Os canibais

The sign of fatality in Manoel de Oliveira’s work here finds its most occult and exquisite expression. An Oliveira finally recognized and awarded by everyone, already running at cruising speed (one film per year) since the extraordinary Soulier de Satin (which earned him a special Golden Lion in Venice), in 1988 discovered another “virgin”, Margarida, played by an unknown who would become his unlikely muse: Leonor Silveira. The story? A gentle soul, who despises the love of a man who cannot bear being unloved, falls in love with another – a mysterious count who marries her. But he has a terrible secret that the poor woman only discovers with horror on her wedding night. That said, if Os Canibais thoroughly summons up all the previous “frustrated loves” (to the point that it might even belong to the famous tetralogy), everything here suggests a different meaning. It is a film-opera, sung by performers and played in playback by actors according to the libretto composed for the film by João Paes, the author of the anachronistic contemporary scores of Benilde or Virgem Mãe, Amor de perdição and Francisca. “His text? That of a writer of little-known 19th century fantastic tales, Álvaro Carvalhal. Oliveira combines laughter with fear, which can only come from the diabolical violin made by Paganini, who is also called in for the carnival of this macabre farce. He presents a horror film, one of his most free, sublimated by a supreme irony. (FF)