Elisa, My Life (1977) User Reviews

Father and Daughter Relationship

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 19 July 2008]

Elisa (Geraldine Chaplin) has not seen her father Luis (Fernando Rey) for nine years, but she receives a telegram from her sister Isabel (Isabel Mestres) in a moment of crisis of her marriage with Antonio (Norman Briski) telling that her father is ill and she decides to travel to the countryside of Madrid with Isabel and her brother-in-law Julián (Joaquín Hinojosa) and their two children to visit Luis for his birthday. Elisa decides to stay with his father when her sister returns to Madrid with her family and she gets closer to Luis, understanding why he left her mother years ago. Later she tells him that Antonio cheated her with her best friend Sophie and their relationship has ended. When Antonio unexpectedly arrives in the house, Elisa takes a decision about her life.

"Elisa, Vida Mía" is a beautiful movie about father and daughter relationship. The performances of Fernando Rey and Geraldine Chaplin are awesome and full of feelings. There are moments that I found confused to be understood, like the incestuous scene, but in general this drama is very nice. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Elisa Vida Mia"

Thought-provoking but slow Carlos Saura film about a complex relationship between father and daughter

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 18 July 2015]

Fascinating though overlong tale plenty of good feeling , haunting mood-pieces , enticing images and attractive ending . This weird flick contains symbolism , emotion , drama and an almost diabolic spell . Well directed film by Carlos Saura , including his own story and screenplay , who tried to create a charming flick plenty of symbolist scenes , flashbacks and metaphors by tackling a description about a particular father-daughter relation . The picture is set in a village called Melque De Cercas , Segovia . Elisa has not seen her father Luis for long time ago , but she receives a message from her sister Isabel (Isabel Mestres) telling their dad is ill and wants to visit him for his birthday . The daddy called Luis (Fernando Rey) is an old retired teacher who occasionally teaches at a girls school , and lives at a rural mansion in Segovia countryside . Elisa , then decides to travel from Madrid , along with Isabel , her brother-in-law Julián (Joaquin Hinojosa) and their two children to visit Luis . There Elisa gets closer to Luis , her estranged daddy , understanding why he abandoned her mummy years ago . Elisa tells Luis that her relation to husband (Norman Briski) has terminated because she was deceived . When Antonio unexpectedly arrives at home , things go awry .

Agreeable film filled with excessive dialogue , haunting mood-pieces , marvelous frames , and portentous interpretations . However , it turns out to be slow-moving , dull and little bit boring ; being mostly filmed in Segovia . This extraordinary flick spells through intricate patterns of frames , sets , sound and color . This film along with others as ¨Cria Cuervos¨ , ¨Peppermint Frappé¨ were notorious in the years of the Franco's downfall dictatorship including provoking and polemic issues and played by known and prestigious actors as Geraldine Chaplin , Fernando Rey , Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez , Monica Randall and Hector Alterio . ¨Elisa Vida Mia¨ stars Geraldine Chaplin who displays a nice acting as a woman in a moment of crisis of her marriage and decides to stay with his father , taking place a complex relationship . Fernando Rey also gives an awesome interpretation as an old teacher with dark secrets . And Norman Briski as her hubby Antonio who cheated her with her best friend as well as Isabel Mestres as her sister . His style is pretty much dry in the atmosphere as in the fresh dialog , as well as realistic , and including fantastic elements as when appears some strange images , dreams and nightmares . ¨Elisa Vida Mia¨ is one of Saura's and fundamental in his filmography where shows efficiently some peculiar characters and shot at the height of his creativity, in a period cultural difficult, where the enormous censorship of the political regime exacerbated the ingenuity and imagination of the scriptwriters . Splendid , luxurious photography with juicy atmosphere by Teo Escamilla who along with Luis Cuadrado are considered to be two of the best Spanish cameramen , both of whom worked for Saura . Interesting screenplay by the same director based on a original story . Moving and emotive musical score composed by piano . This touching picture will appeal to Spanish films buffs .

