Happy birthday to the remarkable Portuguese writer-director Manoel de Oliveira, who turns 100 today and is still working, having started production on a new movie starring his 36-year-old grandson Ricardo Trêpa.
A former racing driver and athlete, de Oliveira made his film debut in 1931 with the short documentary, Labour on the Duoro River/ Douro, Faina Fluvial. He struggled to make films during the Salazar dictatorship, which imprisoned him for 10 days in 1963.
De Oliveira has been most prolific since he turned 80 in the 1980s, making a new film most years, among them such gems as I'm Going Home/Je Renter à la Maison, featuring his regular collaborators Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich.
Clint hints at final role
Clint Eastwood has hinted that Gran Torino may be his swansong as an actor. "There aren't too many parts lying around for 78-year-olds, and I don't intend to start playing 40 anytime soon," he says.
In Gran Torino, he stars as a racist, foul-mouthed ex-marine who refuses to move from a neighbourhood now populated with Asians.
In the annual awards of the US National Board of Review, Eastwood was named best actor for Gran Torino, fuelling his Oscar prospects in that category.
A Little drama at Sundance
Next month's Sundance Film Festival will present the world premiere of Northern Ireland drama Five Minutes of Heaven. It dramatises the story of Alistair Little, a young Ulster Volunteer Force member imprisoned for the murder of Jim Griffin, a 19-year-old Catholic, in Lurgan in 1975. Liam Neeson plays Little as an adult, with James Nesbitt as the grown-up Griffin.
Shorts on rights
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has organised a competition for a short film on a human rights-related topic relevant to Ireland.
Five entries will be shortlisted for screening at an event next summer, when the winner will be chosen. The prize is a place at the Summer School on Cinema and Human Rights at the European Inter- University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice. See www.iccl.ie.
