Displaying all 2 Review

• The Dream of Light — for El espíritu de la colmena
  Written by lezard on 23.04.2020

  Spain in the 30's. The world seen by a little girl.
  It starts like in cinema. It starts with cinema. And of course with the light which is linked to it. There are secrets and silence and cinema lights the lantern of the world, casting fascinating, scaring shadows. Plato's cave.
  It starts like childhood. It starts with childhood. You won't forget Ana Torrent's
  eyes, riveted to Frankenstein's creature on the screen.
  In Erice's movies, light renders time (and weather) palpable. The light of the projector splits the night and reveals the marvels and torments of the world. It reveals the truth behind appearances. The creature's killing spur behind its innocence.
  The world of the adults is full of lies and hidden things. Revelation and deception. Families are full of secrets. The mother lies awake, listening to the howling of the passing trains that take away her dreams and her letters in the night. Rather than lies, the family is an arrangement with desire. As to love, it can kill, like monsters or war.
  Death is lurking, the parents' death, the soldier's death. The childen who pretend to be dead to tame their fear and fascination.
  There is silence, secrets. The silence of the family, again, with cheating and disappointment, the things you never speak of. The silence about the war and its atrocities, the deadly silence of history about the crimes of franquism (Franco was not dead when the movie was shot).
  Faced with the cruelty of the world, there is escape. The adults' escape. They flee their responsabilities and bury their hopes and dreams. There is the children's escape, the fantastic power of their imagination., the summoning of the spirits. Fantastic theatre of childhood. In the cold and high-ceilinged bedrooms, near the railroad tracks, on the great plain, their plays, challenges and tales unfold.
  In the wells sleep the monsters. A watch given as a gift, tries to stop time. The bees weaves in the light the honey of childhood, that will melt with the lies of adulthood.
  Ana stands in front of the window, fragile and almighty, facing the sunrise and storms to come. Eventually, Erice doesn't forget the magical loneliness of this childhood. With it, he has shaped a gem in the night of cinema.
  Spain in the 30's, a little girl confronted to monsters and the harshness of the world. Guillermo Del Toro will remember it 33 years later.

• I'm Ana — for El espíritu de la colmena
  Written by Talie on 04.01.2011

  Text contains spoilers

  I'm Ana. These words that are key to the history hidden deep in the imagination of a little girl. Imagination, so rich that can revive even the dead movie character.
  The history, told by Victor Erice is very simple. Two sisters, one day in the cinema, that came to their town, are watching Frankenstein (1931). One of them, Ana, is fascinated by the movie monster. So she asks her sister, why this monster killed and why people killed him. In response she hears that this creature is the spirit, which can be induced by anyone. You just say your name. Soon after, Ana disappears, and found not want to say where she was.
  This is whole story. But this simple story creates an unusual image. The film actually consists of several separate history, separate dramas. Ana belongs to the family, which only appears to be a strong, one relationship. In fact its members are living apart. Mother of girls, Teresa, writes letters to her old love and finds her beloved's face in passing trains. Father, Fernando gives the impression that, apart from bees, anything else doesn't interesting him . Isabel, the elder sister, Ana, is the main character's playmate and friend, but she doesn't hesitate to joke with her in a cruel way.And that's the joke will be one of the reasons why Ana decides to run away from home. The girl slowly begins to realize that the world around her is built on cruelty. Isabel pretending dead, will be the beginning of exploring the other side of life, which is hidden in darkness and shadow.
  On one of her walks around neighborhood Ana know the homeless man. We don't know nothing about him except that he jumped off the train and and he is injured. However, what fascinate girl the most is fact, that his pocket watch plays the same melody, which her mother often plays the piano. The girl realizes that the man has a relationship with her mother's past. She doesn't know which - it is not aware of the secrets and mysteries of the adults, but feel that maybe he is the author of the signature on the photo in Teresa'a album. On photography where the woman is smiling and is happy in a way that Ana reraly seen. With fright a few days later girl see the same watch in the hands of her father. Also, her mother freezes when she hears the well-known melody. What happened? Why does my father have this watch? The girl runs to man hide, but she finds nothing but blood. She doesn't know that his body lies dead in the hall, where recently she was enchanted by the history of movie monster. When she meets in the hideout Fernando Ana realizes that he had a relationship with the disappearance of her friend. And began to run. Spends the night in the woods, where reality gives way to imagination ... Morning found by her father coming home, but she is silent about where she was and what happened to her. It is no longer Ana, who belives in the world created by adults. This is a person who has the power to create their own world.
  Is Fernando told the police to kill a mysterious homeless man? Probably yes, provide the simple facts. When we asked why, we have to answer for themselves. I think that he wanted to banish ghosts of the past and to unite the family. With photos from an album watched by Ana we can see that once he and his wife were happy. And he chose a cruel way? Yes, but the world is cruel, is one of the truths that we learn very quickly. Excellent example of cruelty gives us Isabel. For no reason and just for fun she strangling a cat and pretending to be dead to haunted Ana. I think Isabel is such a small adult. Director by this figure shows us what we, adults, really are.
  What next? We do not know, we can only guess. Teresa burn last letter to her beloved,and get wrapped a husband in a warm blanket. She won't forget about the past, but will start live the present and wait what the future will bring. And Ana? She will call every night her friend, because she knows, that she has a great power.

  This film does not have the amazing photos, memorable dialogues, more - the silence and music. However, the director builds the story in a subtle and delicate way, allowing the viewer created certain parts by himself - like Ana creates her world. It is these elements make the film is remarkable. And if we add to this the beautiful eyes of Ana Torent we'll get one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.

  If you're his friend, you can talk to him whenever you want.
  Close your eyes and call him.
  I'm Ana...