Last Friday night I had the special treat of not only seeing the new film from Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, but of also seeing the director himself. While this may not seem like such a big deal at first, when you factor in that de Oliveira is 99 years old it’s a very special treat indeed. In fact, the Portuguese director has made 1 film a year since 1990 (when he was 80 years old). He may not be the most overtly politcal director, but his exploration of time, place, modernity and humanity does speak to the world at large:

“I was never a political man,” Mr. Oliveira said in a recent e-mail message from Portugal. “But my obsession is with humanism, and I reject all action which is damaging to man.” [The New York Times]

His latest film (and the one I saw on Friday) is called Christopher Columbus, The Enigma and is an unconventional narrative exploration of Portugal’s connection with the Western world, specifically through a couple’s quest to prove that Christopher Columbus was actually from Portugal:

The new “Christopher Columbus” uses the quest of its hero ” a researcher trying to prove Columbus was born in Portugal ” to contemplate the once mighty empire’s central role in the age of discovery. “It expresses a certain melancholy before the greatness of a past faced with the mediocrity we have come down to today,” Mr. Oliveira wrote. [The New York Times]

Christopher Columbus is a part of The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s amazing retrospective of de Oliveira’s work and New Yorkers should really try hard to take advantage of the films available to them through the retrospective. There will be screenings of 18 of the centenarian director’s work including Voyage to the Beginning of the World, A Talking Picture, Doomed Love and Abraham’s Valley.

If you live in New York City, or near by, I beg you to and check out some of his movies. If you aren’t from NYC, try and rent one of the few films available here in the US. The trailer for Christopher Columbus is below along with some of his other films - enjoy!