Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015)

Films, films,

The best of them

Are like good books

So rich and deep

They’re hard to breach.

Cinema isn’t easy,

For life is complicated

And art is indefinable.

Or maybe it’s life that’s indefinable

And art complicated.

Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira, the world’s oldest active filmmaker has passed away today at the age of 106. His career as a filmmaker spanned eight decades. He made both documentary films and fictional work.

Watch his first film Douro, faina fluvial [Working on the Douro River] (1931) here. Read Jonathan Rosenbaum’s piece on de Oliveira on the eve of his 100th birthday in Film Comment here.