Víctor Erice

Life and work

Erice made The Spirit of the Beehive in 1972 while Spain was still ruled by General Franco.^[3] The film is set in 1940 and was not a propagandist effort for Francoists.^[3] Erice filmed his young actors watching an old movie and covertly filmed their reactions.^[3] The cast and Spanish censors were bewildered by the script, which refuses to explain its meaning.^[3]

Erice chose to inhabit entirely the child Ana’s world, only hinting at what passes between her and the Monster.^[3] His second feature, El Sur (1983), was based on a story by Adelaida García Morales.^[4] Producer Elías Querejeta allowed Erice to film only the first two-thirds of the story.^[4] In July 2022, a new Erice film, Cerrar los ojos, was revealed to be in development.^[5][6]

Antonio López García is the painter featured in Erice's documentary The Quince Tree Sun (1992), his third film.^[4] When Cerrar los ojos debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, it received highly favorable critical responses.^[5]

What the cited sources add

The Empire essay notes that Erice’s opening caption establishes the location as “a village on the Castilian plain” and the year as “about 1940”.^[3] Erice originally planned a 1970s frame-story with the grown-up Ana returning, but decided it would emphasize soap opera over childish magic.^[3] At the time of the film’s release, Erice said he would like to return to Ana’s story in 30 years.^[3] The El Cultural article states that Cerrar los ojos will be Erice’s fourth feature, after El espíritu de la colmena, El Sur, and El sol del membrillo.^[6]

Erice worked on a script adaptation of Juan Marsé’s novel El embrujo de Shanghai, but producer Andrés Vicente Gómez gave the project to Fernando Trueba.^[6] Erice commented that not making La promesa de Shanghai caused him “a great deal of frustration”.^[6] The eldiario.es article reports that Erice said in 2022 that he had never stopped working, despite not having made a feature in 30 years.^[7]