The thing to be savoured about The Saragossa Manuscript is its lack of irony and self-awareness; there is a kind of innocence and even refinement in the drama, even as it outrageously swerves off the beaten track of conventional storytelling.

This three-hour swirl of Polish phantasmagoria, from 1965, is an epic piece of japery; it celebrates visions and magic by means of labyrinthine storytelling.

The director's eye for baroque black-and-white imagery puts him behind only Bava and Welles, while the film's sharp social satire gives heft to its ambition.

In terms of narrative technique, The Saragossa Manuscript represents a triumph of Baroque wit combined with Surrealist imagery. A master of digressive technique, Has is never afraid of losing himself or the audience in his mould-breaking visual poems.