Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) Raoul Ruiz, close to the end of his life (August2011)has filmed a fitting cap stone to his long career as an auteur in a film in which he brings to bear his innate artistry displayed by his unerring choice of location, his artist/architect appreciation of space, form and surface; allied to an uncompromising pace, intelligent dialogue, and ability to energize a placid scene with subtle but restless camera movement. These gifts ornament here a winding tale by a 19th century Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco, an intricate improbable romantic epic, a window, if selective, on the period where the horrors of common life rarely intrude on the nobility where broken hearts and illicit passion, illegitimacy and primogeniture, are the obsessive concerns of Blanco’s world. Ruiz emphasizes this aspect by the regular appearances of a toy stage framed by a florid proscenium arch in which toy characters anticipate or record events Mention must also be made of the fine costuming and splendid performances yielding a satisfying artistic experience but Ruiz’s gaze is cool, detached, and the personages, like the figures in the miniature stage, rarely generate emotion or empathy underlying the romantic vision of the author of a imaginary world hence the film seems almost like a fairy tale at times with its twist and turns.

Ruiz’s gift for staging in superb locations tends to overshadow the corporeal heart of the matter.