THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA [1964]
year:
- 1964
release date:
- 9 II 1965
runtime:
- 177 min
directed by:
- Wojciech Jerzy Has
written by:
- Tadeusz Kwiatkowski based on the novel by Count Jan Potocki
director of photography:
- Mieczysław Jahoda
cast:
- Zbigniew Cybulski [Alfons van Worden], Iga Cembrzyńska [Emina, Mauretan princess], Elżbieta Czyżewska [Frasquetta Salero], Gustaw Holoubek [Don Pedro Velasquez], Stanisław Igar [Don Gaspar Soarez], Bogumił Kobiela [Senor Toledo], Barbara Krafftówna [Camilla de Tormez], Jadwiga Krawczyk [Donna Inez Moro], Sławomir Lindner [van Worden's father], Krzysztof Litwin [Don Lopez Soarez], Jan Machulski [Earl Pena Flor], Zdzisław Maklakiewicz [Don Roque Busqueros], Leon Niemczyk [Don Avadoro, a gypsy chief], Franciszek Pieczka [possessed Paszeko], Beata Tyszkiewicz [Donna Rebecca Uzeda], Aleksander Fogiel [a nobleman fighting against van Worden’s father]
edited by:
- Krystyna Komosińska
music by:
- Krzysztof Penderecki
production design:
- Jerzy Skarżyński, Tadeusz Myszorek
produced by:
- Zespół Filmowy „Kamera”
executive producer:
- Ryszard Straszewski
awards:
-
• IFF Edinburgh (Scotland) 1965: honorary mention
• IFF San Sebastian (Spain) 1965: Golden Pen, CIDALC Award
• Fantasy and Horror Film Festival in Sitges (Spain) 1969: Special Medal
• Spanish Critics' Award 1971
About the film
One of the most original Polish films − a vision of a chaotic, disordered world, which is a metaphor for the randomness of human fate, deprived of any rational element. The film gained recognition abroad, particularly in Spain and France, where critics savoured its innovative poetry, corresponding − in spite of the costumes − with the new wave aesthetics of cinema, as well as the wealth of intellectual offers.
At the beginning of the film there is a quotation mark: it announces that the world depicted in the film will not be a world to be taken seriously. During the Napoleonic campaign in Zaragoza in Spain, officers of the hostile parties meet. Having found a wonderful manuscript, they set their weapons aside and immerse themselves in the fascinating text. This way we enter a phantasmagoric, unusual world of overlapping time, intersecting themes and philosophical questions.
A Walloon Guards officer − Alfons van Worden − is going to Madrid, choosing the shortest route through the mountains of Castile, but on the way he has a series of extraordinary adventures. Alfons repeatedly returns to the starting point of his journey, a mysterious inn and its ghostly surroundings, in order to travel through time and space, each time period is filled with different characters and seen from a different perspective.
Jan Słodowski, Leksykon polskich filmów fabularnych, Warszawa 1996
