Close Your Eyes

Name: Close Your Eyes
Director: Victor Erice
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: 2023
Duration: 2 h 49 min
Cast: Manolo Solo, Ana Torrent, José Coronado, Petra Martínez, María León

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Drama
Thriller

2023
Victor Erice
169 mins
12A

Summary

Drama starring Manolo Solo, Jose Coronado and Ana Torrent. In 2012, film director Miguel Garay is contacted by the makers of a TV show about the disappearance of his leading man, Julio Arenas, during a film shoot in 1990. Arenas has not been seen since. As Garay's own investigations into the actor's whereabouts lead him to old friends, Julio's daughter Ana and others, a portrait of their histories gradually takes shape.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

James Mottram

A search for a missing actor forms the core of this masterful meditation on memory, ageing and identity from veteran Spanish director Victor Erice (The Spirit of the Beehive). Years after directing a period film, Miguel (Manolo Solo) is contacted by the makers of a TV show, 'Unresolved Cases', as they seek the whereabouts of his leading man, Julio Arenas (Jose Coronado), who disappeared during production. Gradually, a picture forms of not only the one-time heart-throb Arenas, but of Miguel's past and present. With Erice making his first film since 1992's The Quince Tree Sun, it plays like a tribute to the moving image as he muses on how cinema has changed since the advent of streaming ("the industry has gone down the drain," bemoans Miguel's long-time editor). Nearly three hours in length, Close Your Eyes unspools carefully, pulling you into its absorbing narrative until you cannot turn away. Featuring a remarkable turn from Solo in the lead, this is a beautiful, tender work about the passing of time.

imdb-square

7.2/10