The motion picture perfectly produced by magnificent producer Elias Querejeta was compellingly directed by Carlos Saura , a good Spanish movies director . He began working in cinema in 1959 when he filmed ¨Los Golfos ¨(1962) dealing with juvenile delinquency from a sociological point of view . He subsequently made LLanto Por Un Bandido (1964) starred by an European all-star-cast . Saura is a well recognized filmmaker both nationally and internationally, and in proof of it he won many prizes among which there are the following ones: Silver Bear in Festival of Berlin for Peppermint Frappé (1967) and the successful La Caza (1966) , considered to be his undisputed masterpiece , that also won numerous prizes in International Festivals and in which four characters facing each other and terminating into a jarring burst of violence . Saura achieved Special Jury Awards in Cannes for La Prima Angélica (1974), in 1973, and for Cría Cuervos (1976), in 1975. Also, the film Mamá Cumple Cien Años (1979) got an Oscar nomination in 1979 as the best foreign film, and it also won the Special Jury Award at the San Sebastian Festival. He subsequently made ¨Deprisa , Deprisa¨ based on facts about juvenile delinquency in Spain since the 80s , as he tried to take a position in favour of outcast people and he got to make a both lyric and documentary-style cinema . In 1990, he won two Goya , The Spanish Oscar , as best adapted screenplay writer and best director . Saura became an expert on Iberian musical adaptations as ¨Carmen , Amor Brujo , Bodas De Sangre , Sevillanas , Iberia , Salome , Fado, Flamenco ¨ and even recently Opera as ¨Io , Don Giovanni

"Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan"

[boblipton · 7/10 · 26 August 2023]

When Fernando Rey falls ill, his estranged daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, goes to stay with him. It's more an excuse to get away from her failing marriage to Norman Briski.

Idiosyncrasies in the story-telling convince me this is a meditation on how no two sets of memory, no two tellings of the same event, agree. It begins with Rey narrating Miss Chaplin's musings on the events. Rey explains that he fills his days with his work, teaching, and then writing. Often he burns his writing when he finds it unsatisfactory, and starts again. Later, we see Briski and Miss Chaplin discussing their life together, disagreeing about what has happened. Hasn't this happened to all of us?

There seems no hint of the political satire that so many of Carlos Saura's movies have claimed for them. This seems a more personal film, in which the implication is that just as Rey's marriage failed, so too, and for many of the same reasons, will his daughter's. Yet looking at something and finding its reasons, are not justifications. Perhaps all relationships are doomed to failure; they inevitably end, even if it only with death. Does that justify the failure?

elisa, vida mia

[mossgrymk · 6/10 · 16 February 2023]

Basically, I'd rather be watching "Bonjour Tristesse". In other words, if you're gonna make a dysfunctional father/daughter film how about at least making it fun and/or interesting to watch, Carlos ol pal, with a bit more humor (there is virtually none) and a lot less art house symbolism, like the decomposing body of Geraldine Chaplin's spouse's lover, trembling chandeliers or bloody fish heads? And while you're at it, Carlos, how about letting loose your death grip on willful obscurity and allowing this rather distasteful tale to be told reliably and straightforwardly? Makes for a much less enervating experience, trust me. Give it a generous C plus for the fine work (as always) of Fernando Rey.

PS...Not content to make a boring Father's Day movie, five years later Saura helmed an even duller Mother's Day film, "Dulces Horas".

A concealed jewel

[jackush · 10/10 · 24 January 2005]

The fact that this is the very first commentary here shows that we don't deal with one of the most famous movies of the great Spanish master, and this fact is really stunning. Even if not set in the dance medium, especially flamenco and tango, with which Saura is generally linked, this movie is highly personal. Saura is one of the very few directors who succeed to be very national in its cinematographic language."Elisa" is no exception: the outdoor images, looking like De Greco and Goya paintings, the stunning performance of the actors remembering sometimes flamenco intensity, give to this movie a glorious cinematographic presence. The issue which stands in the center of this movie is a universally and uneasy one: the relation between father and daughter. Saura knows to avoid a tabloid depiction of this relation, although it doesn't avoid the border-line oedipal tensions. Throughout settled mostly in a chamber-music like duet, it doesn't have the claustrophobic Bergman character. The movie is a love duet, with its aggressive and passionate outcome. Awesome experience. .

I did not expect it would be such a good film

[Natashenka_S · 10/10 · 21 June 2006]

In the beginning of the film an old man Luis (Fernando Rey) is working on his memoirs (or something of a kind). The chapter he is currently writing is the monologue of his estranged daughter Elisa. The father's voice recites her confession: 'I hadn't seen my father for years, I almost never wrote him... When I got my sister's telegram, telling me of his illness... I decided to go to Madrid. Selfishly speaking, finally I had an excuse to get away from home... I left, I now realize, knowing I'd never return'.

Luis had left his family many years ago. He did not write a farewell letter or took anything with him. His wife was devastated, and her belief that Luis was a sick and selfish man somehow affected her daughters. Luis felt that he had a talent for literature and moved to a distant countryside, because he couldn't stand the routine full of false values.

