![]() Thus, in spite of the adventurous and often horrific goings-on, this film often feels more like a history lesson than a swashbuckler.Based upon Jan Potocki's novel from 1813, "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa," this cult classic from Poland has just become available on DVD from the fine folks at FACETS in all its extended, exhausting and splendid glory. Amusing though THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT is, nearly every scene cries out that this is a literary adaptation. The problem may be Has’ obvious fidelity and respect for the original novel. ![]() Even without the ARABIAN NIGHTS motif, the film is plenty confusing. Unfortunately, Has remains deficient in an important area-that of storytelling. In addition, his gift for composition is evident throughout. Yet it still manages to stay afloat, perhaps because of Has’s witty, rather playful tone. The film has a truly giant cast of characters, boasting at least a dozen speaking parts. Those stories often contain supernatural elements including ghosts, Satanic pacts, dire prophecies, pre NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD flesh-gnashing zombies, and two Tunisian sister-witches…ĭirector Wojciech Has (THE HOURGLASS SANITORIUM, MEMOIRS OF A SINNER), certainly deserves points for ambition. Further complicating matters is a recurring motif where the hero awakens under a gallows tree, realizes that the preceding events have all been a dream, and, sure enough, finds himself waking up under that same gallows tree again and again… It all adds up to what can only be described as an intellectual crossword puzzle.Ī major scene toward the end of THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT has a group of characters attempting to sort out the impossibly convoluted narrative they find themselves trapped inside-it’s that confusing. The characters within each story also have a passion for storytelling, as do the characters in each of their stories, until the recursive individual tales eventually parallel, extend or just fill in the blanks of one another. Those stories often contain supernatural elements including ghosts, Satanic pacts, dire prophecies, pre NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD flesh-gnashing zombies, and two Tunisian sister-witches who make several appearances. The book tells of a young captain traveling through Spain where just about everyone he meets shares a story. …the visuals create a universe of their own, as demanding, exhausting, yet ultimately rewarding as the film itself.īased on a famous French novel by Count Jan Potocki (published in 1813, although it took until 1996 for a complete version to appear in English), THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT opens with a soldier finding an old book in the midst of an ongoing battle. As befits the film’s subject matter, the visuals create a universe of their own, as demanding, exhausting, yet ultimately rewarding as the film itself. At its best, it’s a veritable symphony of light and shadow (at its worst, it’s just murky). Hard, gritty, and yet appropriately dreamy, Jahoda’s work vividly brings the film’s abundance of surreal gothic imagery to life. The widescreen compositions are stunning and the atmospheric photography is even more so. ![]() The film is a visual feast from start to finish. Special mention must be made of Mieczyslaw Jahoda‘s impressive b/w photography. “Will undoubtedly send most viewers screaming for the exits, in search of the nearest Sonny Chiba film.” It’s a flawed, yet undeniably thought-provoking and sumptuous work. Possibly the farthest the screen has ever taken the ARABIAN NIGHTS story-within-a-story motif, this distinctly literary exercise is not a film for the uncommitted or casual viewer. A Polish art film made in 1965 and barely distributed stateside, THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (REKOPIS ZNALEZIONY W SARAGOSSIE) has turned up in its uncut three-hour version (courtesy of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese). A film that, according to Shock Cinema magazine’s Steven Puchalski, “Will undoubtedly send most viewers screaming for the exits, in search of the nearest Sonny Chiba film.” That’s probably true.
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