Episode 192: The Phantasmagorias of Raúl Ruiz

## Show Notes

We discuss the hallucinatory career of Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz and his filmography of 100+ films! In an attempt to keep a few shreds of our sanity intact, we limit ourselves to discussing his mind benders CITY OF PIRATES, THE HYPOTHESIS OF THE STOLEN PAINTING and TIME REGAINED.
## Films Discussed

* Directed by Raúl Ruiz
	+ *Tres Triste Tigres* (1968)
	+ *The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting* (1979)
	+ *The Territory* (1981)
	+ *City of Pirates* (1983)
	+ *Manoel and the Island of Marvels* (1985) (TV miniseries)
	+ *The Golden Boat* (1990)
	+ *Poetics of Cinema* (1995) (book)
	+ *Shattered Image* (1998)
	+ *Time Regained* (1999)
	+ *Love Torn in a Dream* (2000)
	+ *Klimt* (2006)
	+ *Mysteries of Lisbon* (2010)
* *J'accuse* (1919) Dir. Abel Gance
* *Un Chien Andalou* (1929) Dir. Luis Buñuel
* *Mr. Arkadin* (1955) Dir. Orson Welles
* *Last Year at Marienbad* (1961) Dir. Alain Resnais
* *The Saragossa Manuscript* (1965) Dir. Wojciech Jerzy Has
* *Boom!* (1968) Dir. Joseph Losey
* *The Hot Nights of Linda* (1973) Dir. Jess Franco
* *F For Fake* (1973) Dir. Orson Welles
* *The Mirror* (1975) Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

## Discussion Notes

* Another month of the International Cinema Club!
* Raúl Ruiz: an impossible filmmaker with a particular style - it's all kind of a joke to him
	+ 100+ feature films to his name, plus shorts and documentaries, and unfinished pieces
	+ Wrote 100 plays thanks to a Rockefeller grant between 1956-1962 in Chile
	+ Exiled from Chile to France, where he worked in Paris public television
	+ His style allows viewers to fill in the gaps in his films, making each different for each person
	+ Johnathan Rosenbaum is a key source for all things Ruiz
* Our hosts opinions on difficult dreamlike movies
	+ Will - Not understanding a film can be deeply frustrating
	+ Justin - If anything can happen, why should you care?
* *City of Pirates*
	+ No pirates!
	+ Lots of split diopter shots
	+ Argento-esque colors and a Hitchcockian score
* *The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting*
	+ Will - "It's *Last Year at Marienbad* meets *F for Fake*"
	+ Fourth-wall breaking, dense with literary allusions
	+ Justin - "it is almost the thesis of his movies - you will never be able to solve them"
* *Time Regained*
	+ Our hosts were impressed by John Malkovich's French
	+ Will - the film has "a Masterpiece Theatre look to it"
	+ Justin - "It looks expensive!"

## Post-Outro Discussion

* Top Ten lists for the year and the decade
	+ Will - Maybe you shouldn't work that hard on it?
		- It won't be, and shouldn't be, definitive
	+ Justin - Lists are better as delivery mechanisms for unheard-of movies, since you already know the hits
* Our hosts strategy for picks - What have you thought about the most? What has changed how you think about movies?
* The ICC (mostly sarcastic) list of movies that defined the years 2000-2019
	+ *The Mask* (1994) Dir. Chuck Russell
	+ *Monsters Ball* (2001) Dir. Marc Forster
	+ *Monster* (2003) Dir. Patty Jenkins
	+ *Zodiac* (2007) Dir. David Fincher
	+ *No Country for Old Men* (2007) Dir. Joel & Ethan Coen
	+ *The Curious Case of Benjamin Button* (2008) Dir. David Fincher
	+ *The Master* (2012) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
	+ *All is Lost* (2013) Dir. J.C. Chandow
	+ *American Sniper* (2014) Dir. Clint Eastwood
	+ *Mad Max Fury Road* (2015) Dir. George Miller
	+ *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* (2015) Dir. J. J. Abrams
	+ *Toni Erdmann* (2016) Dir. Maren Ade
	+ *Phantom Thread* (2017) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
	+ *The Old Man and the Gun* (2018) Dir. David Lowery
	+ *Personal Problems* (2018) Dir. Bill Gunn
	+ *The Other Side of the Wind* (2018) Dir. Orson Welles
	+ *15:17 to Paris* (2018) Dir. Clint Eastwood
	+ *The Mule* (2018) Dir. Clint Eastwood