One of the cultiest of all cult films, with a fan base that includes Luis Buñuel, Martin Scorsese and The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, this lavish, sprawling adaptation of Jan Potocki’s classic novel starts off as a lavish widescreen epic set during the Napoleonic era, but the discovery of the manuscript of the title leads to flashbacks to the time of the Spanish Inquisition, as the characters tell complex, increasingly intertwining stories whose supernatural elements ensure that nothing is ever quite as it initially appears. A bewildered-looking Zbigniew Cybulski provides the emotional anchor in one of his signature performances.
