Raúl RuizFilmography

Dialogues of the Exiled

Crew: Director

Nucingen Haus

Crew: Art Director, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Elsa Zylberstein, Jean-Marc Barr, Audrey Marnay, Laurent Malet, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Synopsis: A dream narrative told in flashback structure, France-based filmmaker Raoul Ruiz's Nucingen Haus follows writer William James (Jean-Marc Barr) as he learns that he has won a sprawling mansion, and decides to take up residence there with his wife (Elsa Zylberstein). But Nucingen Haus is already Read More

Litoral, Cuentos del Mar

Crew: Director

La Recta Provincia

Crew: Director

Klimt

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: John Malkovich, Veronica Ferres, Saffron Burrows, Georgia Reeve, Stephen Dillane

Synopsis: Raúl Ruiz's Klimt uses an amorphous, nonchronological narrative to cinematize events from the life of one of the 20th century's most profound artists: the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (here portrayed by John Malkovich). Ruiz begins with Klimt's painful death from syphilis, and spends the Read More

To Each His Own Cinema

Crew: Director

Synopsis: At the time of its production, To Each His Own Cinema represented the latest arrival in a tidal wave of internationally oriented omnibus films, with no official relation between them but all produced within a few years of one another. Few could claim a roster of talent comparable to this one Read More

Responso

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean Badin

The Lost Domain

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Les Ames Fortes

Crew: Director

Actors: Laetitia Casta, Frédéric Diefenthal, Arielle Dombasle, John Malkovich, Charles Berling

Synopsis: One woman's actions inspire a variety of reactions among those around her in this period drama. Therese (Laetitia Casta) and Firmin (Frédéric Diefenthal) are a young couple of modest means living in France in 1882. Firmin earns a living as a blacksmith, while Therese finds work at an inn. At the Read More

Dias de Campo

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Marcial Edwards, Belgica Castro, Mario Montilles, Ignacio Aguero

Ce Jour-La

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Bernard Giraudeau, Elsa Zylberstein, Jean-Luc Bideau, Jean-François Balmer, Christian Vadim

Synopsis: Master filmmaker Raúl Ruiz adds a black comedy to his far-reaching body of work with That Day, a playful meditation on money, death, and false spirituality. Livia (Elsa Zylberstein) and Pointpoirot (Bernard Girardeau) are, respectively, a spoiled society woman who suffers from delusional visions Read More

Vertige de la Page Blanche

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Pascale Anin, Patrick Azam, Philippe Bombled, Sophie Bourdon, Carlos Chahine

Une Place Parmi Les Vivants

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Christian Vadim, Thierry Gibault, Valérie Kaprisky, Cecile Bois

Synopsis: French filmmaker Raúl Ruiz directs the philosophical film noir spoof A Place Among the Living, inspired by gangster films and detective stories from the '50s. Frequent Ruiz leading man Christian Vadim plays Ernest Ripper, a Paris writer who makes a living translating cheap dime-store novels. He is Read More

Time Regained

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Marcelo Mazzarella, Emmanuelle Béart, Vincent Perez, John Malkovich, Pascal Greggory, Catherine Deneuve

Synopsis: An ambitious project of Chile-born, Paris-based Raul Ruiz, this psychological drama brings to the screen the famous classic of Marcel Proust with fidelity to its interior monologues and streams of consciousness. Proust (Marcelo Mazzarella), on his deathbed in his small apartment on Rue Hamelin, is Read More

Combat d'amour en songe

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Melvil Poupaud, Elsa Zylberstein, Lambert Wilson, Christian Vadim, Diogo Doria

Synopsis: Raul Ruiz's Love Torn in a Dream is introduced with a fake newsreel, taking place in postwar France, in which the cast of the film meet with the producer, who explains the film's complex weave of nine narratives. A diagram in which each story is represented by a letter of the alphabet explicates Read More

The Comedy Of Innocence

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Balibar, Nils Hugon, Charles Berling, Edith Scob

