13 Nov Famalicão
The legend says that the family “Famalião” began using a waypoint to explore the “fatigue of hikers resting in his tent.” Over time, the tent was modernized and Famalicão became a transit point for hikers, to an important communications center between the main towns and cities in the north. The famous voice of Vasco Santana shows the huge influx of visitors that animate the land, the local press, the main boulevards, squares, buildings, the monument of Camilo Castelo Branco, as well as the Camiliano Museum. Oliveira starts here one fascination for the deceased writer, who was later revealed in The Day of Despair, Love of Perdition and Francisca.
When we see the chair where Camilo “blind and desperate, shot, killed himself,” it’s possible to realize an interest of the director by a theme that will be present throughout his work: death. Famalicão, has a romantic side, showing places visited by Alexandre Herculano, Eca de Queiroz, Ramalho Ortigão, among others. The village doesn’t live only from romantic memories, it was impulsioned by an industrial field, one of the most important in the country where the timber industry stands out, wiring, buttons and watches. Other characteristics from the town, wasn’t absorved by the progress, keeping a large variety of cultural traditions. Manoel de Oliveira says Famalicão was made “on request, and to keep the financial year ‘, revealing a minor work, but not least in its rich cinematic repertoire. Unlike the Labor on the Douro River, isn’t a vanguard documentary, but a sociocultural portrait of his time, made honestly, openly and with a strong popular tone.
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