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The Saragossa Manuscript (film)
Encyclopedia
The Saragossa Manuscript is a 1965 Polish film directed by Wojciech Has
, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
by Jan Potocki
. Set primarily in Spain, it tells a frame story
containing gothic
, picaresque
and erotic elements. In a deserted house during the Napoleonic Wars
, two officers from opposing sides find a manuscript, which tells the tale of the Spanish officer's grandfather, Alphonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski
). Van Worden travelled in the region many years before, being plagued by evil spirits, and meeting such figures as a Qabalist
, a sultan and a gypsy, who tell him further stories, many of which intertwine and interrelate with one another.
The film was a relative success in Poland and other parts of communist
eastern Europe
upon its release, winning the Golden Wolf at the 1965 Bucharest Film Festival
. It later also achieved a level of critical success in the United States
, when filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese
and Francis Ford Coppola
rediscovered it and encouraged its propagation.
during the Napoleonic Wars
, an officer retreats to the second floor of an inn. He finds a large book with drawings of two men hanging on a gallows and two women in a bed. An enemy officer tries to arrest him but ends up translating the book for him; the second officer recognizes its author as his own grandfather, who was a captain in the Walloon Guard.
The ancestor, Alfonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski
), appears with two servants, seeking the shortest route through the Sierra Morena Mountains
. The two men warn him against taking his chosen route because it leads through haunted territory. At an apparently deserted inn, the Venta Quemada, he is invited to dine with two Moorish princesses, Emina (Iga Cembrzyńska
) and Zibelda (Joanna Jędryka) in a secret inner room. They inform the captain that they are his cousins and, as the last of the Gomelez line, he must marry them both to provide heirs. However, he must convert to Islam
. He jokingly calls them ghosts (despite having told his servants with great bravado that ghosts do not exist). Then they seduce him and give him a skull goblet to drink.
He wakes and find himself back in the desolate countryside, lying next to a heap of skulls under a gallows
. He meets a hermit priest who is trying to cure a possessed man; the latter tells his story, which also involves two sisters and a different kind of forbidden love. Alfonso sleeps in the hermitage's chapel
, hearing strange voices at night.
When he wakes and rides off, he is captured by the Spanish Inquisition
. But he is rescued by the two princesses, aided by the gang
of the Zoto brothers (two of whom had appeared dead on the ground near the gallows). Back in the inner room, the two princesses become amorous with Alfonso but they are interrupted by Sheikh
Gomelez, who forces the captain to drink the skull goblet at sword point.
Again Alfonso awakens at the gallows, but this time a cabalist
is lying next to him. As they ride to the Cabalist's castle, they are joined by a skeptical mathematician, who remarks, "The human mind is ready to accept anything, if it is used knowingly." Thus ends part 1 of the film.
Part 2 is primarily filled with the nested tales told by the leader of a band of gypsies who visit the castle. Frame story
or tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale only begins to describe the complexity, because some of the inner tales intertwine, so that later tales shed new light on earlier experiences recounted by other characters. Multiple viewings of the film are recommended in order to comprehend the plot, as well as identify the appearance of certain characters before they are "introduced" by the gypsy raconteur to tell their own tales.
Finally, Alfonso is told to return to the Venta Quemada, where he meets the two princesses. They bid him farewell and the Sheikh gives him the large book so that he can write the end of his own story. The Sheikh explains that the whole adventure was a "game" designed to test Alfonso's character.
Alfonso wakes under the gallows again, but his two servants are nearby -- it is as if they are about to begin the journey that he has just "dreamed". At the small inn in Saragossa, he writes in the large book until someone tells him that the two princesses are waiting for him. He flings the book aside and it lands on the table where his descendant's enemy found it at the beginning of the film.
, 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.
Wojciech Has
Wojciech Jerzy Has was a Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer.-Early Life & Studies:...
, based on the 1815 novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa , is a frame-tale novel by the Polish Enlightenment author, Count Jan Potocki...
by Jan Potocki
Jan Potocki
Count Jan Nepomucen Potocki was a Polish nobleman, Polish Army Captain of Engineers, ethnologist, Egyptologist, linguist, traveler, adventurer and popular author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a legendary figure in his homeland...
. Set primarily in Spain, it tells a frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
containing gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
, picaresque
Picaresque novel
The picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society...
and erotic elements. In a deserted house during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, two officers from opposing sides find a manuscript, which tells the tale of the Spanish officer's grandfather, Alphonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski
Zbigniew Cybulski
Zbigniew Cybulski was a Polish actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland.-Life:...
). Van Worden travelled in the region many years before, being plagued by evil spirits, and meeting such figures as a Qabalist
Hermetic Qabalah
Hermetic Qabalah is a Western esoteric and mystical tradition...
, a sultan and a gypsy, who tell him further stories, many of which intertwine and interrelate with one another.
The film was a relative success in Poland and other parts of communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
upon its release, winning the Golden Wolf at the 1965 Bucharest Film Festival
Bucharest Film Festival
The Bucharest Film Festival is a defunct film festival active between 1948 and 1968 in the city of Bucharest founded by Nicolae Barbu. Originally known as the Bucharest Festival of Socialist Film due to its part funding by the Communist Party, the festival specialized in films of the Eastern Bloc...
. It later also achieved a level of critical success in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, when filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
rediscovered it and encouraged its propagation.
Plot
During a battle in the town of SaragossaZaragoza
Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...
during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, an officer retreats to the second floor of an inn. He finds a large book with drawings of two men hanging on a gallows and two women in a bed. An enemy officer tries to arrest him but ends up translating the book for him; the second officer recognizes its author as his own grandfather, who was a captain in the Walloon Guard.
