Country: Chile, France
Year: 2004
Duration: 89'
Two old men are talking in a bar in Santiago. It
seems that one of them is working on a novel. They are having a bizarre
conversation: they are talking about themselves as though they were
already dead. It's a strange atmosphere. Are we in the land of the dead?
Maybe, or perhaps we are in a world of memories. Don Federico remembers
a long-ago time, when he lived in the country. Rich and hospitable, he
was surrounded by his friends and was loved by his servants, especially
Paulita, who still lives on the estate: she has a son who moved up North
and who writes to her asking her to join him. But she hesitates. A
doctor discovers that Paulita is terminally ill. Don Federico doesn't
give her the bad news, but he offers to take her to her son... But where
do we are? In the world of dreams? And who is dreaming of who? Does Don
Federico keep writing his novel? And who is the tramp shot for killing
the man who killed his dog?
"I took all Federico Gana's stories and mixed them to build a kind of
plot, I did an 'elderly' film, so to speak. If you add the age of all
the actors, you get 700 years." (R. Ruiz)
Biography
film director
Raúl Ruiz
(Puerto Montt, Chile, 1941 - Paris, 2011) took up cinema in Argentina. After returning to Chile he was involved in avant-garde theater. In 1968, he debuted in film with Three Sad Tigers, Golden Leopard in Locarno. Forced into exile after Pinochet’s coup d’état, he found refuge in France. He made his name on the international scene with The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting. He has then directed over one hundred films, making him one of the most prolific directors of all time. In 1996 he made Three Lives and Only One Death, the second to the last film Marcello Mastroianni acted in; the next year he received a Silver Bear in Berlin for Genealogies of a Crime. He then continued making films until his death, always working alongside his wife, director and editor Valeria Sarmiento.
FILMOGRAFIA
Tres tristes tigres (1968), L’hypothèse du tableau volé (1979), La ville des pirates (La città dei pirati, 1983), L’éveillé du Pont de l’Alma (1985), Trois vies et une seule mort (Tre vite e una sola morte, 1996), Généalogie d’un crime (Genealogia di un crimine, 1997), Shattered Image (Autopsia di un sogno, 1998), Le temps retrouvé (Il tempo ritrovato, 1999), Les âmes fortes (2001), Cofralandes, rapsodia chilena (2002), Médée (2003), Días de campo (2004), Le domaine perdu (2005), Klimt (2006), La recta provincia (2007), Nucingen Haus (Miss Christine, 2008), L’estate breve (doc., 2010), Mistérios de Lisboa (2010).