Too much of everything

Absolutely Fantastic

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Chilean-born screenwriter, producer, teacher and director Raúl Ruiz' 66th feature film which was written by Portuguese screenwriter Carlos Saboga, is an adaptation of a novel from 1854 by 19th century Portuguese writer Camilo Castello Branco (1825-1890). It premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and is a France-Portugal co-production which was shot on various locations in Portugal and produced by Portuguese producer Paulo Branco. It tells the story about Pedro da Silva, a fourteen-year-old orphan who lives at a boarding school in Lisbon, Portugal which is run by Father Dinis during the Liberal Wars in the early 19th century. Pedro is searching for his origins and Father Dinis has managed to take his mind of his natural curiosity by having him focus on his studies, but one day after having received a visit by a countess named Angela de Lima who claims to be his mother, Father Dinis decides to help Pedro in his search for his identity.Distinctly and subtly directed by Latin-American filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, this intricate and exquisite story which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a stately and memorable portrayal of an adolescent boy's conflicting road towards discovering his true identity during the 19th century and the destinies of all the people who in one way or another were connected to his birth. While notable for its brilliant milieu depictions, production design and costume design by Portuguese production designer, art director and costume designer Isabel Branco, cinematography by Brazilian-born cinematographer André Szankowski and the cogent editing by Chilean screenwriter, film editor and director Valéria Sarmiento and film editor Carlos Madaleno, this somewhat surreal and romantic period drama which is driven by it's voice-over narration, dialog, variegated characters and interrelated stories, depicts multiple intriguing studies of character and contains a remarkable score by Chilean-born composer Jorge Arrigada and Portuguese composer and professor of music Luís Freitas Branco (1890-1955).This rhythmic, multifaceted, at times humorous and invariably moving epic about human suffering, human relations, identity, love and faith, presents scenes where it is as if protagonists and antagonists were communicating within frames of art works and is a poetically atmospheric and melodramatic fictional tale which is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure and the compelling acting performances by Portuguese actor Adriano Luz, French actress Clotilde Hesme, Portuguese actress Maria Joáo Bastos, Portuguese actor and director José Afonso Pimentel and Portuguese actor Ricardo Pereira. An accomplished cinematic achievement and a masterful mystery which gained, among other awards, the Silver Seashell Award for Best Director Raúl Ruiz at the 58th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2010 and the TFCA Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 15th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards in 2011.

Mistérios de Lisboa is shown in the United States with the title Mysteries of Lisbon (2010). The film is directed by the extraordinary Chilean director, Raoul Ruiz. Ruiz, who died in 2011, had directed 115 films. (Not a typo--one hundred and fifteen.)The film is based on a novel by the Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco. (Unfortunately, the novel isn't available in English translation.) It's also frustrating that the DVD available in the U.S. is a shortened version of the original miniseries. (266 minutes vs. 360 minutes. What was left out of the shorter version?)The film is hard to describe because there are stories within stories within stories. The basic plot--more or less--revolves around a boy attending a Catholic school in early 19th Century Portugal. The boy doesn't know the identity of his mother and father. He doesn't even know his last name. We eventually meet his mother, her husband, and--in flashback--his father. We also meet elegant women in sumptuous gowns, men for whom dueling is a way of life, and endless numbers of servants who are always watching and listening.Some mysteries are never resolved. For example, there's a young woman who is the mistress of one of the nobles. When he dies, she refuses to accept any of his inheritance. She turns up again as the wife of an extremely wealthy, cruel man. Then she disappears from the plot. (Was her story edited out, or did she just disappear?)Ultimately, I think the key to the plot is the priest Padre Dinis, played extremely well by Adriano Luz. He--like almost all of the the characters--turns out to have a surprising past.Other IMDb reviewers have commented on the costumes, which are incredibly attractive. Two main characters who appear in those costumes are Maria João Bastos as a Portuguese noblewoman and Clotilde Hesme as a French noblewoman. Both of them are extremely beautiful in a European, non-Hollywood way. They appear to have been born to wear those costumes.At the very end of the movie the young man, now grown, encounters some beggars. One of them tells him, "With the nobility, it's all about their honor. We poor people know these things happen, and we take them as part of life." When I thought about it, those sentences encompasses Mysteries of Lisbon. Nobles fight duels and spend endless effort and resources to protect the honor of their family. One man goes so far as to order the killing of his grandchild, because the child is born out of wedlock. Huge events are taking place around them--the Napoleonic wars, the Portuguese civil war--but what really matters is their rigid code of honor.We saw this movie on DVD, and it worked well enough. However, almost every frame of the film would be a beautiful still. Many scenes look like lush paintings--Baroque, rather than 19th Century. That's why I believe the film would work better on the large screen. However, if no screening is available, buy the DVD. It's not a movie you want to miss!

This series of short stories set in a world long gone is of course a costume drama, that may therefore deter some. They would be mistaken. It is slow, considered, colorful and in my view a good introduction to the world of our ancestors, who held opinions different from ours, did things in a different way, and got upset about the same issues, yet in a different clothing. Love that is thwarted, wise padres, noble families with poor youngest children and all of that in a heavily draped world - sometimes a bit much. And yet I may recommend that you sit down, do not hurry, leave your perhaps preconceived ideas at the entrance, and enjoy these so many hours of romantic stories.

This is the most stupid film I've ever seen.Photography, costumes and scenery are beautiful, but the story is utterly pointless! Not to mention that it is one slow and extremely boring film, with plenty of illogical and senseless details and scenes.The characters are also not well developed, we find out about their destinies but there is no point in all that, none of the sub-stories has a conclusion.I don't understand who would have payed for the making of this (probably rather expensive) film and what is its target audience?