But in the beginning we see Luis' family coming to the countryside to his birthday. The visitors are Elisa (Geraldine Chaplin) and her sister Isabel with her husband and two children. Elisa finds some papers in the father's room. Luis is painfully reflecting on his life: he is tired because he isn't sure whether all his past experience has any value. Now he has come to a conclusion that one just needs to enjoy every moment of his life; but he is afraid to take this new path thinking that it might be too late. As Elisa reads these words, the sadness in her eyes is striking; it seems that she has just found an explanation to something very important for her.

The family spends a few days in the countryside and is about to leave, but at the last moment Elisa decides to stay. She and Luis go for a walk (it is very beautiful there). In the field Elisa sees a strange white stone and a vase with flowers by its side. Luis tells her a story: some years ago he encountered here a murdered woman, later someone brought the flowers - it was actually the killer. Elisa is deeply affected by the story and imagines that she is this woman.

As time passes Elisa and her father get closer. Luis takes her to a local church school where he teaches kids. There is another scene when Elisa recalls one of her father's letters. He confesses that his attitude to his own writing is not what it used to be. He would write several drafts for his letter and hoped they'd be published one day, there was something snobbish in this practice. Now it is clear to him that a writer is just one of the many jobs in the world, he is not superior to a simple worker. This understanding is tied to one of the closing scenes. The children whom he teaches are rehearsing a play, and they constantly argue about the roles. Everyone wants to play a king or some other man of power, no one agrees to take a role of a poor man, and there is a belief that one must be a good person to deserve a 'decent' role. But it is a wrong perception, because one's role is not to be confused with the life itself. A good man is the one who makes the best of the role he is given.

Elisa wants to have a look at her father's manuscript, but he says he can't show it at the moment. Later Elisa tells him a story of her failed relationships with Antonio, her husband who has cheated on her with her best friend. This marriage was doomed from the beginning and she always felt it but for some reason tried to deceive herself, and now her world collapsed. Antonio comes to the countryside and tries to talk to Elisa. She explains to him that everything is over between them, they have a painful exchange of reproaches. What comes after Elisa sends Antonio home is a surreal scene of closeness (on the verge of incest). It occurs in the mind of either Elisa or Luis, who at this moment writes down Elisa thoughts of her life with a man she has never actually known. He stops when he hears her crying in the other room and goes to comfort her, but she bursts out in rage and they nearly beat each other.

Next morning Elisa lingers by a white stone and says a sorrowful monologue: 'Nobody has told me that all this beautiful story would have such a horrible ending'. Elisa imagines again that she is the murdered woman; to be more precise, she lives deliberately through the woman's horrible death, as if feeling that something inside of her must be killed.

Then she and her father are reunited, but he is getting worse. He refuses to go to hospital. In the morning, while Elisa is out, he leaves too. Elisa encounters him in the field, he is dying, and this is a really unforgettable, sad and beautiful episode, one of the most affectionate farewell scenes I have seen in the movies. Elisa stays at her father's home and continues his book. At the end she writes down the same monologue that we heard in the beginning spoken out by her father.

It seemed to me really weird that 'Elisa vida mia' is a film so little known. It is masterfully crafted and beautifully acted, deep and full of nuances. I loved this film just as much as Cria Cuervos and would recommend it to everyone.

Seriously?

[arthouse59 · 1 September 2023]

This is the most pretentious futile drivel I've quite possibly ever seen.

Given these deluted reviews, I didn't even jump ship but waited until it's exhausting end. Now I demand 2 hours of my life back that was stolen.

Only in France or Spain could this silly pointless tale find an audience. I'm fully convinced there's a herd mentality where person's erroneously feel they're smarter trying to suggest this holds merit.

I will mark this as spoiler but honestly it's impossible to spoil rotten material.

To sum up some pieces: It's considered clever to have the opposite person do the narration of a character?

No it's not.

Oh and of course let's try to be original having you guess what's real, what's not?

Also no. Additionally who cares.

Also is it brave to throw in incest, be it imagined or not?

Nope not. Maybe show some old mother, son..to be fair for once. We see enough drooling geezers with young woman, but hey incest is artsy eh?

There's NO art here but maybe will replace your sedative to sleep.

Also some funny dialogue: It's not you but my fault ( as wife explains wanting to leave when hubby sc#$&s her best friend).

Sure. Makes sense!!!

Then best part is ugly mate begging return while starting what bad person she is. She does the same. Sounds like a compelling reason to reunite ...you selfish, stupid ingrate!!!

What trash passes for art film when the real deal exists!

Unacceptable.

Nothing here to see whatever. No story and not one character you will care out.

Oh but there is a bed scene with a corpse that's plain stupid hilarious, maybe that will wake you up.

Can't say it alerted me. Wish I slept instead, that would be time for better served.