The Portuguese director’s stately cine-memoir about his singular life was shot nearly four decades ago but withheld at his request until his death, aged 106
![Visit, or Memories and Confessions review – Manoel de Oliveira’s remarkable testament](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/837c38aeb6b6e138f67f2e706793897edd9baf6a/42_0_667_400/master/667.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTQucG5n&enable=upscale&s=06173c486ae22bb43d227737cb072045)
The remarkable Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, who died in 2015 at the age of 106 and made movies right until the very end, often seems to me a film-maker from a statelier, almost pre-cinematic era: an epistolary director or manuscript-culture director. Here is what could be called his testamentary film, a personal cine-memoir or cine-meditation. It was shot in 1982, but withheld from release at the director’s request until after his death, which would be much further off than anyone imagined. It has only now found a release in the
UK.