My friend Laurence Klinger told me today about Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal's resident master filmmaker and the oldest movie director in the world. Laurence, a man of impeccable taste, put Oliveira in the same category as Fellini, and a cursory web search seems to verify the fact that the 102 year old director is highly revered... Below is a trailer of Oliveira's latest film, "The Strange Case of Angelica" produced last year... Here's a snippet from a nice interview also...Euronews: How do you see the future of Europe?
De Oliveira: Europe is swamped by myths, both historic and religious: There is the belief that democracy is the most important thing. People push democracy forward at the expense of religion. The EU has one goal: one single king and one single pope, and that can be generalised as Brussels at the centre of things. I think that is extraordinary, but it is not too difficult to imagine. But, there are competing winds blowing through the regions, idiosyncrasies, languages, traditions. The goal is going to be difficult: to arrive at a solution acceptable to all.
Euronews: What do you see as the most important problems facing society today?
De Oliveira: There are many: television only shows porn and violence against children. Mothers have to work and so cannot be at home for their children, who just sit in front of the television. We have lost our values.
Euronews: Many accept that cinema and culture should not be funded by the state. What do you say to that?
De Oliveira: If I make a film, I work with a whole range of people: I use many actors, many specialists. I employ many small companies, and we all pay tax. Even if the film gets a state grant, I am never sure if that grant is bigger or smaller than the money we pay in taxes. The state always wins. But I work in a whole range of fields – that is what is interesting. If you stop, you die; if you keep going, you live.
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