Three Lives and Only One Death
The extraordinary journey of this actor, a leading figure in Italian and European cinema for over three decades, brings us back to the heart of the most demanding auteur cinema, as well as to the most inventive, joyful, and iconic popular films. With a unique sense of style and a casual elegance, he became one of the most accomplished embodiments of the screen actor.
Winner of the Critics Award, 1996 São Paulo International Film Festival
The stories – at first successive, then finally intertwined – of a travel clerk, a professor of anthropology, and a businessman plagued by unusual setbacks. These three characters are really one and the same, suffering from “multiple personality” disorder.

Raúl Ruiz
Raúl Ruiz is a Franco-Chilean filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and director. His films have frequently been awarded and selected at various festivals. He is part of a politically engaged generation of Chilean directors, alongside Miguel Littin, Helvio Soto, and Patricio Guzmán. Following the September 11, 1973 coup d'état in Chile, he went into exile in France, eventually acquiring French citizenship. In 1977, he directed The Suspended Vocation, marking the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). A permanent group formed around the filmmaker, making him a central figure in the creation and research programs department, where he directed nearly 25 films – including The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1978) and Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983). Described by Ruiz as his "first space of freedom," INA allowed him to develop his interest in visual experimentation. He created a diverse and prolific body of work, often described as baroque, spanning multiple countries, formats, and languages, and blending cultures. Balancing auteur cinema with experimental approaches, Raúl Ruiz also contributed to film theory through his two-volume Poetics of Cinema.
