First released 50 years ago, after Francoist censors convinced themselves that its anti-authoritarian messaging would have little social impact if buried under such a “boring” art film, Victor Erice’s “The Spirit of the Beehive” follows a gullible six-year-old girl named Ana (Ana Torrent), who sees a screening of “Frankenstein” when a mobile cinema arrives in the small Castilian village where she lives with her family in the Spanish Civil War’s immediate aftermath. Confused and horrified by the sight of Frankenstein’s monster accidentally killing a child, and the townspeople then killing Frankenstein’s monster in return, Ana’s elder sister tells her that neither of those things actually happened — that everything you see in films is fake. Later, with the memories of James Whale’s movie still fresh in her mind, Ana discovers a wounded republican soldier hiding in a sheepfold and decides to treat him with kindness instead of fear.
- 10/10/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
“Long-awaited” isn’t quite the term for Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” a film that dedicated admirers of the Spanish master may have hoped for, but didn’t dare expect. Instead, Erice’s first feature in 31 years — and only his fourth overall — arrives as something between a desert oasis and a mirage: a shimmery, nourishing culmination of ideas and ellipses in a career so elusive as to have taken on a mythic quality, to the point that his latest feels almost dreamed into being. But “Close Your Eyes” proves a disarmingly simple, emotionally direct film once its out-of-time aura settles. A story itself of disappearance and reemergence, and the potential of cinema to bridge past and present as if decades were days, it’s potent and poignant enough to reach newcomers to Erice’s work, even as fans pore over its self-reflexive details.
Having premiered at Cannes, “Close Your Eyes...
Having premiered at Cannes, “Close Your Eyes...
- 10/1/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Themes of aging have always undergirded Victor Erice’s work. His feature debut, 1973’s Spirit of the Beehive, is one of the finest of all coming-of-age films, capturing a few days in the life of young girl as she struggles to understand, through nascent eyes, the evils and contradictions of life in Francoist Spain. Ten years later came El Sur, Erice’s famously incomplete adaptation of Adelaida García Morales’s novella, another story about a child who grows gradually aware of her country’s—and family’s—troubled past. And 1992’s The Quince Tree Sun saw Erice turn his attention more explicitly to art as a means of physical and spiritual preservation: the act of ossifying a moment in time in an attempt to stave off the inevitable.
Now, after three decades and a smattering of shorts (including a multipart collaboration with Abbas Kiarostami), Close Your Eyes marks the 83-year-old...
Now, after three decades and a smattering of shorts (including a multipart collaboration with Abbas Kiarostami), Close Your Eyes marks the 83-year-old...
- 9/13/2023
- by Cole Kronman
- Slant Magazine
Victor Erice, one of the most acclaimed and influential Spanish directors of all time, has made his long-awaited comeback with his new film Close Your Eyes ( Cerrar los ojos ), which premiered in the Cannes Premiere section at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2023.
Close Your Eyes is Erice’s first feature film in 30 years, since his 1992 docudrama The Quince Tree Sun, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes that year. Erice is also known for his classic debut The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), which is widely regarded as one of the best Spanish films ever made, and his second feature El Sur (1983), which was released as an unfinished version due to funding problems.
Close Your Eyes Clip
Close Your Eyes is a drama film that stars Manolo Solo, José Coronado, and Ana Torrent. It tells the story of Miguel Garay, an aging filmmaker and novelist who hasn’t made a movie in decades,...
Close Your Eyes is Erice’s first feature film in 30 years, since his 1992 docudrama The Quince Tree Sun, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes that year. Erice is also known for his classic debut The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), which is widely regarded as one of the best Spanish films ever made, and his second feature El Sur (1983), which was released as an unfinished version due to funding problems.
Close Your Eyes Clip
Close Your Eyes is a drama film that stars Manolo Solo, José Coronado, and Ana Torrent. It tells the story of Miguel Garay, an aging filmmaker and novelist who hasn’t made a movie in decades,...
