saig mutallimov Stylish and atmospheric costume drama.The action takes us to Lisbon in the 19th century, where the fates, life and stories of several people are intertwined.We have see the film of the cult Chilean director Raul Ruiz, who entire of conscious life make many author movies, for connoisseurs and aesthetes, with hidden meaning, filled with surreal and absurd images, but in his old age decided to aim at the adaptation of the historical adventure novel Castelo Branco, called Portuguese Balzac .The film's action develops slowly and thoroughly, gradually dragging you into this whirlpool consisting of secrets, intrigues and fateful coincidences, adventures, violent passions, terrible revenge and insane love. And so minute by minute there is a complete immersion in the picture, because the secrets are always intriguing ...It should be noted that the action in the film develops over several decades and covers a large number of characters and peoples (almost like G. G. Marquez), where almost every character has its own confusing story and secret, hidden very far away, which we will be told and revealed in the course of the film, hence the actual length of the film, divided into two parts.I highly recommend to view. 9 out of 10.

hulljulia J. Leite: This film is about structure. The lengthy, laborious, "pointlessness" of this film mirrors the epic proportions of the theme of the movie: primogeniture of seniors and senores. This story is not about Kings, Queens, Princes, or Princesses. It is about Dukes, Duchesses, Counts, Countesses, Marquises, and Marquisessas. This theme becomes evident when a prince informs a count who is attracted to a princess/countess that one cannot take "from the firstborn to give to the second," and so the second must be married off or "placed," well to be sure, and relegated to obscurity. The rest of the film points us to the directions of various "seconds" and their stations in life directly related to their birth rank. The firstborns take the world stage; the seconds swirl amid the shadows of those given privilege and rank as inheritors of primogeniture. The Catholic Church is the hub around which these paths diverge and intersect, with the Church giving sanctuary to orphans, widows, and unfortunates. The long vignettes portray various subplots and the machinations which brought, mostly, either a fall from rank or a retreat from the world, or obscurity. Giving dignity to these seconds falls to the priest who, one infers, has a keen perception about the interplay of events and the machinations of sinister people in their noble lives. At the end of the tedium of this film, one feels that one has been through an ordeal commensurate to the ordeals of the seconds or "spares" in the story. This film was exquisitely produced, directed, scripted, and acted. I enjoyed this movie once I figured out what was happening, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there really was a Duke/Count de Sa.

Red-125 Mistérios de Lisboa is shown in the United States with the title Mysteries of Lisbon (2010). The film is directed by the extraordinary Chilean director, Raoul Ruiz. Ruiz, who died in 2011, had directed 115 films. (Not a typo--one hundred and fifteen.)The film is based on a novel by the Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco. (Unfortunately, the novel isn't available in English translation.) It's also frustrating that the DVD available in the U.S. is a shortened version of the original miniseries. (266 minutes vs. 360 minutes. What was left out of the shorter version?)The film is hard to describe because there are stories within stories within stories. The basic plot--more or less--revolves around a boy attending a Catholic school in early 19th Century Portugal. The boy doesn't know the identity of his mother and father. He doesn't even know his last name. We eventually meet his mother, her husband, and--in flashback--his father. We also meet elegant women in sumptuous gowns, men for whom dueling is a way of life, and endless numbers of servants who are always watching and listening.Some mysteries are never resolved. For example, there's a young woman who is the mistress of one of the nobles. When he dies, she refuses to accept any of his inheritance. She turns up again as the wife of an extremely wealthy, cruel man. Then she disappears from the plot. (Was her story edited out, or did she just disappear?)Ultimately, I think the key to the plot is the priest Padre Dinis, played extremely well by Adriano Luz. He--like almost all of the the characters--turns out to have a surprising past.Other IMDb reviewers have commented on the costumes, which are incredibly attractive. Two main characters who appear in those costumes are Maria João Bastos as a Portuguese noblewoman and Clotilde Hesme as a French noblewoman. Both of them are extremely beautiful in a European, non-Hollywood way. They appear to have been born to wear those costumes.At the very end of the movie the young man, now grown, encounters some beggars. One of them tells him, "With the nobility, it's all about their honor. We poor people know these things happen, and we take them as part of life." When I thought about it, those sentences encompasses Mysteries of Lisbon. Nobles fight duels and spend endless effort and resources to protect the honor of their family. One man goes so far as to order the killing of his grandchild, because the child is born out of wedlock. Huge events are taking place around them--the Napoleonic wars, the Portuguese civil war--but what really matters is their rigid code of honor.We saw this movie on DVD, and it worked well enough. However, almost every frame of the film would be a beautiful still. Many scenes look like lush paintings--Baroque, rather than 19th Century. That's why I believe the film would work better on the large screen. However, if no screening is available, buy the DVD. It's not a movie you want to miss!

