The civilizational order in Manoel de Oliveira’s work

• Grant number: 11/10815-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 14, 2012
• End date: March 13, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Mauro Luiz Rovai
• Grantee: Mauro Luiz Rovai
• Host Investigator: Claudine Haroche
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Institut Interdisciplinaire d’Anthropologie du Contemporain (IIAC), France

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the sociological elements in the work of Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira, by putting together some esthetic resources of film, such as the use of the camera (fixed shots, framing), the presence of music, sound and dialog, lighting, etc., and certain scenes that are recurring in many of his films, which involve encounters and dialogs taking place during 1. meals or situations relating to sociability at meals (whether the characters are seated at the table or not) or 2. trips by different means of transport. The author intends to show "how" these esthetic elements provide, for a certain portion of Oliveira's work, a perspective on the civilizational order - very particularly, the European civilizational order. The main aspect of the methodology consists in analyzing the films, while highlighting, whenever possible, the sequences where there is a marked suspension of time along the plot, such as those mentioned above. The films to be studied are: Non or the Vain Glory of Command (1990), The Divine Comedy (1991), The Convent (1995), Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997), A Talking Picture (2003), Belle Toujours (2006), Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (2009) e The Strange Case of Angelica (2010). (AU)