Synopsis: A woman begins to wonder if her young son is who she thinks he is in this psychological suspense story. Ariane and Pierre (Isabelle Huppert and Denis Podalydes) are the busy parents of a nine-year-old son, Camille (Nils Hugon). Camille feels neglected by his hard-working mom and dad and often Read More

Shattered Image

Crew: Director

Actors: Anne Parillaud, William Baldwin, Lisanne Falk, Graham Greene, Billy Wilmott

Synopsis: Chilean Raul Ruiz directed this psychological suspense thriller which might be described as Alfred Hitchcock meets La Femme Nikita. In Seattle, hit-woman Jessie (Anne Parillaud) enters a restaurant men's room, kills a businessman, goes home, falls asleep, and awakens aboard a Jamaica-bound plane Read More

L'Inconnu de Strasbourg

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Ornella Muti, Charles Berling, Johan Leysen, Christian Vadim

Synopsis: Chilean-born Valeria Sarmiento directed this improbable French thriller. Madeleine (Ornella Muti) is with her lover, Jean-Paul (Charles Berling), when her husband arrives home and catches the two together. Madeleine kills her husband and tells Jean-Paul to flee before the police arrive. After Read More

Genealogies of a Crime

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Melvil Poupaud, Andrzej Seweryn, Bernadette Lafont

Synopsis: Raul Ruiz directed this typically eccentric look at the nature of crime, the human mind, and life in the modern world. Solange (Catherine Deneuve) is a defense attorney with a reputation for taking on cases that can't be won -- and proving it by losing them. Her latest lost cause is Rene (Melvil Poupaud Read More

Three Lives and Only One Death

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Galiena, Marisa Paredes, Melvil Poupaud

Synopsis: Marcello Mastroianni plays several different roles in this off-beat, witty exploration of a man with multiple personalities from world-class filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Mastroianni first appears as Parisian traveling salesman Mateo Strano who suddenly shows up at the home of Maria, the wife he abandoned Read More

À Propos De Nice, La Suite

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: This French anthology is a tribute to A Propos de Nice (1930), a classic documentary that took a poetic and sometimes satirical look at life in the French Riviera town. This version blends fact and fiction to chronicle life in modern-day Nice and is comprised of seven vignettes, each directed by Read More

Elle

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Marine Delterme, Didier Flamand, Neveda Mandadjieva, Joko Agov

Synopsis: This remake of Luis Bunuel's El (1952), which in turn was based on Mercedes Pinto's book, puts a new spin on the tale by making the protagonist a mad woman married to an equally insane man. The original story focused mainly on the husband's jealousy of his unusually beautiful "trophy wife." The Read More

L'Ile Au Trésor

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Melvil Poupaud, Martin Landau, Vic Tayback, Lou Castel, Jeffrey Kime

Synopsis: Jonathan (Melvil Poupaud) is an imaginative young man. This film unveils what goes on in his mind as he mulls over his recent reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island and the television adventure shows he is watching. This story device allows the highly regarded and very Read More

Fado Majeur et Mineur

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean-Luc Bideau, Melvil Poupaud, Ana Padrão, Jean-Yves Gautier

Synopsis: The seemingly unrelated scenes in this 110 minute black and white cinematic collage reflect the highly personalized vision of filmmaker Raul Ruiz. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Il Viaggio Clandestino: Vite di Santi e Peccatori

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Enzo Moscato, Marco Manchisi, Marco Cavicchioli, Enzo Vetrano

Synopsis: The differences between saint and sinner are subtly blurred in this irreverent look at human nature. The film was shot in the Sicilian countryside and within the Fiumara d'Arte artist colony. Mario is a common man who wanders the countryside. On his way he meets Jesus Christ who confides that he Read More

Las Soledades

Crew: Director

Palomita Blanca

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This film, based on a novel by Enrique Lefourcade tells a simple story about a rich man and a poor girl who wind up becoming romantic partners in the context of the turbulent times before and during the accession of Salvador Allende to power in Chile. Unfortunately, though the story is apolitical Read More