- 7/26/2023
- by amalprasadappu
- https://thecinemanews.online/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IMG_4649
One of the most prized moments of Howard Hawks’ macho manifesto Rio Bravo is when Dean Martin’s Dude kicks back, gazes lightheadedly at the ceiling, and moseys into a rendition of the western ballad “My Rifle, My Pony and Me,” accompanied on guitar and harmonica with a sense of second nature by Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan. It’s an oasis of calm, of earned sentimentality, in the steeliest and most no-nonsense movie of its Hollywood era, and an emblem of the male camaraderie––sans queer shading, for sure––beloved of its most famous fans, most notably Quentin Tarantino.
Víctor Erice, however––in his first feature since a mysterious absence following 1992’s The Quince Tree Sun––has now made the ultimate homage. The centerpiece of his comeback film Close Your Eyes is its lead, melancholic filmmaker and writer Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), busting out his acoustic during a communal...
Víctor Erice, however––in his first feature since a mysterious absence following 1992’s The Quince Tree Sun––has now made the ultimate homage. The centerpiece of his comeback film Close Your Eyes is its lead, melancholic filmmaker and writer Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), busting out his acoustic during a communal...
- 5/26/2023
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
It’s been 31 years since the great Spanish auteur Victor Erice made his last feature-length film, and as Cannes topper Thierry Frémaux pointed out during a brief introduction to the 82-year-old director’s long-awaited return to the screen, Close Your Eyes (Cerrar Los Ojos), that beats a record previously set by Terrence Malick.
As amusing as Frémaux’s anecdote was, he may have to one day explain why he chose to program such a graceful and powerful tribute to cinema in his festival’s catch-all “Cannes Première” sidebar instead of the main competition, for Close Your Eyes is a consummate work of filmmaking by a major artist.
Slowly but deliberately paced, the movie builds to a crescendo in a closing act where a movie itself — a real movie shot and projected on celluloid — plays a pivotal role, resuscitating forgotten lives and memories as only the cinema can do. Erice has managed,...
As amusing as Frémaux’s anecdote was, he may have to one day explain why he chose to program such a graceful and powerful tribute to cinema in his festival’s catch-all “Cannes Première” sidebar instead of the main competition, for Close Your Eyes is a consummate work of filmmaking by a major artist.
Slowly but deliberately paced, the movie builds to a crescendo in a closing act where a movie itself — a real movie shot and projected on celluloid — plays a pivotal role, resuscitating forgotten lives and memories as only the cinema can do. Erice has managed,...
- 5/23/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Veteran Spanish actor Ana Torrent was around five-years-old when she was cast in her first movie, the landmark drama The Spirit of the Beehive, by maverick filmmaker Víctor Erice.
Fifty years later, the pair have reunited on a new pic, Close Your Eyes (Cerrar los ojos), Erice’s first feature-length film in over a decade. The film debuts Out-of-Competition in the Cannes Premiere section on Monday.
The film follows a famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, who disappears while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he’s been the victim of an accident by the sea. Many years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance is brought back into the spotlight by a TV show outlining his life and death, showing exclusive images of the last scenes he filmed, shot by his dear friend, the director Miguel Garay.
Fifty years later, the pair have reunited on a new pic, Close Your Eyes (Cerrar los ojos), Erice’s first feature-length film in over a decade. The film debuts Out-of-Competition in the Cannes Premiere section on Monday.
The film follows a famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, who disappears while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he’s been the victim of an accident by the sea. Many years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance is brought back into the spotlight by a TV show outlining his life and death, showing exclusive images of the last scenes he filmed, shot by his dear friend, the director Miguel Garay.
- 5/18/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
There are not many directors who have amassed such a rich contribution to the world of cinema amongst so few films as Víctor Erice. The 82-year-old Spanish director broke out with 1973’s The Spirit of the Beehive, followed by El Sur in 1983 and The Quince Tree Sun in 1992. Now he’s finally set to return with his first feature in over thirty years. Cerrar los ojos (aka Close Your Eyes) takes a meta approach, following a director living in retirement that returns to a mysterious past. Ahead of a premiere at Cannes Film Festival, the first clip and new images have now arrived for the film, which clocks in at 169 minutes.
Here’s the synopsis: “A famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, disappears while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he’s been the victim of an accident by the sea. Many years later,...
Here’s the synopsis: “A famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, disappears while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he’s been the victim of an accident by the sea. Many years later,...
- 5/11/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
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