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A portrait of an obsessive 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 crowning achievements.
Original Release
11/25/1981
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Teresa Menezes | Francisca 'Fanny' Owen / Francisca "Fanny" Owen |
Diogo Doria | José Augusto |
Mário Barroso | Camilo (escritor Camilo Castelo Branco) / Camilo (Camilo Castelo Branco) |
Francisco Brás | |
Nuno Carinhas | Marcelino de Matos |
João Bénard da Costa | (as Duarte de Almeida) / Duarte de Almeida |
Isabel de Castro | |
Manuela de Freitas | Raquel |
Glória de Matos | Rita Owen |
Lia Gama | D. Josefa |
Directors
Writers
Manoel de Oliveira, Agustina Bessa-Luís
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Teresa Menezes | Francisca 'Fanny' Owen / Francisca "Fanny" Owen |
Diogo Doria | José Augusto |
Mário Barroso | Camilo (escritor Camilo Castelo Branco) / Camilo (Camilo Castelo Branco) |
Francisco Brás | |
Nuno Carinhas | Marcelino de Matos |
João Bénard da Costa | (as Duarte de Almeida) / Duarte de Almeida |
Isabel de Castro | |
Manuela de Freitas | Raquel |
Glória de Matos | Rita Owen |
Lia Gama | D. Josefa |
João Guedes | Marques |
Cecília Guimarães | Judite |
Adelaide João | Clotilde |
Teresa Madruga | Franzina (frail) / Franzina |
Alexandre Melo | Raimundo |
Rui Mendes | Manuel Negrão |
Antonio Caldeira Pires | José de Melo |
Sílvia Rato | Maria Owen |
Paulo Rocha | Doctor |
Laura Soveral |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Paulo Branco | Executive Producer |
António-Pedro Vasconcelos | Executive Producer |
Jorge Alves | Producer |