2 Portuguese Films of Manoel de Oliveira

AT:
Harvard Film Archive
24 Quincy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138

INFO and IMAGE BELOW:
hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2008marchapril/oliveira.html
617-495-4700

WHEN: 7 pm for film #1;  9 pm for film #2.  See film descriptions below.

FILM #1 at 7 pm:
Christopher Columbus or, the Enigma (Cristóvão Colombo - o Enigma)
Starring: Ricardo Trêpa, Manoel de Oliveira
Portugal 2007, 35mm, color, 70 min.

DESCRIPTIONS and IMAGE BELOW from http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2008marchapril/oliveira.html
Oliveira's new film proposes and attempts to solve a historical mystery: Was Christopher Columbus actually Portuguese?
Oliveira offers a typically multifaceted approach to this puzzle, interweaving the story of Manuel Luciano da Silva, a medical doctor and autodidact historian obsessed with Columbus, with visits to historical sites by Oliveira himself and his wife.
"Christopher Columbus" offers a playful return to the subjects of empire, myth and history so dear to Oliveira.

FILM #2 at 9 pm:
No, or the Vain Glory of Command (Non, ou A Vã Glróia de Mandar)
Starring: Luís Miguel Cintra, Diogo Dória, Miguel Guilherme
Portugal 1990, 35mm, color, 119 min.

Oliveira's brilliant meditation on war, history and empire takes as its background and point of departure colonial war in Western Africa in the 1970s, in which guerrilla fighters ultimately defeated Portugal's superior military forces.
Mired in the Angolan jungle, a group of Portuguese soldiers begin to openly question the meaning of the war and, in turn, speculate about their country's imperial history.
Luís Miguel Cintra returns as the wise commander who narrates the film's brilliant flashbacks to Portugal's most spectacular military follies and defeats.
From the film's mysterious opening – a rapturous tracking shot that glides around an ancient African tree – to the stunning battle sequences, "Non" is one of Oliveira's great late films and one of his most politically charged and outspoken works.