Twentieth screening of the film programme Manoel de Oliveira e o Cinema Português 3”, held in conjunction with the third part of the exhibition of the same name. The screening will feature Manoel de Oliveira's "La Lettre” (1999) and “Momento, uma Canção de Pedro Abrunhosa” (2002), presented by musician and composer Pedro Abrunhosa and professor and researcher Clara Rowland.

3 JUNE | WED | 5PM

LA LETTRE | THE LETTER

Manoel de Oliveira | POR, FRA, ESP | 1999 | 107'

An adaptation and modernization of Madame de Lafayette’s work, in which Madame de Clèves’ moral and marital dilemma is embodied here by the presence of musician Pedro Abrunhosa (in the role played by the Seigneur de Nemours in the original novel), a vaguely Mephistophelean figure with whom the puritanical princess falls in love. The anachronism of the moral conventions governing the characters’ behavior—one of the film’s central themes—also extends to the way music intervenes, notably through the disparity between Schubert’s impromptus (performed by Maria João Pires) and Abrunhosa’s pop music, a contrast that accentuates the clash between the times and values of the past and the present.

MOMENTO, UMA CANÇÃO DE PEDRO ABRUNHOSA | MOMENTO, A SONG BY PEDRO ABRUNHOSA

Manoel de Oliveira | POR | 2002 | 6'

“Momento” marks the second collaboration between Oliveira and singer-songwriter Pedro Abrunhosa. Here, his song “Momento,” and especially its lyrics, inspired Oliveira’s short film.