August 20, 2024
FILM: CLOSE YOUR EYES
DIRECTED BY: VICTOR ERICE
STARRING: MANOLO SOLO, JOSE CORONADO, ANA TORRENT
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The opening of Close Your Eyes takes place in 1947 outside of Paris. A sickly older gentleman has asked a friend to find his daughter in Shanghai. It’s a fairly extended dialogue scene which one might expect to see on a theatrical stage. Then there’s a jump in time and space to 2012. It is only then that we learn we’ve been watching a section of a film that was never finished as one of the actors, Julio Arenas, went missing before the production was completed.
Victor Erice is the Spanish writer/director of Close Your Eyes. He’s not exactly a household name and frankly, I’d never seen any of his previous work. Part of this has to do with his not having made a feature-length film in over thirty years. Yet this is a major but subtle work of art that rewards viewers increasingly over its 169-minute running time. There are a number of other somewhat lengthy dialogue scenes that only add to the mysterious details surrounding the missing actor. The director who had last worked with him, Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), is called upon to help a television program called “Unresolved Cases” investigate the actor’s disappearance. What happened to Julio is anyone’s guess. What made him walk away? Is he still alive?
On the surface, Close Your Eyes might be billed as a mystery, which it is, but there’s so much more depth to what Erice is attempting to explore. Several people are contacted who have their own memories of Julio. One of those includes an old love interest named Lola, played by a very warm Soledad Villamil. She and Miguel share a few of those memories as well as a song. She’s one of several nicely developed characters that offer their own unique insights into Julio. But part of what Erice questions here is what purpose memories ultimately serve. Also, what about the various mementos that get left behind when someone is gone from our lives. Do we throw them in the garbage? Should they be stored away? Erased? How necessary is it to move on? Ultimately, the question is whether a person is more than a memory and if it is truly important to find what we’ve lost related to them. The film explores all of these questions through dialogue, slight character decisions, and plot points that connect Julio’s story to that which was also pursued in his final film.
The tone of Close Your Eyes is generally pretty low-key and a lot of that relates to the character of Miguel who now lives a mostly retired existence in a trailer where he writes, tends to his garden, and prepares for various fishing trips. Yet he seems pretty drawn to solve the mystery of his friend’s disappearance. He handles it though with caution and a calmness that comes with age. This may have been the only time in his life when he could have focused on Julio.
There’s another element to the film that resonated with me and that is the importance of music to a person’s life. For any of you that have read my memoir on Substack, you know how I’ve associated music with most of the major events in my life. My theory is that music has the ability to spur memories, both good and bad, that might otherwise lay buried. There are a few scenes in the film when music is used for this very purpose. The scene between Miguel and Lola when the latter plays a significant song, for instance, suggests an attachment that will forever remain between these two characters.
Erice also implies that movies and photography can have the same power. It signals that perhaps what we hear and see coming from the arts is very powerful and necessary. Perhaps they can also bring someone, so to speak, back to life.
Be patient with this film. It’s a gem of a character study and an interesting philosophical exploration of memory and the arts.
Close Your Eyes opens this week in limited theatrical release, including screenings at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.
FILM: CLOSE YOUR EYES
DIRECTED BY: VICTOR ERICE
STARRING: MANOLO SOLO, JOSE CORONADO, ANA TORRENT
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The opening of Close Your Eyes takes place in 1947 outside of Paris. A sickly older gentleman has asked a friend to find his daughter in Shanghai. It’s a fairly extended dialogue scene which one might expect to see on a theatrical stage. Then there’s a jump in time and space to 2012. It is only then that we learn we’ve been watching a section of a film that was never finished as one of the actors, Julio Arenas, went missing before the production was completed.
Victor Erice is the Spanish writer/director of Close Your Eyes. He’s not exactly a household name and frankly, I’d never seen any of his previous work. Part of this has to do with his not having made a feature-length film in over thirty years. Yet this is a major but subtle work of art that rewards viewers increasingly over its 169-minute running time. There are a number of other somewhat lengthy dialogue scenes that only add to the mysterious details surrounding the missing actor. The director who had last worked with him, Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo), is called upon to help a television program called “Unresolved Cases” investigate the actor’s disappearance. What happened to Julio is anyone’s guess. What made him walk away? Is he still alive?
On the surface, Close Your Eyes might be billed as a mystery, which it is, but there’s so much more depth to what Erice is attempting to explore. Several people are contacted who have their own memories of Julio. One of those includes an old love interest named Lola, played by a very warm Soledad Villamil. She and Miguel share a few of those memories as well as a song. She’s one of several nicely developed characters that offer their own unique insights into Julio. But part of what Erice questions here is what purpose memories ultimately serve. Also, what about the various mementos that get left behind when someone is gone from our lives. Do we throw them in the garbage? Should they be stored away? Erased? How necessary is it to move on? Ultimately, the question is whether a person is more than a memory and if it is truly important to find what we’ve lost related to them. The film explores all of these questions through dialogue, slight character decisions, and plot points that connect Julio’s story to that which was also pursued in his final film.
The tone of Close Your Eyes is generally pretty low-key and a lot of that relates to the character of Miguel who now lives a mostly retired existence in a trailer where he writes, tends to his garden, and prepares for various fishing trips. Yet he seems pretty drawn to solve the mystery of his friend’s disappearance. He handles it though with caution and a calmness that comes with age. This may have been the only time in his life when he could have focused on Julio.
There’s another element to the film that resonated with me and that is the importance of music to a person’s life. For any of you that have read my memoir on Substack, you know how I’ve associated music with most of the major events in my life. My theory is that music has the ability to spur memories, both good and bad, that might otherwise lay buried. There are a few scenes in the film when music is used for this very purpose. The scene between Miguel and Lola when the latter plays a significant song, for instance, suggests an attachment that will forever remain between these two characters.
Erice also implies that movies and photography can have the same power. It signals that perhaps what we hear and see coming from the arts is very powerful and necessary. Perhaps they can also bring someone, so to speak, back to life.
Be patient with this film. It’s a gem of a character study and an interesting philosophical exploration of memory and the arts.
Close Your Eyes opens this week in limited theatrical release, including screenings at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago.