Filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira was a legend, there’s no denying that. Over the course of his 50+ year career, de Oliveira covered various genres and tones in more than a dozen features. He’s also one of the rare filmmakers to receive a Career Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival and the Honorary Golden Palm from Cannes. And now, film fans can enjoy one of his greatest works, “Francisca,” sporting a brand-new 4K restoration later this month.
For those unaware, “Francisca” is based on the novel by Agustina Bessa-Luís and tells the true story of a strange love affair that involved real-life author Camilo Castelo Branco, his friend José Augusto, and the object of his affection, Francisca. And in honor of the film arriving in virtual cinemas next week, we’re thrilled to give our readers a first look at the trailer, showcasing just how lovely de Oliveira’s film looks in 4K, providing a new life for a film that is nearly 40 years old.
The New 4K restoration of “Francisca” is set to arrive at virtual cinemas, courtesy of Grasshopper Film, attached to Film at Lincoln Center, Acropolis Cinema, and Laemmle Theatres on November 13. Previously, the restoration premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival. You can watch the new trailer below.
Here’s Film at Lincoln Center’s description of the feature:
A sinister, absorbing portrait of a mutually destructive love affair, Manoel de Oliveira’s Francisca is based on a novel by Agustina Bessa-Luís, whose work he’d later adapt twice more. The book’s re-telling of a troubled passage in real-life author Camilo Castelo Branco life—his friend José Augusto embarked on a perverse game of marital cat and mouse with Francisca, the woman the novelist loved—led Oliveira to new levels of stylistic and formal imagination. (It helped that his wife, a distant relative of the historical Francisca, gave him access to a cache of the woman’s letters.) With its elaborate title cards, its abundance of shots in which the action is oriented directly toward the camera, its gloomy interiors, and its show-stopping gala set-pieces, Francisca is an exacting, sumptuous and utterly inimitable cinematic experience, and one of Oliveira’s (I’m Going Home, The Strange Case of Angelica, Doomed Love) crowning achievements.
