“To stop working is to die,” the Portuguese director declared recently, eager to begin filming Singularidades de uma Rapariga loura (Singularities of a Young Blonde Girl), based on a story by the great realist novelist Ica de Queiroz. “If cinema is taken away from me, I will die.”
Since November 23, between the small street of Anchieta, in the old Chiado district of Lisbon, and an old tile shop, located not far away, Manuel de Oliveira has been walking, with his hat screwed on his head, his silhouette, still upright but also “His hat.” “Energy and a sense of humor,” according to the testimony of the film’s main actress, Katharina Wallenstein.
“He knows very well what he wants, but, like other directors, he has a lot of ideas coming to mind at the moment and improvises a lot during filming,” the young actress of a 22-year-old Portuguese girl told AFP.
In the film, Macario (played by Ricardo Trippa, the director's grandson) confesses his passionate love for a young blonde girl to a stranger he meets on the train.
“The particularities of Rapariga Laura start from the idea that we tell a stranger things that we would never say to a friend or a wife,” Manuel de Oliveira explained last weekend during a press conference.
Tomorrow is the “official” day of his birthday, because, as he himself explains, “like many children of that time”, Manuel de Oliveira was “recorded the day after” his birth, and the director plans to shoot footage from Lisbon. The man is in a hurry. Not because of any age-related urgency, but because he would like to see his film ready for the Berlin Film Festival next February.
Because, at the age of 100, Manuel de Oliveira showed healthy vitality, and it even increased tenfold over time. “I only relax when I'm shooting,” he says.
Since his first production, in 1931, a silent documentary about his hometown, Porto (Douro, River Works), the director has made 44 feature films, including 20 since the age of 80. “I have no secrets. It is the whim of nature that decides and governs all this. We must respect it.”
But he who started in “the good old days of silent films,” as he says, has not forgotten the circumstances of his beginnings: “I did everything on my own: production and directing. I was behind the camera, I was taking care of the sound and picture. I found the actors there. I loaded everything I needed into the truck: spotlights, cables, and two 24-volt lighting batteries.
The director, who has filmed with the greats (Mastroianni, Deneuve, Piccoli, Malkovich) but is still afraid of not finding the means, adds: “One day I may have to film again under these conditions if I don't get the financing.” To photograph.
Because, even before finishing filming on Singularities of a Young Blonde Girl, which is scheduled to end on December 19, Manuel de Oliveira was already thinking about the next film, “The Strange Case of Angélique,” a project dating back to the 1950s. “. But it was rejected at that time by the Information Secretariat.
“I'd like to do it at Cannes in May. I didn't have time to do a third Venice film in September. He pretended to be remorseful, and looked amused.
