Cerrar los ojos

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.

I was watching something on T. V. one day and came across a commercial starring Ryan Reynolds. I was struck by how OLD he looked in it. Not bad, just old, compared to the Ryan Reynolds who started his career on "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place." Ryan is around my age; in fact, he might even be a little younger. I turned to my wife and asked, "God, do WE look that old?" The answer is probably "yes," but the difference is that my wife and I don't have constant reminders of what our younger selves looked like thrown in our faces every day. At the very same time that the Ryan Reynolds commercial was airing, "Blade: Trinity" was on a different station.

That experience got me thinking a lot about how movies and the actors in them capture moments in time and make possible a weird kind of time travel. You can watch Nicole Kidman in "Far and Away" and then immediately hop over to "Babygirl" and literally see the passage of years in her face.

This is just one of the ideas explored in "Close Your Eyes," an evocative slow burn of a movie about aging in general, and aging as an artist specifically. Manolo Solo is my pick for best actor of the year for his performance as Miguel Garay, a former movie director and author who is trying to track down his friend Julio Arenas, an actor who starred in one of Garay's films but disappeared without a trace before the film could be finished. The film turns into a kind of quiet detective story as Garay tracks Julio down through mutual acquaintances, clues left behind, etc. The film is as much about Garay's own psychology as it is about what happened to Julio. Actually, the film is about lots of things, but it's not obviously about any one thing. It's a lot about coming to terms with getting older and saying goodbye to things that you won't ever have again, something that resonates with me very much right now in my life, having just turned 50. But it's not a downer. It's as much about realizing how much there is to enjoy in the later part of life as there is to miss.

You've gotta have patience with this one, as it's slow and ruminative. It's like reading a character-driven novel. It also happens to be one of the best movies released in 2024.

Grade: A.

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.

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.

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.