Fermer les yeux

We begin by watching a ten minute excerpt from a drama that shortly afterwards discover is just about all there is from the final film of acclaimed Spanish actor "Julio Arenas". He finished filming for the day then was never seen nor heard from again. Many years later, a television journalist "Soriano" (Helena Miquel) invites the film's director "Garay" (Manolo Solo) onto her missing persons television programme with a view to finding out just what happened to him. In best "Crimewatch" style, someone calls into the programme with a possible lead. Might they have found this man after all these years? On the face of it, the story is all a bit predictable. It's the quality of the acting and the writing that puts the meat on the bones, and both Solo and the Jose Coronoado as handyman "Gardel" deliver engagingly well. It is a slow burn of a film, with an emphasis split between the search for the actor and the search of "Garay" for some degree of closure so he can get on with his life rather listlessly spent reading, drinking, smoking and fishing with the fellow residents of his squat. Fans of "Rio Bravo" (1959) might recognise the song he sings with neighbours "Toni" (Dani Téllez) and his expectant wife, and those few moments of the film demonstrate nicely the emotions of friendship, emotion and loneliness director Victor Erice wants to convey for just about all of the principal characters. The conclusion in inconclusive, but it does make you pine a little for the days where even the smallest of towns had it's own cinema. I wonder if anyone should ever make the underpinning movie? This is worth watching.

I really don't know what the point of this movie is. The story is soooooo very very very (did I say very already) very slow. I've read it got a 7 min standing ovation but I really don't see why. Probably out of respect for the director It's a movie about growing old and certain aspects of it but it doesn't really go deep. Basically it's just alot of talking without getting beneath the surface. Certainly the first hour is just difficult to get through. I almost gave it up but I stuck through. Not gladly must I add but it gets a little bit better. Dare I say it's the directors age that made this story at least an hour to long... closing off with something good. The acting was quite decent.

Enjoyable picture full of feeling, evocative mood pieces, wonderful images and a sense of wonder thanks to its cinematography and music. Dealing with a Spanish actor (an aging José Coronado) who disappears during the filming of a movie. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he has suffered an accident on the edge of a cliff. Many years later, the mystery returns to our days. So an old friend of his, a film director and writer (Manolo Solo) begins a tireless search to find out where he is, for which he contacts with his daughter (Ana Torrent).

It is a melancholic, prolix and eminently thoughtful treatise on memory, nostalgia, identity, the passage of time and the power of cinema, recurring themes in Erice's not very prolific work. The film includes numerous allusions to cinema and literature. As well as self-references from Víctor Erice himself and his filmography. Starring Manolo Solo along with José Coronado, the latter won deservedly the Goya 2024 for best supporting actor, both give an extraordinary performance, in addition to other well-known actors, such as Ana Torrent, Petra Martínez, María León, Mario Pardo, Helena Miquel, Josep Maria Pou, Soledad Villamil, and despite his prominence on the billboards, Antonio Dechent and Juan Margallo show up on screen for only a few minutes.

Received with a seven-minute ovation at its premiere at the Cannes festival, it is the return to feature film direction, with full of honors, of Victor Erice, three decades after the premiere of his previous film: ¨El Sol del Membrillo¨. And winning several national and international awards. Being nominated for 11 Goya awards, winning only the best supporting actor for the aforementioned José Coronado.

