A Talking Picture (2003) - Manoel de Oliveira

Manoel de Oliveira's A Talking Picture begis in Lisbon, Portugal where a mother and daughter depart on a Cruise through the Mediterranean and eventually the Indian Ocean.  On day trips to Marseilles, Pompeii, Athens, Istanbul, and Cairo, the mother, a History professor at the University of Lisbon, takes the opportunity to educate her daughter on history, religion, mystery, and war, among other thing; on her way to her husband in bombay.  After Cairo, the ship spends two nights at see, where the woman and daughter befriend a Captain, who is entertaining three famous woman from different cultures and native languages.  Manoel de Oliveira's A Talking Picture is a haunting fable that delivers a beautiful meditation on civilization, the birth and death of it, and the violence that has created what it is today.  Manoel de Oliveira's visual aesthetic is beautiful but understated, with the various landmarks such as the Egyptian Pyramids or Greek temple being prominent in the frame.  They tower over the mother and daughter in some compositions, giving added weight and a sense of importance to these artifacts of civilization.  A Talking Picture really captures how civilization moves from place to place, constantly evolving.  Whether it be the Americans, who are mostly Europeans who moved, to the Egyptian exodus of the Israelites, de Oliveira examines civilization through history.  The women who the Captain befriends, all coming from different countries and speaking different languages, seem to represent the European Union.  An intellectual film that is bound to turn some people off due to educational driven narrative early on, A Talking Picture becomes more a striking examination of humanity, with a startling conclusion.  Manoel de Oliveira's A Talking Picture is a heartfelt reminder to civilization that we all come fromt he same place originally, though the haunting ending is a symbolic reminder of how violence usually goes hand in hand with progress. 

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