Franco-Chilean film director Raul Ruiz dies in Paris

Franco-Chilean film director Raoul Ruiz died Friday in a Paris hospital after contracting a lung infection. Although he was 70, he was still producing widely acclaimed films.

AFP

Ruiz's Mysteries of Lisbon, a four-and-a-half hour saga about the life of the 19^th-century Portuguese aristocracy, last year wowed cinema-lovers.

 
When he died he was working on a more personal project, editing a film he had shot about his childhood in Chile.

President Nicolas Sarkozy was one of many in France who remarked on Ruiz's death, calling him an "unmatched storyteller" and "a man of universal culture drawing inspiration from all the arts in all countries".

Raul Ruiz is to be buried in his native Chile and a religious service will also be held in Paris on Tuesday.