The Saragossa Manuscript

1972
7.8| 3h3m| en
Details

During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.

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Also starring Iga Cembrzyńska

Reviews

Freaktana A Major Disappointment
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Monkeywess This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind
Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
gavin6942 Upon finding a book that relates his grandfather's story, an officer ventures through Spain meeting a wide array of characters, most of whom have a story of their own to tell.The film was released in Poland uncut at 182 minutes, but it was shortened for release in the U.S. and UK at 147 minutes and 125 minutes, respectively. During the 1990s Jerry Garcia, together with Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, financed a restoration and subtitling of an uncut print of the film. The restored film, re-released in 2001, is commercially available in VHS and DVD formats.The film is among 21 digitally restored classic Polish films chosen for Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema.I don't even know that this needs a review. It is a great film, although a bit long for the casual viewer. When you have Scorsese and Coppola both endorsing a film, that is a great sign. Then throw in Luis Bunuel, and you know you have something special. But Jerry Garcia? I highly doubt any other film can claim such a diverse range of fans.
birck The comments on this film seem evenly distributed between favor and disfavor. At this date, I can't understand why anyone would not like it, but that's me. I first saw it in 1967, while I was in college. I loved it, and went so far as to locate and purchase the book(s) from which it was adapted. And that was before the internet, and Amazon, and Bookfinder. One of the books I didn't manage to get until I got to London. Reading it, I was amazed to realize that the film actually includes remnants of every story in the book(s): when, for example, Alphonso opens a door to find a bewigged scholar interrupted while declaiming "...Then the first skeleton tore out his own arm-bone and began hitting me with it..."-the whole story is there in the book, i.e., what the skeletons were doing there in the first place. The books, Manuscript Found At Saragossa and the New Decameron, are rightly considered Literary Treasures of Poland, along the lines of Notre-Dame á Paris in France, War and Peace in Russia, or Moby-Dick here. It's about stories and storytelling.By the end of the film, to say the least, the viewer has been presented with a convincing picture of sixteenth-century Europe from different angles, and it's safe to say that no other film, before or since, in color or Black-and-white, has done it better.
NIKOS SONIC (1966nm) I saw this one on TV many years ago and I was captivated! In the second change I had, I recored it on video and when my cassete was destroyed, I made a hopeless search in the internet, only to find that soon I could buy it on DVD. And I did. I just can't get away from this masterpiece of cinematography. Based on a book, clearly inspired from the 1001 nights, telling a story inside a story, inside a story (I love this), with a lot of Jorge Louis Borges magic I guess, celebrates the true joy of cinema, where nothing is more important that watch the film itself! The story is incredible, but just, doesn't matter! All I want with this one, is to see it again and again, not trying to understand the dark parts of it, or the connections between the stories, or to find my way out of the labyrinth that is build around you as you continue more inside its plot, but just to loose myself in it, be a part of it, and not wish to get out.Not for everyone, but probably a great choice if you don't like Chuck Norris too much!
super_geisha i have a really low threshold for boredom, and while i saw this on the bigscreen, in a real theatre, i was spellbound. i didnt know what to expect, but it was mesmerising. i didnt try intellectualise it, but it was impossible to pick apart. just see it. put your head into the time period that the story is trying to convey. caveat: i think apocalypse now is an amazing film. redux was great. when i walked out of the theatre after seeing saragossa, i couldnt speak for hours. do yourself a favor and at least give this one a shot. try and see it on the big screen if you can.