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The Black Book Of Father Dinis Music Box Home Entertainment Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Valeria Sarmento Writer: Carlos Saboga, from the novel by Camilo Castelo Branco Cast: Lou de Laâge, Stanislas Merhar, Niels Schneider, Jenna Thiam, David Caracol Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 11/13/20 Opens: December […]

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Raul Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento are behind Lines of Wellington, an epic set in and around the Battle of Bussaco. Which means – this time in Venice we have a movie which will take us back in 1810, and compete for the festival’s Golden Lion statue.

Not bad, right? Definitely not, and if you check out the rest of this report you’ll actually see that this looks quite interesting, and that some seriously good cast is on board for the whole thing as well!

But, first of all, let me just remind you that director Ruiz died in August 2011, and that his widow Valeria Sarmiento decided to take over directing duties as a homage to him. One thing is for sure – we’re dealing with a powerful and original story, which comes from “Mysteries of Lisbon’s” writer, Carlos Saboga. Here’s a synopsis part:

On September 27, 1810, the French troops under Marshal Massena,...

Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, Margaret's Anna Paquin (photo), Weekend's Tom Cullen, and The Tree of Life's Terrence Malick and Brad Pitt were some of the winners of the 2012 International Cinephile Society Awards. The honors are announced by "an online group made up of approximately 80 accredited journalists, film scholars, historians and other industry professionals who cover film festivals and events on five continents." And cinephiles they clearly are; some of their choices would put the U.S.-based National Society of Film Critics to shame. [Full list of International Cinephile Society winners and runners-up.] Writer-director Farhadi's Iranian family drama A Separation, which is up for the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards, won as Best Picture of 2011, in addition to Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Ensemble (including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress runners-up Peyman Moaadi and Shahab Hosseini). Farhadi was also the runner-up for Best Director.

Chris New, Tom Cullen in Andrew Haigh's Weekend Anna Paquin, Terrence Malick: Cinephile Society Winners Best Picture 01. A Separation 02. The Tree of Life 03. Mysteries of Lisbon 04. Certified Copy 05. Weekend 06. Margaret 07. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 08. Drive 09. Meek's Cutoff 10. Hugo 11. Melancholia Best Director Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life Runner-up: Asghar Farhadi – A Separation Best Film Not In The English Language 01. A Separation 02. Mysteries of Lisbon 03. Certified Copy 04. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 05. The Skin I Live In 06. Poetry 07. House of Pleasures 08. Le Havre 09. Le Quattro Volte 10. Of Gods and Men Best Actor Tom Cullen – Weekend Runner-up: Peyman Moaadi – A Separation Best Actress Anna Paquin – Margaret Runner-up: Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt – The Tree of Life Runner-up: Shahab Hosseini – A Separation Best Supporting Actress J. Smith-Cameron – Margaret Runner-up: Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter Best Original Screenplay A Separation – Asghar Farhadi...

Jean-Luc Godard and Marcel Ophüls evidently covered quite a lot of ground in two public discussions that took place in 2002 and 2009, now collected in Dialogues sur le cinéma, a book published in France last week. The New Yorker's Richard Brody posts a round of first impressions, noting that the two filmmakers discuss Ophüls's father, Max, the political implications of cinema and a project they considered collaborating on, either about what "Being Jewish" means (to hear Godard tell it) or about Israel and Palestine (Ophüls's understanding): "In a brief afterword, the book's editor, Vincent Lowy, explains that Godard wrote to Ophüls in January, 2010, proposing a specific three-part film: the first part directed by Ophüls; the second part, Godard's response; the third, Ophüls's response to Godard's response. 'Jean-Luc Godard even specified, in this letter, the title that he'd have given the film: Adieu au langage.' That is, of course,...

Raúl Ruiz The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) will be paying tribute to Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, who died in August at age 70, with a screening of his first film, La Maleta (1963) and one of his last, Ballet Aquatique (2011), at 8 p.m. tomorrow, Jan. 31. Among those expected to reminisce about Ruiz are actor Melvil Poupaud, producer François Margolin, Australian journalist and "Ruiz expert" Adrian Martin, and former Iffr director Simon Field. Ruiz's widow, film editor Valeria Sarmiento, was invited to the Rotterdam film festival, but she had to decline because she is currently directing Lines of Wellington, which was to have been her deceased husband's next project. Much like Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon, the historical drama is to be released both as a feature and as a television miniseries. Set at the time of one of the various Napoleonic Wars, when French forces tried to invade Portugal, Lines of Wellington...

