Cerrar los ojos (Close Your Eyes). 2024. Spain/Argentina. Directed by Victor Erice. Screenplay by Erice, Michel Gaztambide. With Manolo Solo, Jose Coronado, Ana Torrent. DCP courtesy Film Movement. In Spanish, Catalan; English subtitles. 169 min.
Fifty years after The Spirit of the Beehive redefined political cinema with childlike wonderment, now-octogenarian Victor Erice again reframes the cultural landscape of cinema, this time from the standpoint of his decades-long absence from the medium. Erice has now made four films in 50 years, and Close Your Eyes is his personal reflection on his spare yet staggeringly influential career. The film centers on Manolo Solo as Miguel Garay, a director whose fictional film The Farewell Gaze was left unfinished due to the mysterious disappearance of its main actor, Julio Arenas (played by legendary Spanish actor José Coronado). After a sensational TV show revives interest in the actor’s disappearance, Solo embarks on a journey to learn what happened to his fated star. His pursuits take him on a wending course through cinema history, including cocktails with the always-electrifying Ana Torrent, an improvisational ode to Rio Bravo, and a couch-surfing diatribe on filmic technical details. Of course, Solo casually reveals himself to be an avatar for Erice himself. The film takes its time reaching its third act, but in those final moments, Erice reveals that, despite his years of silence, he’s lost none of the childlike wonder that graced his early work.