Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira, born in 1908, Portuguese motion-picture director, whose long, intermittent career went relatively unnoticed outside his own country until late in his life, when he began to be recognized as one of Europe's leading filmmakers. Born in Porto (Oporto), Oliveira was an athlete and racing car driver from 1920 until 1927, when he became involved in motion pictures as an actor.

Oliveira borrowed money for a camera to direct his first film, Douro, faino fluvial (Labor on the Douro River, 1931), a short documentary. The film won critical acclaim and attracted political controversy for its stark portrayal of poverty and severe working conditions along Portugal's Douro River. During the next few years, Oliveira produced other documentaries that also provoked official disfavor from the right-wing dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, who ruled Portugal from 1932 to 1968.

Oliveira directed his first feature film, Aniki-Bobo, in 1942. Set in the streets of Porto, Portugal, the film uses children's games to mirror competitiveness and strife in the adult world. Aniki-Bobo was an innovative attempt by Oliveira to integrate documentary and narrative filmmaking techniques by shooting on location rather than in studios, by using hand-held cameras, and by casting amateur actors in major roles.

In 1943 Oliveira temporarily withdrew from filmmaking to begin a long career in agriculture. He made no other motion pictures until 1956, when he filmed a short documentary, O pintor e a cidade (The Painter and the Town, 1956). He returned to feature films with O Acto da primavera (The Passion of Jesus, 1963), a graphic recreation of a Passion Play, which depicts the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1972 Oliveira retired from his agricultural work and concentrated more directly on filmmaking. He finally attracted international attention with his film O Passado e o presente (Past and Present, 1972), a satirical comedy about greed and lechery. He further developed his reputation with Francisca (1981), a love story based on the life of 19th-century Portuguese writer Castelo Branco. His 1993 film Vale Abraão (Abraham Valley), is a satire of middle class values based loosely on the novel Madame Bovary, by French author Gustave Flaubert, and is considered to be one of Oliveira's finest works. Oliveira also found commercial and critical success with O Convento (The Convent, 1995), starring American actor John Malkovich and French actor Catherine Deneuve.