'Twenty-third screening in 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 the films “Rencontre Unique” (2007) and “Palavra e Utopia” (2000), both by Manoel de Oliveira, presented by professor and researcher Paulo Cunha.

17 JUN | WED | 5PM

RENCONTRE UNIQUE

Manoel de Oliveira | FRA | 2007 | 3'

Manoel de Oliveira’s contribution to the collective film “Chacun son Cinéma” (2007) presents a surreal encounter between Nikita Khrushchev and Pope John XXIII, in the form of an entertaining and satirical cultural clash.

PALAVRA E UTOPIA | WORD AND UTOPIAManoel de Oliveira | POR, FRA, BRA, ESP | 2000 | 132'
In 1663, Father António Vieira was summoned to Coimbra to appear before the Tribunal of the Holy Office, the dreaded Inquisition. Court intrigues and a temporary misfortune had weakened his position as a celebrated Jesuit preacher and close friend of the late King João IV. Before the judges, Father António Vieira looks back on his past: his youth in Brazil and his novitiate years in Bahia, his connection to the cause of the indigenous peoples, and his early successes in the pulpit. Barred from speaking by the Inquisition, the preacher takes refuge in Rome, where his reputation and success are so great that the Pope agrees not to remove him from his jurisdiction. Queen Christina of Sweden, who has been living in Rome since abdicating the throne, keeps him at court and insists on making him her confessor. But his longing for his homeland is stronger, and Vieira returns to Portugal. However, the cold reception he receives from the new king, Dom Pedro, prompts him to leave again for Brazil, where he spends the last years of his life.