The Strange Case of Angelica

O Estranho Caso de Angélica

A young photographer accepts an unusual job from a rich family: to take a few photographs of their daughter Angélica, who died shortly before her wedding and now lies smiling on her deathbed. This film by the great Manoel de Oliveira is a wonderful allegory on the magical power cinema has to “resurrect,” to bring life back, to triumph over death. A modern take on the “sleeping beauty” myth, a love letter to cinema and its history (the sublime dream sequences revive silent cinema), a surrealist filmic poem – The Strange Case of Angelica crosses the expanse between dreams and reality, there and back again, to remind us how grateful we should be for that divine phantom known as the seventh art.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Manoel de Oliveira
Script: Manoel de Oliveira
Cinematography: Sabine Lancelin
Editing: Valérie Loiseleux
Sound: Henri Maikoff
Actors: Ricardo Trêpa, Pilar López de Ayala, Leonor Silveira, Luís Miguel, Ana Maria Magalhães, Adelaide Teixeira
Producers: François d’Artemarre
Co-production: Les Films De L'apres Midi, Filmes Do Tejo Ii, Eddie Saeta, Mostra Internacional De Cinema Sao Paulo
Co-producers: Maria João Mayer, Luis Miñaro, Renata de Almeida, Léon Cakoff
Costumes: Adelaide Trêpa
Sets: Christian Marti, José Pedro Penha
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: France, Portugal, Brazil
Production Year: 2010
Duration: 95'
Contact: Pyramide International

Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira (1908–2015) enjoyed the longest career than any other filmmaker in the history of cinema. Beginning his career as a racing driver and athlete, he made his first silent film in 1931. After a film flop in 1942, he became a port vintner. Returning to film in 1972, he has made a large number of authorial works featuring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, and Michel Piccoli which have made him one of cinema’s most unique, astonishingly youthful proponents.

Filmography

1942 Aniki-Bóbó
1963 Rite of Spring
1972 Past and Present
1978 Doomed Love
1988 The Cannibals
1996 Party
2003 A Talking Picture
2006 Belle Toujours
2009 Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl
2010 The Strange Case of Angelica
2012 Gebo and the Shadow