Country: Spain, Argentina
Year: 2023
Duration: 169'
A famous Spanish actor, Julio Arenas, disappears while shooting a film. Although his body is never found, the police conclude that he’s been the victim of an accident by the sea. Many years later, the mystery su- rrounding his disappearance is brought back into the spotlight by a TV programme outlining his life, and death, and showing exclusive images of the last scenes he filmed, shot by his dear friend, the director Miguel Garay.
Biography
film director
Victor Erice
(Valle de Carranza, 1940) studied economics and political science at the University of Madrid and later attended the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia (EOC), where he graduated in directing in 1963. After working for a period as a screenwriter and producer, in 1969, he directed an episode of the collective film The Challenge. In 1973, he made his first feature film, the acclaimed The Spirit of the Beehive, which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival and awarded at San Sebastián. In 1983, it was followed by El Sur, presented at the Cannes Film Festival and awarded at the Chicago Film Festival. In 1992, he won both the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with the documentary Dream Light. In 2002, he contributed to the collective film Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, and in 2006, he directed the medium-length film La Mort rouge. In 2012, he directed an episode for another collective film, Historic Centre. Close Youir Eyes was presented in the non-competitive Cannes Première section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.
FILMOGRAFIA
En la terraza (cm, 1961), Páginas de un diario perdido (cm, 1962), Los días perdidos (cm, 1963), Entre vías (cm, 1966), 3 (ep di Los desafios, cm, 1969), El espíritu de la colmena (Lo spirito dell’alveare, 1973), El Sur (id., 1983), El sol del membrillo (Il sole della mela cotogna, 1992), Lifefline (ep di Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, 2002), La Mort rouge (2006), See-Mail (cm, 2007), Ana Three Minutes (ep di 11Sense of Home), Vidros partidos (ep di Centro histórico, 2012), Cerrar los ojos (2023).
Declaration
film director
“My impression is that, beyond the details of its plot, the story the film wants to portray to the audience revolves around two, intimately connected themes: identity and memory. The memory of two friends, who, once upon a time, were an actor and a movie director. Over time, one has lost his memory completely, to the point that he doesn’t know who he is, or who he was; the other is doing his best to forget, but despite hiding himself away, he finds that the past and its pain still haunt him.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Victor Erice. SCREENPLAY: Victor Erice, Michel Gaztambide. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Valentín Álvarez. EDITING: Ascen Marchena. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Curru Garabal. COSTUME DESIGN: Helena Sanchis. MUSIC: Federico Jusid. SOUND: Iván Marín. CAST: Manolo Solo, José Coronado, Ana Torrent, Petra Martínez, María León, Mario Pardo, Helena Miquel, Antonio Dechent, José María Pou, Soledad Villamil Juan Margallo, Venecia Franco. PRODUCERS: Cristina Zumárraga, Pablo E. Bossi, Victor Erice, Jose Alba, Odile Antonio-Baez, Agustín Bossi, Pol Bossi, Maximiliano Lasansky. PRODUCTION: Tandem Films, Nautilus Films, Pecado Films & La mirada del adiós A.I.E., Pampa Films.
CONTACT: Film Factory (Alexandra Cavaglia) alexandra@filmfactory.es
