O QUINTO IMPÉRIO – ONTEM COMO HOJO LE CINQUIÈME EMPIRE

In his life and during his career as a filmmaker, Manoel de Oliveira called on his friend, the great writer Jose Regio (1901-1969), several times and adapted his work (especially after his death): Benilde ou Virgem Mãe in 1975 and O Meu Caso in 1987. It was Regio who prompted him to make Amor perdição by Camilo Castelo Branco and introduced him to the work of Álvaro Carvalhal, the author of Os Canibais. In this programme called “history lessons”, another piece by Régio intrigued Oliveira: El-Rei Sebastião. This piece directly touches on a founding myth of Portugal that was already decisive in Non, that of Sebastianism. But Oliveira did not choose the man immersed in dreams and death, the hidden king who is the tragedy of a country, but his madness, his messianic belief, The Fifth Empire of the title as designated by António Vieira. Here is the proof that Oliveira never forgot the world of social and political reality: the dilemma of a king in the 16th century updated to the beginning of the 21st century, “then as now”. Oliveira said: “This is my most hopeful film.” We should not contradict him. You never know what might happen when a new day dawns. (FF)