A timeline for this essay is dominated by the remarkable life of Manoel Oliveira who died in 2015 at the age of 106 years garlanded with decorations for his great life service to Portugal both as an exemplary citizen and as a director and producer of numerous films dating from the silent black and white period to colour and the digital age.

His early interest in film-making was that of an enthusiastic amateur who used his spare time from running a family business in making documentaries and shorts concerning the social life of his beloved home city of Porto and the north of Portugal.

In 1971, at the age of 63, he embarked on his professional career by directing his second feature film titled Past and Present which conformed to the rigid censorship rules of the Estado Novo but was well received internationally. This was followed by two decades of increasing success due in part to the 1974 Carnation Revolution freeing writers and artists from the inhibitions of the Salazar regime but also because Oliveira absorbed the new techniques used internationally to promote the New Wave of cinematography.


The new liberty enabled subject matter to be broadened to include previously sanctioned aspects of social life and its affairs of love. The epitome of this experimental cinema came in 1985 with Satin Slipper which was two years in the making and ended as a seven-hour epic which won awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals. Similar awards were achieved in 1988 with The Cannibals. These two films then set the stage for the rest of Manoel Oliveira´s long life with ever increasing fame and acclaim for the wide range of his work which averaged one film a year until his death.

Several biographies are available via the internet and these include chronological listings of all his work which essentially should be seen at retrospectives, occasional showings on TV and in the few remaining public cinemas-

The first thirty years of the 20th century were not particularly auspicious for the new art form of cinema in Portugal. Aurélio da Paz dos Reis made a series of documentaries which were exhibited in church halls, schools and studios but the number of professional directors was sparse and their production sporadic. This changed with the foundation of the Estado Novo in 1933 which quickly realised the utility value of film for the promotion of nationalism and its new cultural values. Financial support for the production of comédias portuguesas and semi-documentaries showing traditional Portuguese life was made available through the Secretariado de Propaganda Nacional. Examples of this are A Canção de Lisboa (1933) and Aldeia de Roupa Branca (1938) .

Despite the rigidity imposed by the State, the influence of French. Italian and Brasilian New Wave cinema gradually took hold. Film clubs and studios opened in Lisbon and Porto and cinematography entered the curriculum of Polytechnics and some Universities both as an art form and to serve the interests of Estado Novo by presenting Portuguese Society as a conservative civilisation. However, deepening political problems with society and the colonies could not prevent the intrusion of radical themes and led Novo Cinema and neo-realism to low-cost productions which often used poetic imagery to express critical ideas. Typical of this was Paulo Roch´s Os Verdes Anos (1963).

The Revolution of 05 April 1974 turned everything about. The SPN became Instituto Português de Cinema and encouraged directors such as António de Macedo, António da Cunha Telles and Fernando Lopes to explore previously forbidden subjects which included social poverty and justice, sexuality and the return of Portuguese settlers from the war-torn colonies. Veredas (1977) by Joâo César Monteiro and Bom Povo Portuguese (1980) are thought to be typical of this period.

International influence, especially in the form of Hollywood epic movies, and the emergence of Manoel Oliveira the leader of an expanding Portuguese industry caused a movement onwards from the eighties to more expensive productions which mirrored a deep, philosophical interest in Portuguese history and legend.

Mention must also be made of the use which was made of Portuguese scenery for the staging by foreign film-makers of feature films. A good recent example of this is The Portuguese Nun (2009) which provides atmospheric scenes of Lisbon in the story of a French actress of Portuguese descent who has series of dream-like encounters with Lisboetas. The Capital´s identity as a haven for spies is exploited in TV series such as Smiley´s People (1980s), Lisbon (1956) a U.S drama starring Ray Milland and Storm over Lisbon (1994).

The James Bond On Her Majesty´s Secret Service (1969) was largely made in Portugal and a Chilean drama The House of Spirits (1993) starring Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep used São Bento as a backdrop for the Chilean Parliament.

Apart from the final works of Manoel Oliveira, there has been no groundbreaking director/producer to excite the collective imagination during the first quarter of the 21st century but, like Oliveira, he or she may be a slow starter who is yet to delight us with images and stories of the Portuguese people.

by Roberto Cavaleiro - Tomar 28 November 2025