The Saragossa Manuscript | NW Film Center

Poland • 1965 • 182 mins.

In Spain during the Napoleonic Wars, two enemy officers form an uneasy truce at a deserted Saragossa inn as they pore over a mysterious book recounting the amazing tales of Alphonse van Worden (Zbigniew Cybulski), a Walloon officer who came to Spain in 1739. A multitude of stories flows from the fantastical tome, variously including two Moorish princesses with their sights set on van Worden, a Cabalist, a sultan and a band of gypsies; raconteurs all, they in turn relate evermore ancient stories to van Worden about forbidden love, ghosts and magic. Championed by Luis Buñuel, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and Francis Ford Coppola, this film is a mind-blowing cinematic experience.

Genres: Fantasy

Appears in: Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.