Portugal, Europe and the World – Geopolitics and the Human Condition in Manoel de Oliveira’s films
3 June 10:00 to 11:00
47, Wellington Square, Basement, Lecture Room 1
Carolin Overhoff Ferreira
In this lecture I will expand my study of Oliveira’s universalist conception of Portugal by looking at the entire body of feature films by the Portuguese director. By doing so I will take into account both his argument that Portuguese culture has something important to offer because it has preserved Western values and traditions throughout centuries, and his critique regarding the dehumanization of the modern world – manifested as much in the authoritarianism of traditional Portuguese bourgeoisie as in the status of Western civilization more generally. It should be noted that Oliveira’s geopolitical approach varies considerably in his extensive oeuvre, as does the director’s universalist method, which consists of using a particular situation to draw generalizing conclusions concerning the dilemmas of the human condition. The filmmaker’s universe is, nonetheless, always rooted in Judeo-Christian culture, and deals, more often than not, with the tension between human kind’s inclination to sin and the former’s possible salvation.
