Treasure Island (1985 film)
| Treasure Island | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Raúl Ruiz |
| Produced by |
Paulo Branco António Vaz da Silva |
| Written by | Raúl Ruiz |
| Based on |
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson |
| Starring | Melvil Poupaud |
| Cinematography | Acácio de Almeida |
| Edited by | Valeria Sarmiento |
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Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | Chile France |
| Language | English |
Treasure Island (French: L'île au trésor) is a 1985 adventure film directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. France, Great Britain and the United States funded Ruiz’s obscure and complex adaptation of the classic coming of age novel Treasure Island written by Robert Louis Stevenson.Treasure Island stars Melvil Poupaud as Jim Hawkins/Jonathan, a familiar face in Ruiz filmography, along with a few other popular actors like Anna Karina playing his mother.
This play on the traditional narrative of such an iconic and frequently dramatized story is very representative of Ruzian films, with is surrealist approach and outlandish metaphorical style. Ruiz takes his liking of cartography to a whole new level with Stevenson’s narrative making the book into a map to the treasure in this rendition.
Treasure Island opens with the narrator whom is the main character Jonathan who is Jim Hawkins (Melvil Poupaud), describing a violent television show that he is watching about African civil war and diamonds being taken . Then the film moves to the shabby hotel owned and ran by Jonathan’s drunken father (Lou Castel), and his peculiar mother (Anna Karina) where they welcome guests on as few occasions as possible.
A mysterious man arrives at the hotel, and asks to be called “Captain” played by (Martin Landau). Jonathan begins to analyze him through the “eye of god” which is a hole in the ceiling of the captain’s room. He realizes that this man is no stranger but actually quite familiar with his parents.
While tending to guests on the terrace, a blind man (Charles Schmidt) approaches Jon. He is extremely weird, there is an even an obvious silence around him. The man is relentless in wanting to speak with Jonathan about the captain.
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