Raul Ruiz’s masterful adaptation of the eponymous nineteenth-century Portuguese novel by Camilo Castelo Branco evokes the complex intertwined narratives of Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens. The core story centers on Joao, the bastard child of an ill-fated romance between two members of the aristocracy who are forbidden to marry, and his quest to discover the truth of his parentage. But this is just the start of an engrossing tale that follows a multitude of characters whose fates conjoin, separate and then rejoin again over three decades in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy.
User Reviews
ARI RULES!!!
2015-01-17
You install yourself in this extraordinary movie... Stories encapsulates in one another somehow reminds me of the book Manuscript Found in Zaragoza
bigmamma90
2012-02-13
I love period movies and I rarely complain about a movie being dull, but this one went on forever (4 1/2 hours) and had way too many stories to be coherent. Because they often used the same sets to tell the stories of others, it made it even harder to follow. The only good actor in the whole movie was the Brazilian man. And the best part of the movie is that they ragged on the US and Brazilian slave trade, like Portugal never thought of slavery! The whole movie was about how the whole upper class slept with anything that move like a game of sport. By the last 45 mins. I just speed through to the end.
Imago1
2012-01-22
It's over 4 hours long, but it could have been longer. (The original was a 6-hour TV series). I loved every moment of it. I can't get get it out of my head. 18th and 19th century Portugal and Paris. Plenty of historic references. Great acting. Beautiful settings. Stories inside of stories. In Portuguese with English subtitles. The film is faultless. I just wish that I-Tunes allowed for a two-day rental period for a film of this length which is divided into a Part 1 and Part 1.
Person of Few Words
2011-12-29
It is agood movie if you have some time to kill. Make that a lot of time.
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