It's not quite as life-changing as all that, but it's certainly playful and very interesting as a study of narrative flow.
The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:9
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.3/10
Runtime: 3 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: This captivating Polish film was based on the most famous work of Count Jan Patocki (1761-1815), written in French (and published in France in 1813) as a series of stories to amuse his ailing wife.... This captivating Polish film was based on the most famous work of Count Jan Patocki (1761-1815), written in French (and published in France in 1813) as a series of stories to amuse his ailing wife. It concerns the quirky adventures of a young captain of the Walloon guards under the King of Spain during his travels through that country. The captain must pass several trials to prove himself in order to become a descendent of the powerful Mauretanian family. Featuring ghosts, a good deal of sensuality, and an ever-shifting narrative structure, the film found an unlikely champion in Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, who mentioned the film to be among his favorites in the early 70's. It found a new group of admirers when it was revived for a handful of festival screenings in 1997. [More]
Starring: Zbigniew Cybulski, Iga Cembrznska, Joanna Jedryka
Starring: Zbigniew Cybulski, Iga Cembrznska, Joanna Jedryka
Director: Wojciech Has
Director: Wojciech Has
Screenwriter: Jerzy Skarzynski, Tadeusz Myszorek
Composer: Krysztof Penderecki
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Reviews for The Saragossa Manuscript
a maddening celebration of the power of narrative to amuse, bewilder, disorient and entrap.
The director’s eye for baroque black-and-white imagery puts him behind only Bava and Welles, while the film’s sharp social satire gives heft to its ambition.
Infus[es] a similar unearthly cadenceo the swashbuckling genre that Jodorowski did to the western with El Topo.
A wonderful, surreal assault on narrative; it's funny, intelligent, and a ridiculously sly good time.
The three-hour movie is frequently described as a Chinese box of imaginative stories within stories based on an early 19th-century novel by Jan Potocki.
Surely one of the most convolutedly plotted films ever to reach the silver screen.
These trials suggest a goofy, sprawling, all-purpose allegory so overstuffed with symbolism that it plays as a kind of epic spoof of the form.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| 19% 19% | Transformers: Revenge … |
| 55% 55% | Orphan |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 88% 88% | Ballast |
| 66% 66% | The Merry Gentleman |
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