Directed by Wojciech Has • 1965 • Poland

Wojciech Has’s masterpiece of sixties counterculture is a surreal odyssey across time and space. Adapted from Jan Potocki’s picaresque novel, the film stars Polish screen icon Zbigniew Cybulski as Alphonse van Worden, an 18th-century military officer whose journey across Spain becomes a descent into madness when he is waylaid by a succession of mischievous spirits and eccentric interlopers. Nesting stories within stories within stories, and serving up a parade of supporting characters – from princesses to hermits, madmen, Inquisitors, and cabalists – The Saragossa Manuscript is baffling but hypnotic, with a haunting electroacoustic score by the great Krzysztof Penderecki. Its acolytes include Luis Buñuel, David Lynch, and Martin Scorsese – but this is a truly singular cinematic experience.

THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT • RĘKOPIS ZNALEZIONY W SARAGOSSIE
Directed by Wojciech Has
Written by Tadeusz Kwiatkowski
From the novel by Jan Potocki
Cinematography by Mieczysław Jahoda
Music by Krzysztof Penderecki
Starring: Zbigniew Cybulski, Iga Cembrzyńska, Elżbieta Czyżewska

In Polish with English subtitles