Cheap The Saragossa Manuscript (DVD) (Wojciech Has) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of The Saragossa Manuscript

A Polish film set in Spain
"The Saragossa Manuscript" (Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie) is based on a novel that takes place during the Napoleonic wars. This DVD is the restored wide-screen edition of this 1965 black-and-white classic, directed by Wojciech Has. The music is by Krzystof Penderecki, who is known for the music in the films "The Exorcist" (1965) and "The Shining" (1980). This film is 182 minutes of entertainment.

"The Saragossa Manuscript" is a Polish film, and this edition has English subtitles. Although this is a Polish film, the setting is in Spain. The storyline is a story in a story in a story. As the viewer is introduced to new characters, that character tells a story, who in turn introduces another character that also tells another story. The adjectives surreal, fascinating, weird, captivating, and creepy all describe this film. As the film has been restored, the images are crisp and vivid. The costumes and effects look fantastic in their black-and-white.

If you look closely at the cover of the DVD, you see that it is dedicated to Jerry Garcia (of Grateful Dead fame). You may be wondering: "Why Jerry Garcia?" Jerry Garcia saw the film in the 1960s, and admired it. Later, he, along with others, funded the restoration of "The Saragossa Manuscript". Therefore, we have him to thank for being able to see this masterpiece.

---

labyrinthine surreal funny mysterious ... haunted
I adore this film. It is made by a Polish director with Polish actors based on a Polish novel but the look of the film is decidedly Spanish surrealism. Its a film best watched late at night when one is most receptive to surrealisms night time agenda which speaks to and from the subconscious illogic of dreams. Each storyline vanishes into another storyline until characters from separate storylines begin to appear together as the various storylines wind around each other like snakes round the limb of a tree--an oft repeated visual in the film. The opening sequence follows a soldier during the Napoleanic Wars as he takes refuge in a house where he finds the Saragossa Manuscript full of surreal drawings and stories. This book fascinates its reader so much the deafening sounds of the surrounding battle disappear as he begins to read...A Spanish Count with two escorts rides through deserted foothills towards a mysterious Inn. All around the Count are clues, pieces of stories that will later be told. He leaves his two escorts beside a gallows where two men hang dead and rides to the Inn. The Inn is built into the face of a cliff and within its recesses is a cave to rival Ali Babas. In the cave are two lovely Muslim sisters who seduce the Count and feed him wine from a skull...the textual games get more and more complicated. Each new character met tells his tale to the Count and though the Counts goal is to return home he is sidetracked time and again by ever more elaborate tales and locations. The characters met are all archetypal Spaniards and all fabulists. They are intoxicating characters all of them and intoxicating storytellers. It is an absolute pleasure to surrender to the heady spell of being told tale after tale by such characters. Its a world one never wants to leave--sophisticated and complex and mysterious, sometimes funny, sometimes haunting. If you already like Polish cinema you will recognize all of its stars from the 1960's here including Zbigniew Cybulski(Ashes and Diamonds)who plays the Count. And if you like surrealism and classic as well as modern literature you will thoroughly enjoy the way this story blends the classic and the ultra modern and the way it is illustrated like a book with the most amazing etchings and engravings. A real book and art and film lovers masterpiece.

---

book vs movie
Last time I saw the movie was in late 60s. Great actors and director. Then I read the book. It's a masterspiece of Polish literature. The story of the book is as mysterious as the book itself. The original manuscript was lost and what we know today was translated back to Polish from the French version. I was so happy to find it on DVD - definetely as MUST HAVE in my collection - timeless piece of art.