BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA:

Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has, Screenplay: Tadeusz Kwiatkowski, Based on The Manuscript found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki, Produced: Kamera Film Unit; Starring Zbigniew Cybulski, Iga Cembrzyńska, Joanna Jędryka; Cinematography: Mieczysław Jahoda, Edited: Krystyna Komosińska, Music: Krzysztof Penderecki, Distributed by Film Polski, Released date: 9 February 1965, Duration 182 minutes, Country of Origin: Poland, Language: Polish.

GENRE: 

Fiction

SYNOPSIS:

During a battle in Zaragoza (Spain), as part of the Napoleonic Wars, a soldier finds a book with drawings. An enemy officer recognizes its author as his own grandfather, who was a captain. A flashback then recounts the story of Alfonso van Worden seeking a route through the Sierra Morena. At the Venta Quemada, he is invited to dine with two Moorish princesses in a secret room. They inform the captain that they are his cousins, and he must marry them after converting to Islam. They seduce him and he falls sleep. He wakes up in the desolate countryside. Later, he meets a priest who is trying to cure a possessed man; the latter tells his story, which also involves two sisters and a forbidden love. Alfonso sleeps in the hermitage. When he wakes up, he is captured by the Inquisition. But he is rescued by the two princesses. Back in their room, the two princesses seduce Alfonso but he again falls sleep. Again, Alfonso awakens and finds a cabalist. They go to his castle, joined by a mathematician. The rest of the film is filled with complex nested tales told by a gypsy who visits the castle. Finally, Alfonso returns to the Venta Quemada, where he meets again the two princesses. When he departs, he receives a book so he can write the end of his story, and they tell him that everything was a game. Alfonso wakes up again, and finds his two servants nearby ready to begin the journey as if he had just dreamed everything. At Saragossa, he writes in the book until someone tells him that the two princesses are waiting for him. He abandons the book and it is left where his descendant’s enemy will find it at the beginning of the film.

Frame story, tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale, Spain, enchantment, magic, ghosts

BACKGROUND/CONTEXT:

Wojciech was agnostic although his family was Catholic. He also had Jewish roots. The name Has is the Germanized Jewish surname Haas. During the German occupation of Poland, Has studied at the Kraków Business College and at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts until 1943. After the war, he came back to the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1946, after one-year course in film, he began producing documentaries at the Warsaw Documentary Film Studio, and in the 1950s moved to Lodz to work at the National Film Studio. The film was released in Poland uncut at 182 minutes, but it was shortened for release in the U.S. and UK to 147 minutes and 125 minutes, respectively. By the 1990s there was only one known incomplete subtitled print in the world. In the 1990s, Jerry García tried to find and restore a subtitled print of the film but only found an incomplete version in France. Garcia died the day after the print arrived from France. Later, Martin Scorsese located, restored, and subtitled Has’ personal print.

KEYWORDS:

Frame story, tale-within-a-tale-within-a-tale, Spain, enchantment, magic, ghosts

ACADEMIC COMMENTARY:

1. What is esoteric about the film?

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa could be considered as esoteric regarding three aspects: the characters (in particular, those that are ghosts), the dialogues in which participate the priests and gypsies, and finally and most importantly, the plot, that is, the endless repetition by an unknown force of the same sequence of actions despite of the will of the characters.

2. Where and how does the film address esoteric practices?

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa address esoteric practices all over it, from the very start to the end of the film. The dialogues mentioned above are constantly present. The characters of ghosts are everywhere. Finally, the plot of a recursive sequence of actions guided by an external mysterious force or rule without scape is actualized constantly.

3. What is it that makes the film relevant for esoteric studies?

 I would say that what makes The Manuscript Found in Saragossa relevant for esoteric studies is its subtle but at the same time very strong manner to address occult forces. I think that Has (and certainly also Potocki) has managed to illustrate key aspects of the role of secrecy in human experiences and reactions.

Juan Riveria