A soldier in the Napoleonic wars discovers an ancient book written by his ancestor, filled with many continually diverging tales.
This is one of those films most famous for not being seen by many people, and while it is a handsome thing to look at, with moments of undeniable charm, I can't really say most people have missed out on all that much.
'The Saragossa Manuscript' is a three hour shaggy dog story that could easily have been edited down to 80 minutes and not have lost anything of any value. While it has islands of humour and a small number of fantastic images, none of the characters mean anything to us, and it's never all that funny, so the overall story becomes very boring very fast. And while it is a delightful premise, and the fundamental framework it rests upon ingenious and imaginative, just about everything else about it is padding: there's nothing to learn from it, it has no wisdom about the true nature or purpose of stories to impart to us and there aren't any real surprises along the way.
So it's a story about stories, but not a very good story in itself, and I guess that's the crux of the problem, all in all.
This is one of those films most famous for not being seen by many people, and while it is a handsome thing to look at, with moments of undeniable charm, I can't really say most people have missed out on all that much.
'The Saragossa Manuscript' is a three hour shaggy dog story that could easily have been edited down to 80 minutes and not have lost anything of any value. While it has islands of humour and a small number of fantastic images, none of the characters mean anything to us, and it's never all that funny, so the overall story becomes very boring very fast. And while it is a delightful premise, and the fundamental framework it rests upon ingenious and imaginative, just about everything else about it is padding: there's nothing to learn from it, it has no wisdom about the true nature or purpose of stories to impart to us and there aren't any real surprises along the way.
So it's a story about stories, but not a very good story in itself, and I guess that's the crux of the problem, all in all.