Sight and Sound 2022 Round 5: 81-100

For those who like The Spirit of the Beehive then I recommend you watch this brilliant film with the same child actor

https://letterboxd.com/film/cria-cuervos/

my experience is that SotB has really ardent fans, feels like it's one of those movies where if you love it you LOVE IT

Same actress also in Alejandro Amenábar’s breakout debut, Tesis/Thesis.

Erice only made one film per decade, if that, and all were different kinds of classic, he’s kind of a Spanish Dreyer, what’s not to love.

i agree. i voted Yi Yi because i love it hugely on a personal level too, only way to pick favourites really

I went to see his second film, El Sur, at the Walter Reade Theater at Film in Lincoln Center and while I was trying to get in I saw him standing against the wall in the interzone between the theater itself and the concession stand. At which point I also noticed a guy I sort of knew from college coming out that I would run into at screenings a lot and asked him “did he do a Q&A?” He said yes and that he told a funny story about how he came to cast Ana Torrent after interviewing a bunch of other children. Erice said he asked her “do you know who Doctor Frankenstein is?” to which she replied “yes, but we haven’t been introduced yet.”

I also voted for Yi Yi. Hard to explain why, but I feel just deeply involved in it every time I watch.

I like it but don't love it as much Quince Tree of the Sun.

I remember my roommate vacillating about seeing this: "this guy's a painter, he's painting a tree, what's the big deal..." He loved it!