O Gebo e a sombra (Gebo and the Shadow). 2012. Portugal/France. Written and directed by Manoel de Oliveira. Adapted from the play by Raul Brandão. With Michael Lonsdale, Claudia Cardinale, Jeanne Moreau. Courtesy of Cinema Guild. In French; English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy of Pyramide. 90 min.
The pleasures are myriad and immense in 103-year-old Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira final feature, based on an early-20th-century period drama by Raul Bandão that is said to have influenced Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and starring three of the most brilliant, vital actors ever to have appeared on screen. Michel Lonsdale and Claudia Cardinale keep a candle burning in the window for their adult son, who has been missing for eight years, but their emotions are conflicted and their words redolent with secret meanings, especially in the presence of their daughter-in-law Leonor Silveira and neighbor Jeanne Moreau.