Misterios de Lisboa (2010) directed by Raul Ruiz
I finished watching the late Raul Ruiz’s mesmerizing 4 1/2 hour film late last night. It’s similar to The Saragossa Manuscript with its labyrinth of interlocking tales, but whereas that film is a weird mix of horror and humor, Mysteries of Lisbon is melodrama through and through. It’s a film obsessed with the need for storytelling and yet it seems utterly convinced that storytelling can do us no good. That may make it sound bleak, but if I summarize the plot it will sound outrightly comical and overly lush. There are orphans, widows, soldiers, priests, pirates, gypsies, counts, and businessmen, and some characters are more than one at a given time. At some points the tragedies and absurdities seem about to coalesce into some final meaning only to snowball past into the realm of mystery. There are a lot of details that never get fully explained but these seem deliberate and I’m curious to see what I pick up on with a second viewing. I may hold out to get my hands on the original 6 hour series but I’m definitely watching again.
