Victor Erice Movies
Spanish director Victor Erice made two of his country's most important and critically lauded films, El Espiritu de la Colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) (1973) and Sur (The South) (1983). Erice had studied political science before entering the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas in 1960. Shortly after graduation in 1963, he worked as a film critic and worked on the script for Antonio Eceiza's El Proximo Otoño (Next Autumn) (1963). He also collaborated on Miguel Picazo's Oscuros Sueños de Agosto (Dark Dreams of August) (1967). Influential producer Elías Querejeta provided Erice his first opportunity to direct by assigning him a chance to helm one of three episodes in Los Desafios (The Challenges) (1969). Following his success with El Sur, Erice became a prolific director of television commercials and worked uncredited on numerous other feature films. In 1992, Erice reemerged on the film scene with his dream-like documentary of painter Antonio Lopez's quest for perfection, El Sol del Membrillo (The Quince Tree Sun or The Dream of Light). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates getting out of jail by travelling to Siberia in search of a wife. Victor Erice directed the impressionistic Lifeline, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill. Werner Herzog visits the Uru Eus tribe of South America -- believed to have been the last unknown indigenous people on earth prior to their discover in 1981 -- and explores the often sad toll their discovery has taken upon them in Ten Thousand Years Older. Chloe Sevigny plays an film actress waiting out a ten-minute break in her trailer in Int. Trailer. Night, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. Spike Lee looks into the Florida vote-counting scandal, and how Al Gore's assistants and supporters reacted to it, in the short documentary We Wuz Robbed. And in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep, directed by Chen Kaige, a delusional elderly man is convinced his furniture still stands in the vacant lot where his home used to be, and he persuades workers to help him move it away to safety. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, (more)
- 1992
A film about the artistic process in every sense of the phrase, Spanish director Victor Erice's El Sol del Mebrillo (The Quince Tree Sun) loosely documents the efforts of artist Antonio Lopez to paint the titular foliage in his backyard. Lopez agonizes over just how to capture the light falling on the tree's leaves; he aspires to complete the painting before the fruit falls at the end of the season. Meanwhile, the artist is distracted by unannounced visitors, the debate over the Gulf War, and the filmmaker himself. Sol begins in documentary form, with voiceover narration from Lopez himself, then slowly takes on other qualities: slightly staged narrative storytelling; hypnotic, dream-like nature film; and philosophical meditation on art and mortality. Barely released in the U.S., the film nonetheless made it onto many stateside critics' "Best of the 1990s" lists, and won the International Critics' Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. Erice's previous efforts include two hallmarks of Spanish cinema, 1973's The Spirit of the Beehive and 1983's Sur. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- 1983
El Sur (The South) is the story of Estrella (Iciar Bollain), a little girl from Southern Spain who has been uprooted to the North. Estrella maintains a sentimentalized attachment to the region of her birth, an attachment manifested in her love for her father (Omero Antonutti). The girl's rose-colored memories are shattered when she learns that her beloved dad once carried on affair with a Southern woman-and that the flames of passion still smolder within him. This Spanish/Argentinian coproduction was filmed on location in Madrid, Navarre, Vittoria, and Zamora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, (more)
- 1974
Video art by Willoughby Sharp. ~ All Movie Guide
Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's Frankenstein at a local cinema. Though they can hardly understand the concept, both girls are deeply impressed with the moment when a little girl gives a flower to the monster. Isabel, the older sister, tells Ana that the monster actually exists as a spirit that you can't see unless you know how to approach him. Ana starts wandering around the countryside in search of the kind creature. The film received critical accolades for its subtle and masterful use of cinematic language and the expressive performance of the young Ana Torrent. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, (more)
- 1970
Dean Selmier plays an expatriate American in each story of this trilogy. Francisco Rabal and his family star in the first feature filmed at the Rabal family home in Madrid. An over aggressive American soldier tries to put the moves on his wife and daughter before he is clubbed and thrown into the swimming pool. Part two finds a hippie couple slain at the country home of a wealthy local (Alfredo Mayo) after the young woman is offered to him for money and the boy makes love to the man's wife. In part three, an American man, a Cuban girl, two Spanish students and a chimpanzee throw a dance party before the American plants a bomb that destroys everyone. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francisco Rabal, Dean Selmier, (more)
