El sol del membrillo

Highly-regarded semi-documentary about an artist's efforts to paint a quince tree in his garden over several months. He sets up a plumb line and a horizontal wire as guides, puts nails in the mud against which to position his toes, paints a 'grid' of little marks on individual leaves all over the tree, and tries to meticulously capture every tiny detail in his picture. At one point he has an assistant holding a long pole to nudge a particular leaf into position. You are beginning to suspect that he is the world's most obsessive (and slowest) painter when, after an hour (about six weeks in real time), with the picture only half-way finished, he scraps the whole canvas during a rainstorm. Here the illusion of authenticity is destroyed: the rain is clearly artificial, hosed over the garden in ridiculously excessive swathes. What a disappointment. You suddenly realise the whole thing is a set-up and you watch much more cynically as he spends the next hour (another six weeks) on a pencil drawing of the tree. This is equally ineffectual, but it doesn't matter because you realise it's all been a metaphor, and a rather facile one: the effort to distill something essential from life in your advancing years before it is too late. The intention was clearly existential, to slow right down and reflect and absorb and try to grasp something of life's fading richness – an original idea and very laudable, but unfortunately the images were not interesting enough, the sentiments not deep enough, and the execution not honest enough. Ceylan's "Clouds of May" attempted something similar much more successfully. It's art alright, but like the picture the artist creates, fairly weak art.

Film documentary about Spanish painter Antonio Lopez artistic creation process. It is a rare, difficult ant very interesting movie. It takes some time for the spectator to came in. When you get it you will capable of enjoy the film and the painter, his friends, wife and way of painting. You will love the sun and the quince too. And I am sure you finally will become a Lopez and director Victor Erice fan.

But El sol del membrillo is not at all a commercial movie. This original film won one of the awards at Cannes Festival of Cinema. Erice was lucky to direct this picture. Because the only think that impede him make more often movies is find an adequate producer. And he did it hear. He made three movies in 20 years. Something similar that occurs with Terrence Malick.

Erice is the Spanish pair of masterpieces fortunate author El espíritu de la colmena (1973) and El Sur (1983). His work way, so distant of current fashions, and his thoroughly were the Spanish Academy of Cinema causes to prefer send to the Oscar Award'1983 another easier movie El Sur instead. At last the Oscar to the best foreign film went to Bergman' Fanny and Alexander.

If you can find this film, and can take slow-moving cinema, definitely pick it up. I came to it via Spirit of the Beehive, Victor Erice's first film, made in 1973. This film was his third, made nearly twenty years later. It's somewhat sad that such a marvelous artist as Erice has only produced three films in almost thirty years now, but I think Quince Tree of the Sun works in one way as a forgiveness for that fact. This film teaches nothing if not patience, not only in the viewer, but in the artist. It is a documentary about a painter who spends September through December painting a quince tree. Not a picture of one, mind you, or even one he has memorized. He sets up an elaborate system so that he can paint the tree as it exists before him. We see him working well at first, with the sun hitting the tree and its fruit exactly how the painter wishes. But then the weather becomes uncooperative for a long period of time. It's cloudy or rainy, and the sun is not working the way that it's supposed to. By the time it becomes sunny again, the Earth has moved, and all hope of painting it in the way he originally intedended is squandered. Of course he can't just wait until the next year. The fruit and leaves will be different.

During the film, there are several discussions about art and life. All are interesting. Too bad the subtitles on the Facets video are kind of hard to read at times. There is a lot to get out of it, surely more than I did in one viewing. A second viewing is definitely in order if I have time before I have to return the video. It is one of those films that suggests that there is a ton more under the surface that will take just a tiny bit of digging. Of course, this film would bore the socks off of 99% or more of the population. I definitely suggest it to fans of Spirit of the Beehive. Also, fans of Andrei Tarkovsky should check it out, this and Spirit of the Beehive. I generally think of Tarkovsky as the most original of all film artists, but Erice may be the most similar. He's a very good auteur for Tarkovsky fans because he is similar, but he has a remarkable essence all his own. Perhaps I would consider him above Tarkovsky, if only Erice would make more films. But, as this film has delicately taught me, an artist must work at his own pace. 9/10.

This is a gem of a movie and much better than the few reviews I've read. I was prepared for some semi-documentary about the techniques of painting. What I saw was a film filled with warmth, humor, love, and a deep appreciation of nature and the mysterious beauty of the world. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at a tree or a piece of fruit (or anything in nature for that matter) in quite the same way. This film put me in touch with the things that are truly meaningful in life, somewhat akin to Wim Wenders film `Wings of Desire'. It is simple, yet glowing and sensual, filled with gorgeous cinematography and beautiful music. One of the best films I've ever seen.

This is one of the two simple films about art that made deep impact on me since their releases even after all these years.

Victor Erice's "The Quince Tree Sun" is probably the most boring film you'll ever watch, but just as the artist finds it impossible to capture the shifting sunlight, we realize it is no longer important to finish a piece of painting, if at all it is possible, as art is in the process not the result. We consciously experience the passing of time while watching the film! Brilliant.

Patricia Rozema's "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" deals with the subjectivity of art which is always relevant in any context. The master's childish art is readily being celebrated and consumed like fast food while the amateur's masterpiece is undiscovered but remain sacred. It reminds us to keep true art away from the corruption of consumerism.

Both films allow art to be taken to a different level, beyond the reaches of physicality and commercialism.