Thursday, August 29 | 7:30 pm
“Filmed by Chilean master Raúl Ruiz in 1990 but left unfinished until it was completed by his wife and collaborator Valeria Sarmiento after his death, The Wandering Soap Opera is a surreal, dreamily interconnected series of vignettes that parody telenovela conventions. In one episode, a man seduces a woman by showing her his muscles, which are actually slabs of raw meat. Later, the man has a gun pulled on him when he accuses a poet of plagiarism. Meanwhile, we watch through the television screen as five women lose their husbands in an earthquake and embrace a better future together. A singular blend of political critique, philosophical puzzle and slapstick sketch-comedy, the film reflects Ruiz’s multifaceted feelings upon returning to his native Chile after more than 15 years away, as well as his lively Borgesian approach to language and logic. Shot on striking Super 16mm, The Wandering Soap Opera is a glorious and playfully intellectual sendup of the telenovela, which, at the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, Ruiz called the very best lens through which to understand ‘Chilean reality.’”
Directors Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento | 2017 | In Spanish with English subtitles | 80 minutes | NR | DCP