‘The New Yorker’ chooses Erice’s ‘Close Your Eyes’, finest movie of the 12 months | Culture | EUROtoday

“After an absence of several years in the world of cinema, an octogenarian legend resurfaces with a work of art that seems to be a summary of his career,” reads the textual content with which movie critic Justin Chang describes the movie he occupies. first place within the listing of the very best movies of 2024 by the distinguished American journal The New Yorker. “¿Megalopolisby Francis Ford Coppola?” asks the critic when confronted with the outline. Then, he solutions himself: “Well, yes. But the description applies more strongly to close your eyesthe first new feature film in more than three decades by Spanish auteur Víctor Erice.” The journal chooses the Spanish movie, the long-awaited return of an indispensable creator within the historical past of cinema – with solely 4 function movies – and who handed with out ache or glory on the Goya awards in February 2024, to steer an inventory that strikes away of public reputation, accomplished by largely unbiased movies resembling Don’t count on an excessive amount of from the tip of the world, evil doesn’t existo Nickel Boys (one of many movies that’s thought of for the Oscars).

“It begins as a film-loving detective story, in which a retired filmmaker (Manolo Solo) sets out to solve a long-ago disappearance, and then transforms into an ironic drama hawksiano of friendship and discovery. In its transcendent final passages, the film acquires the disturbingly consoling silence of a seance, as if it were confronting us with the very spirit of cinema,” concludes Chang, winner of the Pulitzer within the criticism part. The function movie by the creator of The spirit of the hive —his debut function, launched in 1973—represented his solo return to the massive display after The quince solarwhich premiered in 1992. It arrived in American theaters in August 2024, nearly a 12 months after its premiere in Spain, in September 2023.

Chang’s opinion on Erice’s movie aligns with that of nearly all of nationwide and worldwide critics. In truth, Babelia’s listing of the very best movies of 2023 included it. “Now no one narrates or films or tells like that. Film from another time, and this is praise, unrelated to any trend or academy, close your eyes it breathes in a different way and that sublime particularity must be celebrated,” says the textual content of the EL PAÍS complement. But the nice criticism was by no means mirrored with awards, nor within the dissemination and assortment of the movie. Of the 11 nominations he obtained for final 12 months’s Goya Awards, he solely received one, finest supporting actor, for the efficiency of José Coronado. Regarding the absence of recognition then, Javier Ocaña wrote on this newspaper after the ceremony: “A questionable mistake, in a gala that for the second consecutive year—coincidence or not, since Fernando Méndez-Leite directed the Academy—was exemplary in all the senses. But voters have opted for the spectacle, rather than the look.” He additionally scored a clean within the Forqué and Feroz awards.

The snow societythe very best grosser of the 12 months and essentially the most awarded of these Goya awards – with 12, together with Best Film and Best Director –, additionally gained the race to symbolize Spain on the Oscars. Juan Antonio Bayona’s movie, which was way more extensively distributed, achieved 80 million euros in income, in comparison with lower than half 1,000,000 shut your eyes. An equally abysmal distinction within the price range of every title —60 million for The snow society, and solely three for Erice’s work.

In the listing of The New Yorker Most of the chosen ones premiered at movie festivals earlier than hitting theaters within the United States for just a few weeks — the longest. There are titles like The gentle we think aboutPayal Kapadia’s Indian movie, grossing lower than 1,000,000; Musicby Sia, which barely exceeds half 1,000,000; both No different landwhich didn’t attain 100,000 euros. In truth, of the primary ten that Chang presents, just one, The chimera —place quantity six—, by Alice Rohrwacher, grossed greater than two million euros on the field workplace, one of many few unbiased movie success tales of the 12 months.

“It’s easy to sink into existential melancholy about movies, to succumb to anxiety over declining box office receipts, shrinking theatrical release windows, and the increasing fickleness of post-pandemic audiences. Of course, every once in a while they get excited and head to the multiplex to see a trendy sequel like Inside out 2, Dune: Part 2 o Gladiator 2”says Chang. Its listing, led by the newest movie by the octogenarian Spanish director, relies on the success of the general public, more and more linked to awards, and is betting, this time, on the look greater than on the spectacle.