PASSINGS: Raul Ruiz
Notable music deaths of 2011 (Paul Hawthorne / Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Harold Matosian / Associated Press)
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (AFP / Getty Image)
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Diamond Images / Getty Images)
Notable film and television deaths of 2011 (Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (John Redman / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times)
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Lawrence Lucier / Steinway & Sons via Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Jim Dyson / Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mike Groll / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Bill Sikes / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Joe Brier / McClatchy-Tribune)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Wayne Risher / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (John Gwillim / Associated Press)
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Stephan Agostini / AFP/Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Notable film and television deaths of 2011 (Nick Ut / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Anna Moore Butzner / Grand Rapids Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Hillery Smith Garrison / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mustafa Quraishi / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Roald Berit / AFP/Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Eddie Adams / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Notable deaths of 2010 (Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images)
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Dave Hogan / Getty Images)
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Raul Ruiz, 70, a Chilean-born filmmaker who made more than 100 films in his teeming, international career and worked to put cinema on an artistic par with literature, died Friday at a Paris hospital following complications from a pulmonary infection, said Francois Margolin, a producer of several of the director’s films.
A favorite of cinephiles, Ruiz rebelled against the conventions of moviemaking in an extensive, varied body of work that didn’t result in a widely known masterpiece but left behind a vast, labyrinthine collection of experiments, curiosities and innovations.
“Mysteries of Lisbon,” Ruiz’s 4 1/2-hour adaptation of Camilo Castelo Branco’s 19th century novel about Portuguese aristocracy, opened this month in Los Angeles and New York.
Among the other films Ruiz directed were “Klimt,” a 2006 drama featuring John Malkovich as Austrian artist Gustav Klimt; “Time Regained,” a Marcel Proust adaptation that starred Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve; “Genealogies of a Crime,” a psychological mystery starring Deneuve; and “Three Lives and Only One Death,” starring Marcello Mastroianni in one of his final roles before his death in 1996.
Ruiz was born July 25, 1941, the son of a ship’s captain. He studied law, cinema and theology before directing his first feature-length film, “Three Sad Tigers” (1968).
He fled to Europe in 1973 after military strongman Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup. Since the mid-1970s, Ruiz had lived in Paris with his wife, Valeria Sarmiento, a film editor with whom he often collaborated.
-- Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for the L.A. Times biggest news, features and recommendations in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.