Manuel de Oliveira died on Thursday at the age of 106, producer Luis Urbano announced, citing family sources.
The Portuguese director was the oldest active director in the world. Since the release of his first film in 1931, in the era of silent cinema, he has made more than 50 feature and documentary films.
Manuel de Oliveira was born on December 11, 1908 into a bourgeois family in Porto, and became passionate about cinema at the age of eighteen. He notably starred in The Song of Lisbon, the first Portuguese-language film. In 1931, he directed his first short film entitled Douro Faina Fluvial, a documentary dedicated to the workers working on the banks of the Douro River. Under Salazar's dictatorship, he put his career as a manager on hold to take over the family business.
He found the camera again after the Carnation Revolution. After a frustrating love foursome including Love of destruction In 1979 and Francisca In 1981, he produced practically one film per year as of 1985, the year the film was released. Satin shoesa nearly seven-hour-long fresco that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Among other things, No or vainglory to demand (1990), Divine Comedy (1991) Tape (1994), Always beautiful (2006), Christopher Columbus, the puzzle (2007), Angelica's Strange Case (2010) or even Gibo and the shadow (2012).
At the end of 2014, to celebrate his 106th birthday, the director wanted to meet his fans again while launching his latest film in Portugal, the An old man from RestelloIt is a short film that he filmed a few months ago despite his fragile health. A few days earlier, he had been awarded the Grand Officer's Badge of the Legion of Honor by the French Ambassador to Portugal, Jean-François Plarel.