L'Oeil Qui Ment

Crew: Director

Actors: John Hurt, Didier Bourdon, Lorraine Evanoff, David Warner, Daniel Prévost

Synopsis: In this mystical comedy, Felicien has traveled to Portugal from France soon after the end of the First World War. It seems that his recently deceased father had invested a lot of money in a factory located in a remote village, and he has come to evaluate that investment. He gets some clues to the Read More

The Golden Boat

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Kirby, Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: The Golden Boat, the first American production from internationally acclaimed director Raul Ruiz, is a dry-humored, surreal tale set in downtown Manhattan. Young writer Israel Williams (Federico Muchnik) encounters a wounded man on the street. Though he has been stabbed several times over, the man Read More

Brise-glace

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This documentary by three different directors chronicles their two-week journey aboard a commercial icebreaker on the Bothnian Sea. The first episode is by French director Jean Rouch and has the title "Bateau-Givre," or "Frosted Boat." It focuses on the beauty of the ocean and the ship itself. Read More

Des Grands Evenements et des Gens Ordinaires: Les Elections

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: When his efforts to quiz his neighbors in the 11th arrondissement of Paris about the forthcoming 1978 elections proved unavailing, since a large number were unwilling to say anything on camera, experimental filmmaker Raul Ruiz first broadened the nature of his documentary to try and discern the Read More

La Chouette Aveugle

Crew: Director

Mammame

Crew: Director, Production Designer, Screenwriter

Actors: Eric Alfieri, Mathilde Altaraz, Muriel Boulay, Christophe Delachaux, Jean-Claude Gallotta

Synopsis: Dance and music convey the messages in this visually evocative, 65-minute film about the battle of the sexes. Nine dancers -- five men and four women -- go through routines set against a backdrop of barren corridors or played out on a bare stage with only a few simple props. The dances and Read More

Dans un Miroir

Crew: Director

Actors: Melvil Poupaud, Jean-Claude Wino, Anne Alvara

Synopsis: In this perplexing experimental film, two people are having a lengthy, surreptitious discussion about doing something nasty to a third party. Louise (Anne Alvara) and Leonard (Jean-Claude Wino) are the plotting couple, but is the third party Louise's brother? Is that brother Leonard? Why is that Read More

Regime Sans Pain

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Anne Alvaro, Gerard Maimone, Gilles Arbona

Mémoire des Apparences

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Roch Leibovici, Laurence Cortadellas, Jean-Bernard Guillard

Synopsis: Memoire des Apparences is a highly unconventional, metafictional adaptation of Calderon de la Barca's play Life is a Dream. Director Raul Ruiz combines the 17th-century Spanish drama, about a man raised in a prison who discovers he is his country's rightful prince, with a modern-day story of Read More

Richard III

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Los Naufragos Del Liguria

Actors: Tina Romero, Ignacio Retes, Juan Claudio Retes

Synopsis: A small group of shipwrecked people find themselves in danger on a deserted island in this engaging adventure story based on a book by Emilio Salgari. After a sailor (Gonzalo Lora) is caught trying to steal some gold and jewels on the passenger liner Liguria, a fight starts that leads to an Read More

Les destins de Manoel

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Fernando Heitor

Synopsis: In three versions of the same story, seen through the eyes of little Manuel, director Raul Ruiz has created another engaging, mystical look at the nature of life, more effective, perhaps in the first segment than in the shortened last two episodes. Originally, the versions were told in three Read More

Treasure Island

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

La Presence Réelle

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Frank Oger

Synopsis: In this pseudo-documentary about an actor at the Avignon Theater Festival, director Raul Ruiz explores issues concerning the nature of the cinematic and theatrical venues and their relationship to life, to each other, and to reality. While the actor wanders around the festival, snatches of plays Read More

L'Eveille Du Pont D'Alma

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michel Lonsdale, Jean-Bernard Guillard, Olimpia Carlisi, Jean Badin, Melvil Poupaud

