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The 2010 theatrical release of Mysteries of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa) marked, in many ways, the canonization of Raúl Ruiz as one of the great visual translators, interpreters, and adapters of the European novelistic tradition. The cinematic version of the movie is a four-and-a-half-hour-long tour de force whose most surprising feat might be its ability to keep the viewer engaged at all times, despite its overly complex narrative, the deliberate use of slow-paced long shots, and a persistently contemplative and brooding mood. Television viewers in France and Portugal enjoyed a slightly longer version in six episodes, a format that replicates the reception of the nineteenth-century feuilleton on which the production is based. One can imagine spectators of both versions indulging in an exceptionally immersive binge-watching experience, since Ruiz's visually luscious, narratively labyrinthine series is perfectly suited to creating an alternative temporal reality that is extremely difficult to abandon. In binge-watching, viewers in a trance-like state experience the distension of time created by the episodic structure of the narrative: in many respects, this is the best way to experience Mysteries of Lisbon. On the other hand, the spectacular nature of the filming both of interiors and landscapes made the big-screen version an even more immersive, visually dazzling experience. In either case, whether on the intimate scale of television, or in the darkened space of the movie theater, Mysteries of Lisbon was a spellbinding aesthetic success: the film version was shown internationally in numerous film festivals and won several prizes, reaching a relatively wide audience. This was quite remarkable for a production whose narrative and aesthetic unruliness stops just short of the pitfalls tied to the definition of European art cinema. With this late achievement, Ruiz confirmed his unusual status among the most respected and prolific contemporary filmmakers, as he is considered at once "an unfashionable auteur filmmaker out of sync with the more commercially oriented present, while at the same time open to all kinds of projects that cross media."1 Ruiz had already directed televised feuilletons in his native Chile in the late 1960s, at the very beginning of his career, as well as over 100 full-length feature films on both sides of the Atlantic, of which several were novel adaptations.2