170. The late Chilean maestro Raúl Ruiz' Portuguese film “Mistérios de Lisboa” (Mysteries of Lisbon) (2010): A brilliant cinematic treatise on memories
“ My films are not fiction films but about fiction ”---Raúl Ruiz “In today’s cinema there is too much light, it is time to return to the shadows” --- Raúl Ruiz in his book ‘ Poetics of Cinema’ “I chose to take refuge in the dramaturgy of dreams” ---Raúl Ruiz T hese three quotations of Raúl Ruiz are important starting points for analyzing the penultimate cinematic work of the talented Raúl Ruiz-- Mysteries of Lisbon . Ruiz had already made over a hundred movies and he made Mysteries of Lisbon knowing well that his days were numbered after being diagnosed with a life threatening liver tumour. He completed the film while recovering from a successful liver transplant, only to die soon after, ironically from a lung infection. While one can sense the brilliance of this cinematic work, it is difficult to distinguish what credit ought to be attributed to the Portuguese novelist Camilo Castillo Branco, w...