Operafest Lisboa 2025

"The Day of Despair"

Manoel de Oliveira

Cine-Opera

9 SEP | 19h

Cinemateca Portuguesa

With Mário Barroso, Teresa Madruga, Luis Miguel Cintra, Diogo Dória

Portugal, 1992 - 76 min
M/12

Oliveira explores Camilo Castelo Branco's final years through the writer's letters, reflecting on his conflicts and dramas, as well as his tormented relationship with Ana Plácido. Filmed entirely at Camilo's house in S. Miguel de Seide, it is one of Oliveira's most austere films. The shot that follows the carriage wheels at the beginning of the film, as well as the final long shot, make The Day of Despair an elucidating example of Oliveira's use of them.