Eumenides_0 Mysteries of Lisbon, based on the novel of Romantic Portuguese novelist Camilo Castelo Branco, is a movie full of secrets, implausible coincidences, odd, mysterious characters, revenges, and strange family relationships. It's a modern movie whose story, with its byzantine plot, twists and melodramatic revelations, has a distinctive 19th century taste. It's the story of a bastard orphan called João and his search for the truth about his birth, and of the countless people whose stories must be told in order to understand his life and his future. Recently I finished reading a novel by Carlos Fuentes, Terra Nostra, where it's written that it takes several lives to create a personality. I couldn't think of a better statement to encapsulate this movie's essence.Our protagonist (João Arrais) is an orphan without family name living in a religious school, under the care of the good and protective Father Dinis (Adriano Luz). The other kids pick on him because of his low condition; one day he gets badly beaten in a fight; in bed he's visited, during a feverish sleep, by a woman (Maria João Bastos) who calls him son. And so begins the journey into his past.The movie is a beautiful labyrinth of stories within stories within stories. To understand the story of our protagonist, one must first watch the stories of several other people: his poor father (João Baptista) who dared to fall in love with a noblewoman; his mother, trapped in a loveless marriage; the henchman (Ricardo Pereira) assigned to assassinate him at birth; and the priest that saved his life. I haven't seen a movie so obsessed with the act of telling stories since Wojciech Has' The Saragossa Manuscript, another great movie about stories within stories and multiple narrators.Mysteries of Lisbon, which lasts four and a half hours without ever becoming dull, is divided in two parts: the first deals with João's past; the second deals with his future, and possible death. In perfect symmetry with the first half, the second multiplies itself in stories, taking us to Italy and Paris, and getting entangled in the Napoleonic Wars. As much a story about origins, the movie is about how João grows to become a gentleman called Pedro da Silva (a role played José Afonso Pimentel) and how he falls in love with a ruined Frenchwoman (Clotilde Hesme) whose honor has been sullied by, irony of ironies, the man the protagonist owes his life to. From this insane tapestry of love, manipulation and the lost illusions of youth, Raoul Ruiz and screenwriter Carlos Saboga create an unpredictable finale for the life of our protagonist.The actors are all excellent. The cast is so vast I can't compliment everyone here, but Adriano Luz, Maria João Bastos, Ricardo Pereira, Clotilde Hesme and José Afonso Pimentel deserve special mention. Luz in particular steals every scene. Although the movie is about João, Father Dinis, the mysterious priest who's lived several lives before receiving his holy vows, almost becomes the protagonist at times, and just as well because every scene with him is delightful, thanks to his serenity; he gets so earnestly into the character of a holy man who's removed himself from the world, that I don't think he ever raises his voice above a whisper throughout the movie. He's disappearance from the second part is sadly noticed.Looking at this movie is also a joy. A lot of attention went into the historical recreation of 19th century Portugal, and Ruiz and his crew must have chosen some of Portugal's most beautiful palaces, villas, mansions, convents, churches, ballrooms and woods to film in. Adding to the scenic beauty there's also the cinematography by André Szankowski, who films the movie with a restrained palette of colors: mostly green, brown and golden. There's also a constant game of shadows and light, suitable for a movie about secrets. Many of the tricks recall the work of Roger Deakins, for instance in the way exterior light subtly darkens for a few seconds in a scene. The result is a world of penumbras and silhouettes, of men and women constantly revealed and covered by shadows.And what to say of the long takes? Like the movie that seems endless, the scenes continue for longer than we expect, without cuts, for several minutes. The movie is indeed a collection of long takes. And each is uniquely filmed. Ruiz' steady camera refuses to stay put and follows the characters in and out of rooms, up and down stairs; it films them from high and low angles, from close and long distances; it moves around them, giving the film a fluidity seldom seen in this age of quick cuts and shaky cams.Raoul Ruiz directed Mysteries of Lisbon knowing that it could be his last movie. During shooting he underwent a surgery to treat his liver cancer. That he managed to complete this movie with a fragile health is a testament to his strength. That he managed to create one of the best and most beautiful movies of 2010 during one of the worst periods of his life, that's a testament to his talent as one of the greatest living directors.