One of the last experiments of the great director, who fled to Chile from France in the Pinochet regime, is a peculiar Portuguese saga akin to “War and Peace”. This is “Lisbon Secrets”, a film production of the incredible Raoul Ruiz.
Flashbacks and love trianglesThe director managed to finish work on this mini-series (the version for the wide screen lasts more than 4 hours), while the painting “The Night Opposite” was mounted after the death of the famous postmodernist. “Lisbon secrets” are compared by critics not only with the great four books of Leo Tolstoy (due to the proximity of epochs and scale, a large number of characters), but also with “Paris Secrets” by Eugene Sue. The analogy is not drawn because of the similarity of the names, but rather because of the presence of a riddle, an intrigue that slowly unravels its tangle throughout the tape. However, the similarity of the two "secrets" ends here. Raul Ruiz masterfully plays with time, immersing the audience in new flashbacks, stringing one love triangle on another. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand why the seemingly dead character is already alive and healthy, but the narrative draws deeper and does not let go until the very last moment.
Intricate ups and downs
The film "Lisbon Secrets" is based on the novel of the writer, who is called neither more nor less than "Portuguese Flaubert" or even "Balzac". This is Camil Castel Branco. Since our viewers are probably very little familiar with the literature of this very western European country, they will be interested in everything from the surroundings and costumes (which are simply magnificent) to the motivation of the heroes. The same as the master Ruiz ordered the script material is a special art, but this has already been said above. The main character of the picture is the orphan boy Pedro, brought up in a shelter. On the screen, almost the whole life of this character passes stubbornly toward the goal, and he, at first glance, has it very simple: identify himself in this world. He is assisted by a spiritual mentor, Father Dinish (a character who turned out to be that “dark horse”). Pedro throwing, which is played by three actors throughout the film, is quite justified: such details are revealed that precede his birth that you can go crazy. Such ups and downs cannot be briefly described. The director takes full advantage of this: there is also an extended version of his creation - the series “Lisbon Secrets”, the duration of which is almost 6 hours.
Honored Awards
Like many adventurous costume melodramas, “Lisbon Secrets” follow their unwritten canons. So, an illegitimate child who was brought up without a father and mother must necessarily belong to an aristocratic family. Here Pedro is the fruit of the passionate hopeless love of the Countess mother, against her will she was married to an ugly and disgusting person (however, this unwanted spouse is her equal, unlike the father of the poor pupil of the shelter). Actors (unfortunately, their names will tell little to the domestic audience) play great, as if they were born in the 19th century. It was not only casting that succeeded, but also surprisingly delicate camera work (bravo, Andre Shankovsky!). Not for nothing that the “Lisbon Secrets” received several prestigious awards. This, in particular, the San Sebastian “Silver Shell”, a prize for the director (named after Louis Delluc), the Portuguese “Golden Globe”. The painting became the decoration of the festival in Toronto, Canada, where it premiered.