The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
aka Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie
Genre: Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | History | Horror | Mystery | Surreal
Country: Poland | Director: Wojciech Has
Language: Polish | Subtitles: English (Optional, embedded in Mkv file)
Aspect ratio: Cinemascope 2.35:1 | Length: 183mn
Bdrip H264 Mkv – 1920×804 – 24fps – 7.07gb
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059643/
In the Napoleonic wars, an officer finds an old book that relates his grandfather’s story, Alfons van Worden, captain in the Walloon guard. A man of honor and courage, he seeks the shortest route through the Sierra Morena. At an inn, the Venta Quemada, he sups with two Islamic princesses. They call him their cousin and seduce him; he wakes beside corpses under a gallows. He meets a hermit priest and a goatherd; each tells his story; he wakes again by the gallows. He’s rescued from the Inquisition, meets a cabalist and hears more stories within stories, usually of love. He returns to Venta Quemada, the women await with astonishing news.
A one of a kind film, you’ll have to work a little to follow on thru these intricately nested-boxes of story, without becoming dizzy. (Wait a minute: which story layer am I in right now ?) And it is 3 hours long, subtitled. But for the willing it’s a good kind of dizzy — like a challenging sort of mental roller coaster. The late Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead is said to have rescued this film from falling into oblivion.