Manoel de oliveira biography sampler

The Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira appeared one of those extraordinary figures who’d be forever among us, ruminating in his mesmerizing hybrid style that encompassed art, photography, literature, painting and music.

A major figure in international cinema, Oliveira died Thursday, April 2nd, at the age of 106, in his hometown of Porto.

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Put in perspective he was born more than five years before the start of the First World War. He was a contemporary of Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu and Samuel Fuller. His life and career are virtually synonymous with the history of narrative cinema. He is the only director whose career spanned the silent era to the birth of European modernism and ended in the digital age.

He made more than 60 films ranging in length from several minutes to seven hours (his extraordinary “The Satin Slipper,” his 1985 adaptation of the Paul Claudel play).

Yet there is also a painful sadness and anger about his life because of the nearly three deca