Somewhere between soap opera and costume epic, “Mysteries of Lisbon” is a long, lush movie of love and passion, jealousy, royalty, criminality and other good things, playing this weekend as part of the Webster University Film Series. And the moviegoer can take all weekend to see this 4-hour, 17-minute movie, too. James Harrison, director of the excellent, interesting series will play the entire movie each night, and tickets will be honored if you divide the movie into halves (there is an intermission at the halfway point) or into shorter periods.
It’s set in the 19th century, in various European countries over more than three generations of several high-society families. Screenplay writer Carlos Saboga works from a novel by Camilo Castolo Branco, following a 14-year-old boy called Joao (Joao Luis Arrais) who grows up to be Pedro da Silva (Alfonso Pimentel).
At the same time, we’re in touch with his mother, Angela (the beauteous Maria Joao Bastos) in and out of various relationships, both sacred and profane. A constant is the superb actor Adriano Luz, who primarily is Father Dinis, but who also is several lesser characters who are involved with Angela, as director Raoul Ruiz uses her to symbolize Everywoman, the virgin and the whore, the mother and the playgirl. Ruiz, born in Chile, died there in August, only two weeks after the film opened in this country. He was 70 years old.
Father Dinis is her confessor, moving in and out of her life in a series of parties and plots, ballroom dances and whispered conversations.
The cinematography is glorious, the acting very good, the story sometimes confusing as it jumps around in time and space, but Ruiz mostly keeps a firm hand on his large, sometimes-unwieldy cast. A fascinating touch is a theatrical diorama given to Joao which becomes part of Ruiz’ story-telling, acting a little like an old silent-film screen card to move the action along. The twist-and-turn story is a little bit like “Dallas,” but in far lovelier settings.
Mysteries of Lisbon, part of the Webster University Film Series, will be shown in its entirety tonight, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. (And remember you can see part one night and part another.)