New York Times: A Portuguese Tale of Time, the Revealer

A masterly tale about lives and stories and the art of their telling, “Mysteries of Lisbon” is also an elegiac meditation on love lost and rediscovered through misted memory. Directed by the Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz and set mainly in Portugal, with detours to other European corners, it is a period picture based on a work by the prolific Camilo Castelo Branco (1825-90), who was born in Lisbon, illegitimate and orphaned, and flirted with the priesthood before finding his calling in writing, running off with a married woman, landing in prison and finally committing suicide. Mr. Ruiz’s “Mysteries” are just as outlandish, gloriously so.

New York Times.