Closing Your Eyes (2023) features lavish photography by magnificent cameraman Valentín Álvarez, as well as an evocative musical score by Federico Jusid. Being filmed in several Spanish locations, such as: Castell de Ferro, Granada, Aguadulce, Almería, Andalusia, Asturias and Madrid. The film was well directed by Victor Erice, although very slow and somewhat boring due to its long duration -almost three hours- with a lot of silence and excessive dialogue. Víctor is considered to be one of the best Spanish directors, known for El sur (1983), El Espíritu de la Colmena (1973) and El sol del membrillo (1992). 'El Sur' is a sensational film that offers a thought-provoking plot and is deemed one of the best Spanish films, in fact it was voted sixth best Spanish film by professionals and critics in 1996 at the centenary of Spanish cinema, while ¨El Espíritu de la Colmena¨ was voted third best Spanish film. Erice was going to write and direct The Shanghai Haunting (2002), based on a novel written by Juan Marsé. Although Marsé praised Erice's script, producer Andrés Vicente Gómez rejected it. After some rewrites, also rejected by the producer, Erice chose to leave the project and was replaced by Fernando Trueba. Then he decided to abandon the shhoting of pictures until resuming today with this 'Closing your eyes'. Rating Cerrar los ojos (2023) : 6.5/10. Above average, well worth watching.

Victor Erice, a legend in Spanish cinema who hasn't made a new film since 1992 and could achieve a legendary status with only three films, presents his latest work. Reminiscent of his symbolic narrative in 'The Spirit of the Beehive' (1973), where he criticized the Spanish Civil War era, Erice's new film explores the traces of an unfinished project due to the mysterious disappearance of its lead actor years ago. 'Close Your Eyes' draws parallels between the director character in the film and Erice himself, suggesting autobiographical elements, especially considering that Erice wrote the screenplay. After 30 years, Erice returns to filmmaking to convey his message, offering a critique of the Spanish society manipulated during the Franco dictatorship.

While the film starts with a deliberately slow pace, it proves worthwhile towards the end. I realized that nothing in the film is unnecessary; everything has a meaning, sometimes subtle, sometimes profound, but meaningful nonetheless.

This week is the week of the International Film Festival 013, 013 being the area code of Tilburg (the Netherlands), a city close to my hometown. This year is already the 7th edition of the festival, but it was for the first time that I was aware of it.

I chose two films, who happened to have much in common.

Both are Spanish language films.

Neither had a release in Dutch cinema's up till now.

Both are positioned on top of the "Cahiers du Cinema's" list of best films of 2023 ("Cerrar los ojos" was number 2).

Both are about a disappearing person (in "Cerrar los ojos" an actor disappears in the middle of the shooting of a film).

"Close your eyes" is the most recent film of Victor Erice, 50 years after his debut "The spirit of the beehive" (1973) and 31 years after his last full length feauture "Dream of light" (1992). Apart from his tiny oeuvre (4 films) the preference of Erice for years ending wit a "3" is remarkable, his 4 films being released in 1973, 1983 ("El Sur"), 1992 and 2023.

"Cerrar los ojos" ("Close your eyes") is a film about film. The opening and closing scenes are episodes of an (unfinished) film that director Miquel (Manolo Solo) and actor Julio (José Coronado) have made.

Often films about films are about the production proces, Hollywood about itself, for example "Sunset boulavard" (1950, Billy Wilder). "Close your eyes" however is more about the influence of films than about the making. The influence of films is a theme that recurs in the (smal) oeuvre of Erice. It is also a theme in "The spirit of the beehive". Talking about "The spirit of the beehive", Ana Torrent (still a child when playing in this film) reappears 50 years later in "Close your eyes" as the daughter of the disappeared actor.

After the (film in a film) opening scene the story jumps to the present time. Twenty two years later the disappearance of Julio is a cold case. A television series specialising in cold cases dedicates an episode to the Julio case and invites Miquel as guest. Due to this television series the Julio case becomes actual again, at least for those directly involved.

Strong point of the film is that it not only tells the story of Julio but also of the relationships of those surrounding him.

The opening and closing scenes are outright brilliant. Not only are they both film in a film scenes, emphasizing the symmetry, but there is also a substantive agreement. In the opening scene both the film and the film in a film are about disappearances. In the closing scene both the film and the film in a film are about reappearances (either physical or psychological).

The poster of "Close your eyes" made me think of the poster of "Persona" (1966, Ingmar Bergman). I don't think that is a coincidence. After all also "Perona" is about an actress who in essence disappears (not physically but psychologically).