Zig-Zag - le jeu de l'oie (Une fiction didactique à propos de la cartographie)

Interesting little film, full of the materials for his later, more developed work. It does feel too (self-consciously) didactic, which is where I prefer the later stuff. Still, one cannot find cinema like this anywhere else, but in Ruiz's filmography, and its usually a pleasure.

I'm not sure why I didn't rate this before. It's good, quintessential Ruiz stuff build around the typically Ruiz-ian conceit of film/life-as-game. If it threatens at times to get a bit too "trippy" and cosmic, Ruiz's usual playfulness counteracts the potential pretensions. At 30 minutes it's certainly not difficult to watch and is therefore less intimidating than some of his denser '80s work, while still being ridiculously stuffed with more than enough wild ideas for it's running time.