You can’t say that Music Box Films are up for the challenge. After releasing parts I & II of Mesrine parts, the foreign film distributor based in Chicago are going to block cinemas for 4 1/2 hours with their purchase out of Berlin in Raoul Ruiz’s period drama Mysteries of Lisbon, — they’ll release that version in September and will put out the six-hour miniseries on DVD sometime after that.
Gist: Based on a famous nineteenth-century Portuguese novel, this follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil where they connect with a variety of mysterious individuals.
Worth Noting: Winner of the Silver Shell at San Sebastian, this played at TIFF and was a surprise winner of the Louis Delluc French critics’ award beating out Carlos and Of Gods and Men.
Do We Care?: We didn’t catch the film at TIFF (as was the case with Carlos, we generally avoid anything longer than three-hours, but look forward in catching the 4 1/2 hour feature once in theaters.
