Review of Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) by Jens T — 18 Sep 2012

Raoul Ruiz' Three Lives and Only One Death is a what the title suggest. In this case it's the schizophrenic man, played by Marcello Mastroianni. He's playing three different people, from a butler to a politician. We don't know whom of them he really is. He's a dangerous man, who makes it worse for the people around him. But one thing is for sure, is that it's all are about to collapse, because of all his personalities.

This might sound like a great premise for a story, and it is. I liked how it all in the begining feels like three different short films with Mastroianni playing different roles, but it rounds up with some of the stories merged with each other and we understand it's one person. I liked the story concept, some of them I liked more than the other, some of them I can't stand, specially when all kinds of genre is blended, but one can argue that because it's many different stories of different genres that it's gonna be a mess in the end anyway. But for my taste, it kind of destroys itself when they decides to have a fantasy story in the beginning.

When it comes to the characters, they are basically just marionettes for Mastroianni's crazy actions, and seems to be helpless from all of his pranks and charades. It's basically him who controls the story. The other characters hasn't any control of their own actions, which I'm not sure if I like or not. But I certainly loved Marcello Mastroianni's performance which was one of his last before he died the same year. And he tops it all with a quarter dozen splendid roles. And it's thanks to him that I give this movie a marginal thumbs up.