please post the info. For now, I will sink back into my perpetual and misconceived anticipation for a Criterion Le Soulier de satin.

Stefan Andersson
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#58 Post by Stefan Andersson » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:45 am

LE SOULIER DE SATIN is apparently coming as a DVD from a French company, Gemini-Films. I once Googled on it and found a pdf file or something that was a sheet of distributor-subsidy decisions, made I think in 2005 or so. Someone also posted somewhere that this DVD indeed is planned but wasn´t finalized. Maybe they´ll do it when Oliveira turns 100.

I´ve e-mailed Criterion suggesting an Eclipse Oliveira box. His centenary would be an ideal releasing date. Nowadays my e-mails bounce off Criterion, labeled as spam. No offense taken!

If you go to www.fnac.es you´ll find an Oliveira box with a halfdozen titles, like FRANCISCA, DAY OF DESPAIR and some others. Spanish subs only. There´s also a Portuguese disc of LA CAIXA (The Cassette), apparently with Eng subs. I have an unwatched copy. I got it through www.fnac.pt (Portuguese Fnac). I´ve also had good experiences buying from www.blueplanetdvd.com, an English-friendly Portuguese net retailer.

Can you tell me if the Kino A TALKING PICTURE has excellent video and reasonably full subtitles? The Eng-subbed French DVD is impossible to find and when Boomerang Films rereleased it they stripped off the Eng subs and the extras. Don´t know about the Portuguese disc.

Hope you got the ESPELHO MAGICO DVD!

I e-mailed Lusomundo´s rental/retail site and got a prompt response in good English. Lusomundo plans to release ESPELHO MAGICO, O QUINTO IMPERIO and BELLE TOUJOURS with Eng subs in Portugal March 2008.

Other sites will probably update their disc specs as they get them.

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John Cope
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#59 Post by John Cope » Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:57 pm

Sir, you have made my day.

I suspect that you and I might be whistling in the dark when it comes to an Eclipse/Criterion set but it really shouldn't be so unlikely. I appreciate your enthusiasm.

Don't remind me of the Spanish set, however, as it's a constant source of frustration to me (frustration in that it reminds me of my lack of language fluency) and some of that stuff (i.e. Day of Despair, A Divina Comédia, maybe even Francisca)will probably take quite awhile to appear anywhere else.

As far as A Talking Picture goes, Stefan, don't even bother with the Kino. It's adequate but the Portuguese disc is superb and has several fantastic extras. You can pick it up direct through blueplanet.

Meant to thank you for the info over on the Brazilian DVD thread. I actually picked up Espelho Mágico from a private seller but the material you posted will surely help other interested parties. Anyway, that disc is pretty solid; my only real complaint is that you can't scan past the ads for teen pop movies attached to the front (what in the world kind of cross over audience did they anticipate for this one?). It's one of my favorite of Oliveira's recent films and I would highly recommend watching it back to back with its companion piece O Princípio da Incerteza. That's a fascinating, though not necessary, experience. I meant to comment on your remarks over on the appropriate thread but quite frankly I never know where to begin (or end) when discussing Oliveira. He is one of the very few artists who completely disarm me in this way and leave me feeling inadequate to the challenge of discussing them fittingly. Having said that, though, I really appreciated your insights as they evidenced a clear willingness and ability to engage with this challenging material.

You will love Belle Toujours if you haven't already seen it. I'm actually writing a piece on it at present, though I've been "writing a piece" on La Lettre for almost a year now to no further end. Hopefully I can get myself motivated to do the work and get back to it. I'd like to also tackle the O Princípio da Incerteza/Espelho Mágico pairing and my beloved Vale Abraão but those challenges boggle the mind. Aside from which, I'm hoping Oliveira may still complete his loose trilogy and so I justify putting it off.

Now why on earth do you have an unwatched copy of A Caixa?

fred
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#60 Post by fred » Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:02 pm

Stefan Andersson wrote:LE SOULIER DE SATIN is apparently coming as a DVD from a French company, Gemini-Films. I once Googled on it and found a pdf file or something that was a sheet of distributor-subsidy decisions, made I think in 2005 or so. Someone also posted somewhere that this DVD indeed is planned but wasn´t finalized. Maybe they´ll do it when Oliveira turns 100.
This doesn't necessarily mean it won't still happen, but I recall hearing that Gemini--one arm of the Paulo Branco octopus--was defunct and had declared bankruptcy.

