06/09/2007

An Out-of-Competition section dedicated to Masters would not be complete without Manoel de Oliveira: the most long-lived of the European directors (and the most prolific, with a very healthy average of one film per year) brings to the Lido his film Christopher Columbus: The Enigma [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

More than Belle toujours [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was shown at the Festival last year, this new chapter recalls previous works such as A Talking Picture and Porto of My Childhood, both presented in Venice: the historical and artistic disquisitions of the first film are combined with the autobiographical elements of the second, in a sort of collective biography of an entire Country.

Portugal, which has always been a major theme in the work of the artist, is this time at the centre of an investigation into the mystery (theenigma of the title) of the origins of Christopher Colombus. As recently as 2006, four books were published which renewed interest in the Lusitanian origins of the man who discovered America: de Oliveira drew his inspiration from “Cristóvão Colon era Português" by Manuel and Sílvia Jorge da Silva, the husband-and-wife team who have devoted their lives to researching the subject. In the film (which opens with Portuguese emigration after the Second World War, and ends in the present day) the main roles are played by the young actors Ricardo Trepa and Leonor Baldaque, who are then replaced by the older Manoel and Maria Isabel De Oliveira. To those who ask him why he has chosen to appear before the camera, the master gives a pragmatic response: “to age the actors using make-up and special effects is too expensive, and given the obvious resemblance between me and Ricardo, who is my grandson, the film production crew insisted that we opt for this more economical solution”.

After the “sebastianism” of The Fifth Empire, de Oliveira continues to look at the distinctive characteristics of the Portuguese soul: this time the yearning for the infinite, already rooted in the mythical origins of Lisbon (the ancient Ulysses, nomen omen), expressed by the great explorers of the Renaissance and Modernity, which sailed the same routes travelled along today – in the ironic final scene which is typical of Oliveira – by cruise ships.

This is the last image in this history lesson which is never pedantic, suspended between a present and a past which is more or less distant, often removed, sometimes contested: just like the identity of Christopher Columbus himself, a man that the Portuguese lay claim to as their fellow countryman: “he was born in Cuba, the illegitimate son of a courtier, and he gave the name of the town where he was born to the largest of the Antilles islands”. And so de Oliveira, who meanwhile is working on new projects, says that nevertheless “producers don’t want to risk their own money, nor the banks’ money: the success of a film is too unpredictable, an enigma!”.

François d’Artemare is the exception, as he produced Christopher Columbus – The Enigma with his Filmes do Tejo, in collaboration with the French production company Les Films de l’apres-midi, and with the support of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, the ICAM, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the television networks ZDF and ARTE. Rezo are in charge of international sales.

(Translated from Italian)