Manoel de Oliveira-Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo ('Voyage to the Beginning of the World') (1997)

"One of the most beautiful films ever made about aging. Voyage To The Beginning Of The World brings together 89-year-old Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira and Italian icon Marcello Mastroianni, in what would be his last film. Playing a filmmaker clearly based on Oliveira, Mastoianni takes three actor friends on a driving tour of a mountain village, where one of the actors (Jean-Yves Gautier) is united with the elderly aunt he has never met." –Dave Kehr, NY Daily News




Family becomes the link between the past and present, in a film of great simplicity, dignity and wisdom. Through Mastroianni, Oliveira speculates on beginnings and endings. The village is in the north (where the Portuguese nation began) on what remains of the past (a primitive wooden statue, the meaning of which has been lost) and on what disappears (the ruins of a hotel). The cinematography, by Renato Berta, is at once radiantly clear and surrealistically devoid of detail - as if what were seeing was already a recollection." –Dave Kehr, NY Daily News




Manoel is aging film director who travels with the film crew through Portugal in search of the origins of Afonso, a famous French actor whose father emigrated from Portugal to France and in process remembers his own youth. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0061781/plotsummary)




It's a personal voyage to the depths of the memory of a man and to the family past of another. Slow paced, very well directed and with a great script, "Voyage to the beggining of the world" is a typical portuguese movie, filled with a sense of nostalgy that defines the portuguese people. Indeed a great movie by a great director, the oldest in the world. (amazon.com)









I must say that this film, made by the most prestigious portuguese director (Manoel de Oliveira), is a great reflexion about Portugal's more typical feelings and about life in general. It has in it the symbols of many things like the hard work shown by Pedro Macau, the statue. It is also a way to show the beautiful landscape (at least a sample of it) that my country has… It is important to notice the past of Afonso, the son of a portuguese emigrant in France, which is very common in Portugal (there are about 750 000 portuguese emigrants in France) and the recent portuguese history told by the country old woman. It's a grace to watch to this touching movie. In it Marcello Mastroianni says Goodbye to cinema… and to life. He did the best way, I must say. This peace of art proves at least two things… Poetry can be written through images, and the portuguese people have poetry on its spirit; Oliveira with his now 93 years old proved it… Behold a master piece!… (http://imdb.com/title/tt0120443/usercomments)