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Barmy
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#61 Post by Barmy » Mon Feb 04, 2008 4:56 pm

Probably posted elsewhere, but there's an extensive retro touring this year. Glad they are showing a lot of earlier works. Very few of his last 15 or so films resonated with me. I did like the one with the Portuguese rock singer.

Schedule

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chaddoli
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#62 Post by chaddoli » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:52 pm

Any recommendations for an Oliveira virgin?

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John Cope
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#63 Post by John Cope » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:16 am

Thought I would bump this thread as the series Barmy speaks of is fast approaching and I wanted to encourage those who can attend to please do so. I won't be able to until it travels to Chicago, which I hope will be relatively soon. Evidently the films will be screening next at Harvard, UCLA, Cleveland, Chicago, Berkeley, Vancouver, Seattle and Washington, D.C. So keep an eye out if you're near any of those locations.

Enough cannot be said about what a truly rare treat this series will be. Many of these films rarely ever get screened. Also, Oliveira is supposed to be in attendance for a Q & A on March 7 at the screening of Christopher Columbus, The Enigma.

For me it is very tough to recommend just one or two of these titles. If you can only see one or two, however, it makes sense to see the ones least likely to become available via video or, conversely, the ones that would benefit most from theatrical presentation. In the former camp I will probably make the most effort to see Doomed Love or Day of Despair as I keep thinking that Aniki Bobo will invariably receive a video release from somebody soon. In the latter camp I would like to see Abraham's Valley on the big screen, though I've seen it many times and would probably be better served catching Inquietude. For those who have not seen it, No, or the Vain Glory of Command is also a marvellous big screen picture. And note that the version of Abraham's Valley which is screening is the complete cut which is otherwise unavailable in the States.

It's too bad The Satin Slipper isn't part of this retrospective, though it's obvious why it isn't. And for those interested the most rare Oliveira item remains veiled from us at present. Memories and Confessions will stay unscreened until after his death. I am content to wait.

For more info, check out this story.

ptmd
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#64 Post by ptmd » Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:05 am

Let me second those recommendations. Non and especially Abraham's Valley benefit enormously from proper 35mm projections and both Doomed Love and Francisca are out-and-out masterpieces that rarely screen and are unlikely to make it to DVD anytime soon. In addition to those, I'm particularly excited about the premiere of Christopher Columbus on Friday and I'm also hoping to make it to some of the rarer films, like Benilde and Rite of Spring, which are ridiculously hard to see. If the retrospective comes your way, it's well worth making the effort to see some of these, although I too would prioritize the films not readily available on decent DVDs (i.e., I'm Going Home, Voyage to the Beginning of the World, The Convent, etc.).

Speaking of DVDs, does anyone have any more information on the Portuguese DVD releases of Oliveira's three most recent films. Their listed on FNAC and I know that English subtitles have been confirmed, but they aren't available for purchase yet and no release dates are listed. They're supposed to come out this month some time, right?

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John Cope
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#65 Post by John Cope » Fri Mar 07, 2008 4:16 am

In case anyone attends the Q & A tonight and is willing to ask a question but doesn't have a specific one in mind, here's what I'd like to know. Oliveira's next project is said to be a film called The Strange Case of Angelica. What I'm wondering is if this is based on his unproduced script titled Angelica. What makes this all the more interesting is that Angelica was published and is available. The prospect of observing the differences between a script conceived in the 50's and the eventual result, produced 50 years later, is absolutely tantalizing. I can't imagine there has ever been a prospect for something like this and I hope there is some correlation between the script and the announced film; however, brief descriptions he has given of what it will be addressing don't make it sound anything like the former piece.

Stefan Andersson
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#66 Post by Stefan Andersson » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:33 am

As far as I know, Oliveira´s upcoming Angelica project is based on the Queiroz short story discussed earlier in this thread. At least according to some online info in Portuguese and this in English.

