The Cinema of Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira is the only filmmaker whose career spans from the silent era to the digital age, and yet there is little written in English about his extensive filmography. This volume, the first to discuss Oliveira’s later works in English, fills this incredible gap in scholarship on the director with fresh and original analysis of over 50 of Oliveira’s films, ranging from 1963’s Rite of Spring to 2009’s Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl.

Organized by tropes and topics, rather than chronological order of release, The Cinema of Manoel de Oliveira creates a unique lens through which to consider the director and the ways in which his work links cinema, literature, and other artforms. Hajnal Király sheds new light on Oliveira’s filmography with new readings of his work in relation to 20th and 21st century history.

Hajnal Király’s in-depth analysis of Manoel de Oliveira’s oeuvre from a psychoanalytic prism is both theoretically sophisticated and thorough in its interpretation of a variety of films. Using the notion of the uncanny as a guiding thread, the author offers a unified vision of Oliveira’s filmography that is a must-read for fans of the renowned Portuguese director. Patrícia Vieira, Professor, CES, University of Coimbra, Portugal and Georgetown University, USA

The Cinema of Manoel de Oliveira establishes significant connections between cinema and other art forms and explores, in a captivating way, twentieth-century Portuguese, European and world history. Dismissing a chronological approach, the book provides an engaging analysis of over 30 different titles, including the latest films by the Portuguese filmmaker. Hugely comprehensive and well researched, this is a fresh reading of Oliveira’s work, which proves that, more than 110 years after his birth, he is still an important reference in the global history of film. Mariana Liz, Research Fellow, University of Lisbon, Portugal