Presented at the recent Cannes Film Festival, Close Your Eyes is directed by Spain’s Victor Eris, who marks his fourth feature film after The Spirit of the Hive, The South and The Dream of Light. A rather unusual fact: this drama marks the 83-year-old filmmaker’s return behind the camera since his last film in 1992!
But the wait was worth it: Close Your Eyes was very well received by the French press with an average of 4.2/5, making it the best film of the summer according to critics, beating out the well-received Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part. 1, Limbo, Il Boemo and The Dry Herbs (also coming out this summer).
What are you doing?
Famous actor Julio Arenas disappears while shooting a movie. Her body was never found and police ruled it an accident. Twenty-two years later, a television program devotes an evening to this mysterious case, asking for the testimony of Julio’s best friend and film director, Miguel Garay. On his way to Madrid, Miguel dives into his past…
What the press says:
According to Le Journal du Dimanche:
“Melancholy unsettling, a story that speaks to memory, mourning, aging and repair, while offering a reflection on cinema, it derives its greatness from its absolute bareness, which says the essentials.” (Stephanie Belpesch) 5/5
According to Les Echos:
“A miracle, no less.” (Olivier de Bruyne) 5/5
According to Culturopoing.com:
“A grand ode to cinema, ‘Closed Eyes’ captures the artist’s twilight and testament, both rare and radical, and its final frame, emblematic and poignant, will linger with us.” (Daniel Lambert) 5/5
According to Le Monde:
“The two stories – one supposedly fictional, the other supposedly real – thus form a kind of baroque spiral that essentially connects the figure of disappearance. Starting with cinema, the ancient art of awakening the dead, which Erica creates here. A clever elegy.” (Jacques Mandelbaum) 4/5
According to Les Fiches du Cinéma:
“Thanks to a lost friendship, all his cinema restores Victor Erica, whose last film dates back to the early 1990s. The brilliantly written Close Your Eyes is a drama of such quality that I regret its rarity. Spanish filmmaker.” (Florent Bute) 4/5
According to the first:
“From there, Eris weaves a film about memory, the permanence of things, and the overwhelming desire to capture images whose power depends not on their mere presence but on their arrangement in a mysterious continuum. Dizziness.” (Thomas Bauraz) 4/5
According to Télé Loisirs:
“Of course, ‘Closed Eyes’ is long and extremely sober in its production, but for those willing to skip it, it offers a wonderful memorial and melancholic journey.” (Camille Brown) 3/5
According to Le Figaro:
“Close your eyes is not so different from a soap, whose scriptwriters loaded a boatload of clichés (dead baby, runaway love, whiskey…) and spent hours. You do not make up for lost time in 2h49. (Etienne Sorin) 3/5
Source: Allocine
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
