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Crí­a cuervos



Carlos Saura's exquisite Crí­a cuervos heralded a turning point in Spain: Shot while General Franco was on his deathbed, the film melds the personal and the political in a portrait of the legacy of fascism and its effects on a middle-class family (the title derives from the Spanish proverb: "Raise ravens and they'll peck out your eyes"). Ana Torrent (the dark-eyed beauty from The Spirit of the Beehive) portrays the disturbed eight-year-old Ana, living in Madrid with her two sisters and mourning the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost (played by an ethereal Geraldine Chaplin). Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes both the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows.

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Portrait of Carlos Saura, a documentary on the life and career of the Spanish auteur
• New interviews with actresses Geraldine Chaplin and Ana Torrent
• Original theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith

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Am I the only person who finds it a bit odd describing a 10 year old as "a dark-eyed beauty"?

Would only work for Ana Torrent.

kieslowski wrote:Am I the only person who finds it a bit odd describing a 10 year old as "a dark-eyed beauty"?

Is "dark-eyed cutie" any better?

Great film, but the song that is played ad nauseum on the rinky-dink record player is exceptionally annoying.

Gordon wrote:Great film, but the song that is played ad nauseum on the rinky-dink record player is exceptionally annoying.

That song Gordo is originally from Jose Luis Pelares, a great Spanish singer, called "Y tu te vas". I also think is annoying that the director had to play it so many times. Love the title dough, "Cria Cuervos - y te sacaran los ojos..."

Is it safe to say this would be of interest to someone who loves Spirit of the Beehive? I've not seen Cuervos, but it sounds rather similar in tone...

It offers some interesting points of comparison to Spirit of the Beehive, both in its use of the child actors and its underlying subject matter, and someone who loves that film would appreciate Cria, but it's entirely its own film, uniquely of Saura's underappreciated oeuvre - alternately magical and precise, harrowing and funny. Where Beehive is austere, pictorial, and lyrical, Cria has a sassy, defiantly forward-thinking attitude - part soap opera, part allegorical exegesis on Franco's Spain, and alternating between a sober reflection of a traumatic childhood and an urgent sense of defiant hope. Like a lot of Saura's work, I'd describe it as having a tremendous amount of moxie.

(And it's one of my absolute favorite movies - despite its baffling cover, this is the most exciting release of the year for me so far)

This is good, not great Saura...where the #### is The Garden of Delights?

I think it's great Saura, probably the greatest of what I've seen.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw The Garden of Delights at some point down the road as a Criterion, and I'd love to see some of his other films - Los Golfos, The Hunt, Elisa My Love, Peppermint Frappe, Cousin Angelica - get an Eclipse box. His work would certain qualify as having been unfairly 'eclipsed.'

And let us not forget the disturbing political allegory Ana y los lobos. Tangentially, has anybody seen his El Dorado?

I've never seens any of Saura's films and I look forward to this.

Has anyone seen Ana Torrent as an adult? Hard to escape those eyes from Spirit of the Beehive.

Has anyone seen Ana Torrent as an adult? Hard to escape those eyes from Spirit of the Beehive.

I've seen Peppermint Frappe and eagerly await this one. BTW, Torrent was the lead for Alejandro Amenábar's 1996 film Tesis.

Suzukifan wrote:Has anyone seen Ana Torrent as an adult?

She's on the documentary "Footprints of a Spirit" on Criterion's Spirit of the Beehive.

Has anyone seen Ana Torrent as an adult?

Guapa! =P~

she looks so sad, I feel like I have to attempt a magic trick in order to try and make her smile (because my failed attempt would be funnier than actually succeeding).

tavernier wrote:This is good, not great Saura...where the #### is The Garden of Delights?

It's edited in Spain as EL JARDIN DE LAS DELICIAS. I've not seen this film. I love old Saura's movies because it's a strange travel to a country, my country, that I don't recognize. But I think his cinema has become old badly = ha envejecido mal (sorry for my English).

I've only seen Saura's flamenco flavored films (which are magnificent). Are these flamenco films entirely different themtically from his non-musical films? What caused him to start making flamenco-based movies?

Tribe

Tribe wrote:I've only seen Saura's flamenco flavored films (which are magnificent). Are these flamenco films entirely different thematically from his non-musical films? What caused him to start making flamenco-based movies?

He surrendered to the powers of DANCE!

I suppose that this will be the documentary about Saura, which runs 60 min and was produced by ARTE and TVE.

I saw at TVE and it was a great documentary in the way of "Apropósito de Buñuel" was.

Disc 1 -- the film.

Disc 2 -- the documentary (62 minutes); Chaplin interview (21 minutes); Torrent interview (8 minutes). Both interviews are conducted in English.

That's all, folks!

More acceptable than Harakiri, I guess.

I'm a typical sucker, so I see no reason not to pay $26 for a 106 minute film I've bever seen and an hour-and-a-half of supplements.

denti alligator wrote:DVD Planet shipped these earlier this week, which means Gary must have received his weeks ago and is sitting on it. Wonder why the Beaver is ignoring this?

Fresh, hot Beaver.

Beaver wrote:The Criterion DVD looks as competent as one might expect.

Such ecstatic praise! I hope no one's expectations will be unduly raised.