John, you might also like to know Oliveira did a short film about Calouste Gulbenkian a few years ago, possibly as a thank you for the Gulbenkian Foundation co-financing some of his films. Also, some info on his segment in an upcoming anthology film, DO INVISIVEL AO INVISIVEL.

Other interesting stuff in French.
Nous sommes insignifiants
Venise : la perle promise de Manoel de Oliveira
Manoel de Oliveira sur les traces de Buñuel
Pour «toujours» et à jamais

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Barmy
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#67 Post by Barmy » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:05 pm

Sorry, but if I were attending the Q&A I would ask him (1) what is it like to work with Cathy Deneuve and (2) why didn't that bizzatch appear in Belle Toujours?

There's a trailer for Colombo on YouTube. Looks dull and it was shot on DV.

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tavernier
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#68 Post by tavernier » Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:26 pm

Coming from New Yorker on June 3 - Belle toujours

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Barmy
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#69 Post by Barmy » Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:12 pm

I'm just now focussing on the program list for the retro and am very impressed. They are showing a lot of pre-90s work that I've never seen. And they've been appropriately selective regarding the later stuff. I've seen most of Manny's 90s/00s work and they've got my 3 faves: "Abraham's Valley" (his most conventionally "entertaining" film), "The Uncertainty Principle" and "The Letter" (with Portuguese rock star Abrunhosa).

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#70 Post by Miguel M Santos » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:49 pm

Being Portuguese and sharing the general national dislike for Manoel de Oliveira (tried a few, I think the longest I managed to survive was about 10 minutes of "O Convento"), I can't help be amazed that there is so much interest for him. However, quite happy to help if anyone needs language support.

Not based in Portugal anymore but going there once in a while, so might be able to provide information based on the actual product sold in shops.

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Barmy
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#71 Post by Barmy » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:21 pm

I think MO is absurdly overrated. However, what he does (stagey, static, airless flix that often revolve around obscure philosophical ideas) has a certain perverse charm. The 2 early films I saw over the weekend were surprisingly intense.

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#72 Post by vivahawks » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:40 pm

Miguel M Santos wrote:Being Portuguese and sharing the general national dislike for Manoel de Oliveira (tried a few, I think the longest I managed to survive was about 10 minutes of "O Convento"), I can't help be amazed that there is so much interest for him. However, quite happy to help if anyone needs language support.

Not based in Portugal anymore but going there once in a while, so might be able to provide information based on the actual product sold in shops.
Curious, is Oliveira really disliked in Portugal? If so, why?

ptmd
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#73 Post by ptmd » Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:34 am

Curious, is Oliveira really disliked in Portugal? If so, why?
Probably for the same reason Angelopoulos is disliked in Greece, for making "boring," difficult, even eccentric films that violate the standards of both the local industry and Hollywood and place unusual demands upon the viewer. Of course, his best films reward that sort of effort and that's precisely why he's a great director (that and his stubborn determination to make his films the way he wants to).

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Barmy
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#74 Post by Barmy » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:45 pm

Yes, boring, difficult films are by definition "better" than interesting, entertaining films.

Virtually every major auteur is less boring than MO.

P.S. Angelopoulos makes films with stunning cinematography, awesome shot sequences, and fascinating, complex plotlines (i.e. things actually HAPPEN). And he's never put Malkovich in any of his films (yet).

ptmd
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#75 Post by ptmd » Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:05 pm

Barmy wrote:Yes, boring, difficult films are by definition "better" than interesting, entertaining films.
I'm not saying that, but one of the things that makes Manoel de Oliveira great, in my estimation anyways, is his rigorously modernist treatment of film form, which allows him to push cinema into entirely new areas and which does make his films "boring" if judged by the standards of normal commercial cinema. This is particularly evident in the great films he made between Doomed Love (1978) and Mon Cas (1986), which is certainly his strongest period (I love much of the later work too, of course). I agree that many major auteurs make films that are more conventionally entertaining than Manoel de Oliveira, but because his films are so dense with intellectual activity they've never felt dry or uninteresting to me.

And while I agree with everything you've said about Angelopoulos, he has made films with Harvey Keitel and I know many Greek people who can't stand his films for the reasons I mentioned above.

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