The ancestor, Alfonso van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski
Zbigniew Cybulski
Zbigniew Cybulski was a Polish actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland.-Life:...
), appears with two servants, seeking the shortest route through the Sierra Morena Mountains
Sierra Morena
The Sierra Morena is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain.It stretches for 400 kilometres East-West across southern Spain, forming the southern border of the Meseta Central plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, and providing the watershed between the valleys of the Guadiana to the...
. The two men warn him against taking his chosen route because it leads through haunted territory. At an apparently deserted inn, the Venta Quemada, he is invited to dine with two Moorish princesses, Emina (Iga Cembrzyńska
Iga Cembrzynska
Iga Cembrzyńska, born Maria Elżbieta Cembrzyńska, also known as Iga Cembrzyńska-Kondratiuk is a Polish actress. She is also screenwriter, composer, film director and producer - she runs her own film company Iga Film....
) and Zibelda (Joanna Jędryka) in a secret inner room. They inform the captain that they are his cousins and, as the last of the Gomelez line, he must marry them both to provide heirs. However, he must convert to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. He jokingly calls them ghosts (despite having told his servants with great bravado that ghosts do not exist). Then they seduce him and give him a skull goblet to drink.
He wakes and find himself back in the desolate countryside, lying next to a heap of skulls under a gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
. He meets a hermit priest who is trying to cure a possessed man; the latter tells his story, which also involves two sisters and a different kind of forbidden love. Alfonso sleeps in the hermitage's chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
, hearing strange voices at night.
When he wakes and rides off, he is captured by the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
. But he is rescued by the two princesses, aided by the gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
of the Zoto brothers (two of whom had appeared dead on the ground near the gallows). Back in the inner room, the two princesses become amorous with Alfonso but they are interrupted by Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
Gomelez, who forces the captain to drink the skull goblet at sword point.
Again Alfonso awakens at the gallows, but this time a cabalist
Cabala
Cabala may refer to one of several systems of Mysticism:* Kabbalah, the religious mystical system of Judaism...
is lying next to him. As they ride to the Cabalist's castle, they are joined by a skeptical mathematician, who remarks, "The human mind is ready to accept anything, if it is used knowingly." Thus ends part 1 of the film.
Part 2 is primarily filled with the nested tales told by the leader of a band of gypsies who visit the castle. Frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
or tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale only begins to describe the complexity, because some of the inner tales intertwine, so that later tales shed new light on earlier experiences recounted by other characters. Multiple viewings of the film are recommended in order to comprehend the plot, as well as identify the appearance of certain characters before they are "introduced" by the gypsy raconteur to tell their own tales.
Finally, Alfonso is told to return to the Venta Quemada, where he meets the two princesses. They bid him farewell and the Sheikh gives him the large book so that he can write the end of his own story. The Sheikh explains that the whole adventure was a "game" designed to test Alfonso's character.
Alfonso wakes under the gallows again, but his two servants are nearby -- it is as if they are about to begin the journey that he has just "dreamed". At the small inn in Saragossa, he writes in the large book until someone tells him that the two princesses are waiting for him. He flings the book aside and it lands on the table where his descendant's enemy found it at the beginning of the film.
Cast
- Zbigniew CybulskiZbigniew CybulskiZbigniew Cybulski was a Polish actor, one of the best-known and most popular personalities of the post-World War II history of Poland.-Life:...
as Alfonse Van Worden - Iga CembrzyńskaIga CembrzynskaIga Cembrzyńska, born Maria Elżbieta Cembrzyńska, also known as Iga Cembrzyńska-Kondratiuk is a Polish actress. She is also screenwriter, composer, film director and producer - she runs her own film company Iga Film....
as Princess Emina - Elżbieta CzyżewskaElzbieta CzyzewskaElżbieta Justyna Czyżewska was a Polish actress active in both Poland and the United States.-Early life:...
as Donna Frasquetta Salero - Gustaw HoloubekGustaw HoloubekGustaw Holoubek was a Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm, and a senator.Holoubek participated in the September Campaign and was a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of Poland...
as Don Pedro Velasquez - Stanislaw Igar as Don Gaspar Soarez
- Joanna Jędryka as Zibelda
- Janusz Klosinski as Don Diego Salero
- Bogumił Kobiela as Senor Toledo
- Barbara Krafftówna as Camilla de Tormez
- Jadwiga Krawczyk as Donna Inez Moro
- Slawomir Lindner as Van Worden's father
- Krzysztof Litwin as Don Lopez Soarez
- Miroslawa Lombardo as Van Worden's mother
- Jan MachulskiJan MachulskiJan Machulski was a Polish theater director, as well as a film and theatrical actor. He appeared in more than 45 film roles and 70 theater roles throughout his career.-Personal life:...
as Count Pena Flor - Zdzislaw Maklakiewicz as Don Roque Busqueros
- Leon NiemczykLeon NiemczykLeon Stanisław Niemczyk was a Polish actor.Niemczyk appeared in over 500 films and television shows over the course of his very long career...
as Don Avadoro - Franciszek PieczkaFranciszek PieczkaFranciszek Pieczka is a Polish film and stage actor. A graduate of the Theatrical Academy in Warsaw, he first made his debut in the theatre in Jelenia Góra...
as Pacheco - Beata TyszkiewiczBeata TyszkiewiczBeata Maria Helena Tyszkiewiczówna-Kalenicka is a Polish actress.-Biography:Beata Tyszkiewicz is one of Poland’s quintessentially cinematic beauties, having worked exclusively on the big screen...
as Donna Rebecca Uzeda - Kazimierz Opalinski as Hermit / Sheik
- Adam Pawlikowski as Don Pedro Uzeda
Release
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 GarciaJerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, together with Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
, 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.