Comments on: Video Essay for 930. Rekopis znaleziony w Saragossie / The Saragossa Manuscript (1965, Wojciech Has)

By: The Saragossa Manuscript

The Saragossa Manuscript — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:04:22 +0000

To Rachel

The film was shot at Ojcowski Park Narodowy (Ojcowski National Park) just above Krakow as you head to Czestochowa.

Best wishes

Timjim

By: The Saragossa Manuscript

The Saragossa Manuscript — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:19:03 +0000

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know about a new site set up to accompany the release of Saragossa on DVD.

http://thesaragossamanuscript.info

Hope you like it

Timjim (site creator)

By: rachel

rachel — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:57:53 +0000

I am not sure how to find this information, but does anyone know the specific locations TSM was filmed in?

By: Weather Network

Weather Network — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:29:30 +0000

Weather Network…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

By: HarryTuttle

HarryTuttle — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:37:11 +0000

I've seen quite a few actually, thanks to a full retrospective at the Paris Cinémathèque a couple years ago. Saragossa is one of a kind, as you may suspect, due to its multilayered scenario and the non-stop speeches. The visual signature is much more personal in the ones cited above (with a gorgeous color photography like Polish cinematographers do best), he likes rich sets stuffed with thousands objects, minor background details, fancy costumes and crowd action. The camera following slow, wide pathes throughout the set. The atmosphere is often dark, but the undertone can be kitsch or lighter (especially through self-conscious acting or little gags). Farwell is a good one too. The stories have a quite different style, but always period epics and litterary. Saragossa is like Don Quixotte, but Kaspar is more like Munchausen, Hourglass is gothic, Farwell like a czech war film, The Doll is like a Russian Bovary, Write and Fight like Kafka. He's one of my favorite filmmaker. It's a shame his films don't have enought exposition...

By: alsolikelife

alsolikelife — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:52:57 +0000

Thanks Harry – It’s good to know that you’ve seen several of Has’ films. As far as I know they are unavailable in the States except for Saragossa. What more insight can you lend on how this film compares to his other efforts? Fred Camper’s review claimed Saragossa was not as expressive as his previous works, and less personal-feeling. So I assumed that the long takes had something to do with that impression of detachment.

Thanks for the technical feedback. To be honest this video took the longest for me to work on — it took a long time to figure out just what I wanted to do in the first place. I know there were some things to fix but by the time I was done I was done!

Incidentally I haven’t seen much action on your blog – Hope you have been well.

By: HarryTuttle

HarryTuttle — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:10:48 +0000

Nice job. I like your humorous remarks.
The onscreen writing does help to follow as I couldn’t remember the characters’ names. The film soundtrack tends to overlap your commentary… you might want to muffle it, at least when you mix in your voice. Same for the subs, they are distracting. Except when you refer to them. Your titles should have the priority.
I would say his long takes are more a matter of aesthetics than cost control. Because we find the same interest for plan-sequences in The Hourglass Sanatorium or The Tribulations of Balthazar Kober.