People have loved storytelling since the beginning of time. Stories that captivate us, stories that give us chills, stories that excite us, and stories that make us think are all great, but some stories do all of these such as The Saragossa Manuscript (Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie). The Saragossa Manuscript is quite possibly one of the best Polish films ever made and is one of my favorites. Based on the novel written by Jan Potocki, this classic Polish movie directed by Wojciech Has is not straightforward, but rather resembles a complicated tapestry.During the Napoleonic wars in Spain, two soldiers from opposing sides become fascinated by the same object. A French officer finds a manuscript on the second floor of a tavern, but the town is soon captured by the Spanish. The Spaniard, seeing the importance of the tome, translates it to the Frenchman who is unable to read the book as it is written in Spanish. The book describes the adventures of one of the Spaniard's ancestors, Alfonse Van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski). Humorously, when the Spanish troops tell their commander "we are being surrounded" he only tells them "close the door, you are letting in a draft." Alfonse Van Worden is trying to pass the Sierra Morena Mountains of Spain in the 18th century on his way to Madrid. But his passage is no simple task, as ghosts, gypsies and inquisitors complicate his voyage. On the hillside is an inn that is cared for by people who too afraid to spend the night there themselves. Van Worden disregards the superstitious people, only to be taken to a basement of the inn by a mysterious woman. In the basement, he meets two beautiful Moorish princesses that want him to be their husband, but quickly make him drink from a chalice made from a human skull. He wakes up on the hillside some distance from the inn near two hanging men with many skulls strewn about the ground.When Van Worden wakes up, he makes his best effort to continue to Madrid, but ends up meeting a number of people and is always delayed. The people he meets tell him their story, and the people in the story tell their story also. Like a nesting egg, the movie becomes a story in a story in a story. The stories interlink and overlap, each filling us in with details the others where not aware of. While it nearly resembles a horror with creepy ghosts and ghouls, the story is also amusing and funny with curious tales of exploits and adventures. The Saragossa Manuscript also has en erotic side with gorgeous women at every turn. While parts of the story resemble a horror, the rest is like a romance or even a comedy. The Saragossa Manuscript is a sophisticated film brimming with mystical and occult elements.

The Saragossa Manuscript is an enigmatic film, haunting and hilarious, dazzlingly complex, and spellbinding across almost three hours. It unfolds like a tapestry of 17th-century Spain, threaded together by the story of Captain Alphonse van Worden as he makes his way to Madrid. Dreams, flashbacks and storytelling are woven together by recurring images, locations and themes, creating a mystery for the viewer to untangle.The noble ideal in Spanish society is portrayed as one of vast palatial residences, incessant duelling, grandiose gesturing and the courting of women. The flashback sequences featuring Captain van Worden's father, played by the remarkable Slawomir Lindner, are hugely entertaining. The complex web of storytelling in the second part of the film is similarly engaging, focusing around the lives of feuding merchants and duelling noblemen in the city.Dark currents of supernatural powers and superstition run through this setting. Cannibal gypsies, devil-possessed men and ghostly characters haunt the countryside, and recurring images such as snakes, skulls and hanged men create an aura of foreboding. Captain van Worden's dream-like encounters with the mysterious Gomelez sisters (accompanied by unnerving sound effects and cackling noises) symbolise the disdain for Islam in medieval Christian Spain. Yet alongside this, the presence of Christianity, in the form of the Spanish Inquisition, is equally menacing; the capture and torture of Captain van Worden is as disturbing as the play of supernatural forces. God is not a comforting presence in this film.The Saragossa Manuscript is divided into two distinctive parts. Dream-like sequences and flashbacks prevail in part one of the film, whereas part two centres around the telling of stories and stories-within-stories. The contrasts between the two parts reveal different perspectives within medieval Spain, with the haunted countryside and superstitions of part one giving way to more rational thinking in the largely urban setting of part two. The genius of this film is in the wealth of contradictions and fragmentary narratives; the viewer can piece together many details for themselves, but the film will always retain an air of mystery.

Perhaps more than any other film, Saragossa Manuscript begs for multiple viewings. A fascinating way to watch this movie is to simply see it as space unfolding. At the highest level the structure is a set of interconnected stories which loop back on one another. Each story is a separate, nested world with a narrator who serves as a portal. This is not unlike current theories in physics about the multiverse, with separate worlds that wormhole into and out of one another, connected by black holes.Also, the frame by frame construction of the film is deeply spacial. The setting of the Sierra Morena seems to have not a single flat surface and the camera is often askew to accentuate this. Elaborately constructed sets are filled with boundaries and connections. Characters interact thru barred windows and seem to constantly flow into and out of doorways and windows. There are many long narrow corridors and alley ways. The camera captures ascending and descending stairways and shots are wide angle to create a feeling of great depth. Often action is focused on a figure in the foreground while another character secretly slips into or out of the room thru a doorway in some distant corner.This unsettling and masterful manipulation of space is in large part what propel the story so convincingly, since the many boundaries and connections determine which relationships are consummated and which things remain forever out of reach.

Based on IMDb score and comments, I was expecting to see a movie on the same level as The Seventh Seal or The Da Vinci Code. A major disappointment. In this movie they tried to combine the horror of apparitions and Dante Inferno landscapes with the light comedy of foppish main characters and silly a-ladder-at-Madame's-bedroom-window scenes. If that wasn't bad enough, they kept branching off on long back-story lines, making it hard to keep track of the characters and where we were at, plus killing any hope of building foreboding or suspense. Minimal character development. Minimal narrative drive. No laughs, not even a good chuckle. No tension. No satisfying ending. A total waste of time.