The Saragossa Manuscript

 Year:  1965

Director:  Wojciech Has

Screenplay:  Tadeusz Kwiatkowski based on the novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki

Starring:  Zbigniew Cybulski, Iga Cembryzńska, Joanna Jędryka

Running Time:  182 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy 

In the Spanish town of Saragossa, during the Napoleonic Wars, two soldiers from opposing sides seek refuge from a battle in an abandoned inn.  They find a large, lavishly illustrated book which one of the soldiers recognise as being written by his grandfather, Alfonso von Wordon (Cybulski), a captain in the Walloon Guard.  The scene moves to Alfonso's story, as he makes his way through the dangerous Sierra Morena Mountains, encountering various bizarre characters including two seductive princesses, a mystical hermit, a possessed man, a cabalist, a rational philosopher, the forces of the Inquisition and groups of travellers and brigands.  All have their own stories to tell.

Based on the 1815 novel by Jan Potocki, this Polish film contains stories within stories within stories, which connect and branch out in unexpected  narrative pathways making it a labyrinth of tales.  The film is beautifully designed, with every frame full of details, and the use of fluid camera movements and skewed angles.  Despite it's forbidding length it never seems to drag. It depicts a beguiling, fairy-tale world where the rational sits cheek by jowl with the supernatural. A world of foolish nobles, charming rogues, bewitched lovers, spirits, demons and clever tricksters.  Some of the stores are creepy, some are exciting, some are dark, some are funny (and this is a very funny film, it has several jokes throughout and there are some very good bits of physical comedy).  When it was released in the USA and Britain it became something of a cult film, even though it was heavily cut.  Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead, referred to it as his favourite film, and surrealist director Luis Buñuel, who rarely wanted to see any film more than once, liked The Saragossa Manuscript so much he watched it three times.  Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola both helped to restore and re-release the film.  Other fans include David Lynch and Neil Gaiman.  It is a demanding film, with it's length and complex, puzzle-box structure, but if you go along with it, it is a delightful, frustrating, entertaining film.     

Zbigniew Cybulski and Joanna Jędryka in The Saragossa Manuscript