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That makes sense. Too bad there aren't more definitive answers about his career around (of course that would suggest availability too which isn't going to happen sadly).

zedz wrote:

Kirkinson wrote:272 minutes on a 50G Blu-ray would restrict you to an average bit rate of around 25 Mbps, which would probably yield a respectable but perhaps not spectacular transfer, depending on the film. Going by DVDBeaver, most Criterion Blu-rays seem to have an average rate of at least 30 Mbps, though there are some exceptions (Orpheus is around 25, Carlos around 22, and 8 1/2 and the Vigo set around 20). Obviously, numbers don't make all the difference, but for what it's worth...

I think it would be pushing it to squeeze the entire theatrical and television versions onto three discs, unless they were going to do seamless branching or something (but isn't that unreliable and variable according to different players?)

They could, however, add the TV-specific scenes as 'deleted scenes', though they're more like 'deleted narratives' on the third disc alongside the extras (which are copious, though I doubt a US distributor will go for all of them, radio interviews included).

In a perfect world, we'd get the full TV version on Blu (which hasn't been released anywhere, as far as I know) and some unique extras (I'd love to see Ruiz's Painleve film, though that would be a totally arbitrary inclusion).

EDIT: Another complication, of course, is that a US distributor may only have rights to the theatrical cut. Unlike Carlos, the full length Mysteries hasn't been shown / distributed in the US, correct?

Hi all

I literally just spoke to a really sweet girl at Music Box Films over the phone. The release both on DVD and Blu-ray will be the film version only, with the third disc containing extra features. She did mention the possibility of putting the long version out if this version sells well, but she (and I) lamented that the film is not being talked about much, so there you go.

I know one thing, I'm buying this on Blu-ray from Music Box.

Well, sweet girl or not, I'll be ordering the TV version from Portugal if I buy this at all. What a waste -- it's only another hour. At the very least, they could've thrown the added TV scenes on there as an extra (unless they are in fact doing that on the third disc?).

Received my Portuguese miniseries/film DVD box set today, and a nice surprise is that the extras appear to be entirely English-friendly as well (I have only had time to check a couple).

Yes, as far as I recall, everything on the extras disc has English subs, even the long radio interviews. They're all pretty valuable as well: Ruiz seemed to be able to find new things to say and new tangents to explore no matter how many times he was asked to go over the same ground.

Just looking for a bit of help from anyone else with the Music Box Blu of Mysteries of Lisbon. At the end of the first part/disc in the very last scene where Dinis and Angela are talking about the mistress/maid the subtitles seem to switch from 'she and 'her'' to 'he' and 'him' in subsequent lines. I'm fairly certain this is just a subtitling mistake but just wanted to check i wasn't missing something? Anyone else noticed this?
Fantastic film by the way and glorious visual presentation. My first exposure to Ruiz but am encouraged to finally release Time Regained from my kevyip.

Time Regained may well be the shortest step from Mysteries of Lisbon for somebody setting out to explore Ruiz's oeuvre, but watch out for the next one: it's likely to be a doozy!

Not a great deal seems to be readily available through the usual channels but I've spotted the recommendations of you and others in this and the other Ruiz thread (this forum proving invaluable as always) so look forward to exploring whatever i can get my hands on.

As Linhas de Torres, intended as a follow-up to Mysteries of Lisbon, is now shooting. Ruiz apparently left detailed instructions according to brief online info. Info in Portuguese here:
http://www.rtp.pt/cinemax/?t=Paulo-Bran ... ut=8&tm=36" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe this means Paulo Branco intends to go ahead with a third film (also originally intended for Ruiz) based on a novel by Camilo Castelo Branco. The title of the novel escapes me at the moment.

Just wanted to note that the extras on the American Blu for Mysteries of Lisbon are very good. In the hour or so of interviews with Ruiz he's never at a loss for words though this French television (?) roundtable which runs about 13 minutes is very good to and works fairly well in place of a visual essay. The booklet's very good too with a nice and helpful Rosenbaum essay and a preface of sorts by Ruiz. Assuming they're not duplicated on the other releases they're nearly worth getting the DVD for by itself.

Can anyone point me in the direction of anything on Ruiz's scripting process, perhaps something on his collaborations with Valeria Sarmiento or Gilbert Adair?
I've just bought Poetics of Cinema in hopes of this helping out, we'll see when it get's here.

Hi all! Many thanks in advance if someone can tell me if Fnac Portugal ships by courier only or if it´s possible to choose regular mail. It´s a slight hassle sometimes being available in person to receive the package and sign a receipt. And the 6-disc Mysteries of Lisbon seems available only via Fnac.

