Mysteries of Lisbon

Legendary Chilean director Raúl Ruiz delivered his swan song with hypnotic epic about three generations Portuguese nobility that suffer the bitter consequences of love and betrayal. A young orphan's desire to learn about his parents leads a priest to reveal a long history of misery that affects several characters as they experience misfortune because of love. Based on the novel by Camilo Castelo Branco, Ruiz and writer Carlos Saboga created a sprawling epic that follows and traces several characters and their intricate and complex relations to each other. Ruiz explores the dark side of love and its power to damage people beyond repair which is rarely explored on screen. The stellar cast includes Adriano Luz, Maria João Bastos, Ricardo Pereira and Clotilde Hesme as well as Léa Seydoux, Melvil Poupaud and Malik Zidi in supporting roles. 1001 Films' coverage of films on DVD.