Love Torn in a Dream

The film is built from several stories that fold into one another. One is a serious, free spirited young man forced by everyone around him to get rich at any cost. Another is a group of blind children trying to open the eyes of unbelievers. A third is retired nuns running a brothel to pay the upkeep of their convent. The account is built on those contradictions and stands between fairy tale and philosophical fable. Raúl Ruiz does not lay the events out in a straight line; the stories run inside each other. Where meaning gets made is the film’s real question. The hundred and twenty three minutes are given to that folding together. Melvil Poupaud and Elsa Zylberstein appear in Raúl Ruiz’s film, a coproduction of Portugal, France and Chile, completed in 2000.