Chicago – In many ways, 2011 was the year of startlingly successful throwbacks. Who could’ve guessed that Woody Allen, Tom Cruise and The Muppets would revive their crowd-pleasing appeal? How many moviegoing soothsayers predicted that Michel Hazanavicius’ melodrama, “The Artist,” would become an Oscar front-runner that proves the silent art form is far from dead?

And who could’ve possibly dreamed that veteran Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz would end his extraordinary 48-year-long career with a staggering epic that revitalized the storytelling techniques of a nineteenth century Portuguese novelist? “Mysteries of Lisbon” is a direct rebuke to the conventional narratives that follow uncluttered three-act structures. At four-and-a-half hours, this film preserves the scope and density of its source material, while utilizing modern technology to make every frame thrillingly cinematic.

Blu-ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

Author Camilo Castelo Branco’s illegitimate birth and upbringing as an orphan are clearly reflected in the young character placed at the center of his 1852 novel.

It may be more than four hours long, but Raúl Ruiz's final film is an entrancingly strange, beautifully eccentric fable set in 19th-century Portugal

This is the last completed work from the remarkable and prolific Chilean film-maker Raúl Ruiz, who died in August this year at the age of 70. Originally intended as a TV mini-series, it has now been boldly put together as a dream-epic feature in two parts, lasting four-and-a-half hours. Mysteries of Lisbon is intensely and captivatingly strange, a sinuous melodrama about secrecy, destiny and memory in which everyone involved appears to be in a state of hypnosis and on the edge of departing for some Magrittean alternative universe. "Mysteries" is exactly right.

Ruiz's screenwriter Carlos Saboga has adapted an 1854 novel, Mistérios de Lisboa, by the Portuguese author Camilo Castelo Branco, set around the turn of the 19th century. Branco's story is an involved tale of coincidences,...

Release Date: Dec. 20, 2011

Price: Three-disc DVD $34.95, Blu-ray $43.95

Studio: Music Box Films

The mini-series drama movie Mysteries of Lisbon is one of the final works by legendary Chilean filmmaker Raul Ruiz (Time Regained), who died in August 2011 at the age of 70.

An adaptation of the 19th century novel by Portugal’s Camilo Castelo Branco, the epic film follows a man’s search for the truth over three decades and four countries. According to the Music Box press release, the film “is a saga that evokes the artistry, intricacy and richness of the sprawling intertwined narratives of such giants as Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens.”

Set in Portugal’s capital city in the 19th century, Mysteries of Lisbon tells the story of 14-year-old orphan Joao (played by Joao Luis Arrais as a child, Afonso Pimentel as an adult), who begins a quest to find the truth about his parents, his origins and himself.

Finally making its way into American theatres on the cusp of its director’s passing, Mistérios de Lisboa [Mysteries of Lisbon] gives us an epic look into the bourgeois dramatics of Portugal’s capital city. The press notes for the film contain a pretty accurate and concise three-word description by Raúl Ruiz—“birth, betrayal, redemption”. That triplet sums up Camilo Castelo Branco’s 1854 novel and the adapted screenplay from Carlos Saboga to perfection, each word a huge piece to the tale surrounding an anonymous orphan named João. But as his mystery is uncovered, the sprawling soap opera turns into a sumptuous visual splendor of the past and fate’s often surprisingly coincidental blueprint. Through the orations of dying men and men raised from the ashes of dead aliases, Lisbon is brought to life through its 19th century aristocratic nobility. With a young boy in search of an identity at its center, his part...

I had intended to post a different Movie Poster of the Week this morning when I heard the sad news about the passing of the great Raúl Ruiz. This poster may be the saddest memento of all, since it is for a film that will now never be made. Announced in Cannes this spring, the epic Napoleonic-era Lines of Wellington was to have been produced by Paulo Branco’s Alfama Films and was being pitched as “War and Peace in Portugal.” Scripted by Carlos Saboga, who also adapted Mysteries of Lisbon, the film, based on the memoirs of some of Napoleon’s generals, was to chronicle the defeat of Napoleon’s troops during the third French invasion of Portugal in 1810-11. The poster, which I discovered on the website Le Cinema de Raúl Ruiz, is a pre-release teaser which may never even have been printed (though perhaps it was hanging...

The Los Angeles Film Festival has announced the world premiere of Richard Linklater's Bernie as the opening night film for the 2011 festival.

The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.

The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.

"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...