Many thanks for the link Michael!

zedz wrote:
Pointe de fuite

I’m a huge Ruiz fan, but even I don’t get / don’t like everything he does, and the short straw in this set is Point de fuite (Vanishing Point), which is included as an extra on the City of Pirates disc. It’s interesting enough, and I’m grateful for its inclusion, as it seems like it’s been rescued from the brink of oblivion, given that it’s the roughest transfer in the pack, from a battered, exhibition print with burnt-in French subs. You can see many of Ruiz’s interests of the time (identity, ritual, semantics) play out as a kind of chamber piece, but it’s much drier than the baroque fantasias the surround it.

Finally getting around to this set and I must admit that of the two on the disc I actually found this one more immediately gratifying. It reminded me a lot of Three Crowns of a Sailor to the point where there has to be some connection and I wish that there was more extras relating to the film as a result. This is also probably the most Latin American movie I've seen from him (which with only nine doesn't say much) and probably the clearest realization of the Borges/ Lovecraft style of prose I've seen for the cinema. The film developed this wonderful interest just via visual action despite being fairly inactive (all the plot seemed over with by the half hour mark with the ending coming as a shock to me). It is certainly not the most cinematic of his films, but somehow this straight forward nature allows for the characters to gain an uneasiness. It is almost the ultimate subversion of expectations to the benefit of the characters and the problems they exist in. I'll have to see this again before going specifically into its themes, but formally at least I feel it is as good as anything else he's done.

Borges/Lovecraft discussion moved here.

Question regarding the Portug. complete 6-DVD version of 'Mysteries of Lisbon'; are the extensive supplements all subtitled in English?

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

zedz wrote: Nucingen Haus is also out in France, but although blaq out have a decent track record for including English subs on their releases, amazon doesn't list any for this release (and it's too recent to reckon on blaq out's own website, apparently). Can anybody confirm or deny?

Just to answer this lingering question for anyone who still has it the DVD does have English subs.

I'm wondering if one of you folks can please help me. I just got in a DVD of Ruiz's That Day (which I haven't seen mentioned in this thread) from the Amazon marketplace. The seller, who had a near perfect feedback rating, advertised the disc as "New" and he was the last person selling it cheap and non-used.

Despite the fact it was shrinkwrapped and everything when it came with a security label, the cover looked like it was run off a printer, now that doesn't necessarily mean anything so I wanted to take out the disc to check and when I removed the shrink wrap to bring over the DVD to the player, I noticed the credit on the top of the DVD cover, which otherwise is the cover the movie should have, says "A Film by Raou Ruiz"....No "L".

So yeah, the cover has to be fake, but I was wondering if any of you could tell me if the DVD is a bootleg. If it came used, I'd just assume the guy lost the cover and printed a new one for the case from an online image (Although the missing L is terribly weird), but this is straight out of the shrink wrapping this way and I find that awfully suspicious. I'll post a picture of what the actual disc looks like at the bottom, but to describe it in further detail the disc doesn't look like a DVD-R or anything (It's not purple or blue or whatever or whatever oddly colored) on the bottom, and if you pop the DVD in, you get the garish looking Kino FBI warning, "Kimstim" in black on a white background, no Kino logo, and then the menu is a moving image of a woman holding a hammer in purple and yellow while images change in a hall looking thing next to her.

Either way, if the DVD is genuine, should I file a claim with Amazon that the guy sent me a DVD with a fake cover that was advertised to be genuine? I've heard very good things about this film and I'm quite positive the DVD is VERY OOP so if they make me send it back when I file I'll be out the movie entirely unless I want a cheap used copy in "Acceptable" condition which usually means it has lots of scratching.

Anyway, thanks for reading, here's a picture of the disc art, and if anyone can confirm it's supposed to look like this I'll be much obliged.

I know this will not help you out with the problem above but, just in case you have to return the disc, there is a French edition out there with English subs.

The disc itself looks exactly the same as other KimStim dvds I own (i.e. black text, no actual disc art akin to a cd from the 80's).

joshua wrote:I know this will not help you out with the problem above but, just in case you have to return the disc, there is a French edition out there with English subs.

Further to this, That Day is part of this essential box set, which comes complete with four other features, plus some Ruiz shorts and interviews, all fully subbed in English.

Is Dog's Dialogue available on DVD? The main post in this thread doesn't say.

It's available on the French DVD of Three Lives and Only One Death, and also in the Portuguese "A Consagração" box set. Both supposedly have English subtitles. (The earlier French disc from Gemini Films, now out of print, certainly did -- that's the one I have.)