Close Your Eyes

I loved this film, the direction of the actors, the pacing and how natural it felt. I watched it over two nights - it's a long film but I was completely involved in the story. All of the characters contributed to the effectiveness of the film and added depth. Nothing felt shallow or forced. The central mystery made me want to watch to the end and discover what had happened to him all those years ago. It's a love letter to film making too and the power of film to affect us and stay in our memory, and how it can change our lives. I'm surprised to read the negative reviews. A brilliant ending, too.

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.

With all of the experimental and independent cinema around, it's a treat to discover a contemporary film with the distinct touch of a master. What makes a masterpiece? It's in the pacing, the framing and the discipline and patience to tell a story with depth. It's a combination that requires a degree of maturity and mastery of the craft, rarely acheived by new directors.

'Close Your Eyes' is an experience like contemplating the ocean waves as they meet the shore. It deals with themes of aging and memory and the realm where cinema encounters the world. It requires that we slow down and immerse ourselves in each moment as it unfolds, revealing each step in a journey about longing and a quest to discover who we are. It's a film about faces and places and encounters with others, taking us on a journey through time and spaces, where actual people live and breathe.

We live in an age of digital spectacles filled with flash and surprises that offer the adrenalized experience of watching long commercials. 'Close Your Eyes' demonstrates the power of film, in the hands of one of its masters, to bring us back to ourselves.

For someone who is over 80, Victor Erice provides, while very slow-burn story, a memorizing and symbolic story with beautiful camerawork, strong direction, great performances and emotional cores developed throughout. Erice previous works on "El Sur" and "The Spirit of the Beehive" are some of the best Spanish movies of all time as Erice is great with slow-burn cinema. Dream of Light was also pretty good and after many years, Erice still is able to conduct and interesting project.

Throughout, the run-time can be a big turn off but the narrative and themes that are explored within the setting were interesting as emotional and interesting themes were well-explored within the characters and setting as the themes were able to help create an emotional balance and vision of the setting. Many of the camerawork shots, sound designs and color presentation was pretty good. All of the performances are pretty great with good dialogue and realism portrayed throughout.

Erice's direction was perfect as his takes on the themes of memories and losses were handled well and the emotional core helped create a sense of dream-like and symbolic feel throughout. With the run-time being 169 minutes, I do feel that some aspects were dragged a bit too long and there were certain moments that made me test my patiences a little.

Overall, this is a movie that requires patience but it is very good to see Erice making another film and definitely something I would check out again for a second time.

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.