Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 10:09:40 -0800 (PST)
From: Richard Wohlfeiler <richardw-AT-scilibx.ucsc.edu>
Subject: Re: Citizen Kane and narrative theory



Seymour Chatman wrote: "I also remember very vaguely seeing a film with
the name "Saragossa Sea" in it: does anybody remember the exact title and
the director?  My memory is that it is quite complex in structure."

The title of the film was "The Zaragosa Manuscript," I believe. Don't 
know who the director was or when it was made (I saw it in 1972). As I 
recall, it begins with a soldier seeking refuge from a battle who finds a 
caballistic manuscript, opens it and becomes absorbed into his reading; 
the screen image shifts to the narrative in the book. A character in this 
narrative at some point begins to tell a story, which also comes to 
constitute what we see on the screen. Then a character in that story 
relates a tale, and so one. What I remember as particularly interesting 
was the way in which the same people (actors) appear as different 
characters in the various narratives, and a shifting back and forth 
between the levels.

I have not seen any sign of this film since and would be very interested 
to know whether it is still available, particularly in videotape format.

Richard Wohlfeiler
richardw-AT-scilibx.ucsc.edu 



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