Combat d'amour en songe

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 the ...more

Director Raul Ruiz has said, “My films are not fiction films but about fiction,” and that is certainly true of the beguilingly complex and goofy Love Torn in a Dream. The film overlaps a surfeit of amusing narratives, with several cast members in multiple roles. While it’s hard to miss the director’s visual wit or his usual clever use of non-synchronous sound, some of his verbal playfulness will be lost in translation for those who don’t speak French, and the plots become very difficult ...more