The beautiful and the eunuch (about some dissonances in the charming bourgeoisie of Manoel de Oliveira's cinema)

Abstract

The Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015) seems faithful to a disjunctive method of film composition that systematically causes shocks to his viewers in such a way that it makes the identification with what is shown on the screen very difficult. In this paper we will reflect on one of the procedures that tend to strengthen this method and which has an effect on the viewer that should be evaluated with special care due to its strong ironic potential: it is the insertion of dissonant figures - lame, maimed people and alleged eunuchs - in the set of elegant characters that make up the exquisite bourgeois social circles depicted in many of his films.