Synopsis: This quickly-filmed avant-garde farce by prolific director Raul Ruiz features an insomniac (Michel Lonsdale) whose main preoccupation is surreptitiously watching private matters -- he is a voyeur. He and an equally disreputable acquaintance rape a woman alongside the Seine, a crime made all the Read More

Berenice

Crew: Director

Actors: Anne Alvaro, Jean Badin, Frank Oger

Synopsis: Chilean director Raúl Ruíz has transformed Jean Racine's classical love story about Berenice and the Roman emperor Titus into an intriguing, avant-garde representation of a woman living in a "shadow world." Berenice was the daughter of Herod, and because she was not Roman herself, she was rejected Read More

Ville des Pirates

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Hugues Quester, Anne Alvaro, André Engel, Melvil Poupaud

Synopsis: Lacking any visible plot, Ville des Pirates meanders from episodes that are alternately comic or dramatic, gross or non-sequitur, capricious or outrageous, all in the name of a murder mystery. A hard sell to anyone who is not a student of the avant-garde or the history of cinema, most audiences Read More

Point de Fuite

Crew: Director

Les Trois Couronnes du Matelot

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean-Bernard Guillard, Philippe Deplanche, Jean Badin, Nadege Clair, Lisa Lyon

Synopsis: In this classically surreal fantasy, a sailor, known for telling tales, sees a student killing his teacher and decides to spin a few yarns for him. He tells the boy of his many adventures in exotic South American ports where he visited opium dens and stayed in cathouses. In such dark, dreamlike Read More

Het Dak Van De Walvis

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: On Top of the Whale, one of the best-known films by acclaimed director Raul Ruiz, is an allegorical exploration of language and the conflicts between cultures. The setting is the world of the near future; the film begins in Holland, which, like several other European nations, has become a Read More

The Territory

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Isabelle Weingarten, Rebecca Pauly, Jeffrey Kime, Paul Getty, Jr.

Synopsis: When several Americans start out on their trek through a large national park, they have no idea that their lack of expertise will get them hopelessly lost -- and facing starvation, they have some grim alternatives available if they want to survive. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide Read More

Le Jeu de l'Oie

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Dora Et La Lanterne Magique

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Nathalie Manet, Valérie Mairesse, Rita Maiden, Gerard Boucaron, Alain David

Synopsis: Eleven-year old Dora (Nathalie Manet) is forced to chase after clues concerning her inventor-father's death while being chased by thugs working for big industry. Not only is she seeking to understand her father's mysterious death, but some of the clues he gave her indicate that he invented Read More

L'Hypothese Du Tableau Volé

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean Rougeul, Anne Debois, Alix Comte, Jean Narboni

Synopsis: The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting is the film most responsible for bringing director Raul Ruiz to international prominence. The intricate film is structured as an unfolding puzzle, a bafflingly complex mystery where the detectives use the techniques of art history. The film is narrated by an Read More

Colloque de Chiens

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: A 20-minute, César-winning short film from Chilean expatriate director Raul Ruiz, Colloque de Chiens (in English, Dog's Dialogue) takes its title from a series of barking dogs who reappear throughout the film, one of several motifs used to add unexpected depth to a purposefully melodramatic Read More

Abastecimiento

Crew: Director

El Realismo Socialista

Crew: Director

La Colonia Penal

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Ahora Te Vamos a Llamar Hermano

Crew: Director

Que Hacer?

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Told on many levels, this film examines the human perspective on the events that led to the election of Marxist Salvador Allende as President of Chile. Among the many small dramas which make up the whole is the story of a Peace Corps volunteer whose loyalties are split between a local Read More

Tres Tristes Tigres

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nelson Villagra, Luis Alarcon

Synopsis: This rather crude, low-budget romantic comedy by director Gilberto Gazcon de Anda revolves around the adventures and misadventures of a trio of lotharios and the women in their lives. Several episodic segments are strung together to create a thin storyline, as seductions and dialogue in dubious Read More

Le Retour

Crew: Director

La Maleta

Crew: Director