Víctor Erice

[HerrSchreck]

I can second zedz' sentiments regarding El Sur, and this is based on what appeared to be a television copy of the film from quite a time ago that I wateched years ago. The film positively hums with Erice's ability to infuse a piece of film with the always--and sweetly-- unsatisfied longings of memory. Perhaps no other filmmaker could re-inhabit the mind of a child from the vantage point of adulthood with such authenticity.

Erice is the Thomas Pynchon of the cinema. . . this film, his second, came a full decade after his first, and unfortunately, after what was ostensibly only a break for the holidays, the film remained uncompleted. This sense of the irrecoverable (that imbues the act of remembering one's past) and longing for what might have been, only curiously serves to counterpoint certain aspects of the film.

["membrillo"]

Does FNAC historically take forever to ship? I placed my order on the 1st of February and all they have done besides charge me, is create a UPS shipping label. Is this common or should I be worried?

[Michael Kerpan]

Packages to the USA that come from outside the USA (and are not sent via high price courier service) can be tied up in customs for a long time. I don't think regular mailed international packets are treated as very high priorities by Homeland Security (at least in some entry ports).

[dad1153]

Anthology Film Archives in NYC is showing Erice's "El Sur" (April 8th and 12th). Uhh, see you there HerrSchreck? :wink:

[zone_resident]

For those interested, Spirit of the Beehive / El Sur (BluRay Set from Spain) is available at daaveedee.com ($51.99 + shipping).

[rohmerin]

July 18th (what a day, the day our war started) all stores (if there's still one with this nightmare crisis we are living) will sell both El Sur and Colmena BR because FNAC has lost the exclusivity. Blu Ray for 9.99 euros each.

[Stefan Andersson]

News in Portuguese about Erice´s contribution to a new Portuguese omnibus film, Historias del Cinema:
http://www.fotogramas.es/Noticias/Victo ... n-Portugal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently there will be an extended version also of the film.

A Sight & Sound review of a book about producer Élias Quérejeta mentions that he abandoned El Sur while the project was shooting. Interesting. Does anybody want to comment on this? Does the film seem rushed or abbreviated in some way?

[rohmerin]

Yes I know some part of the story.
El sur was a 3 hours movie. The 90 minutes that we don't have is because producers complained about the loooong way of shoting of Erice, that meant money. They were happy with the El sur cut (all ste in the North) and they didn't give more money for filming when they move (father and girl) to the South (remember that sur means south). What was about those never 90 minutes about? I don't know.

[zedz]

Amazing. And yet it's still a perfect movie. It's hard to imagine how it would have worked if "the south" was an actual place within the film. Even if the extant half were exactly the same, its meaning would be radically altered.

[puxzkkx]

I might be the only one who disagrees! I was craving for a 3-hour cut. The 90-minute cut left me dissatisfied, not in a pleasant way - I didn't feel, like some do, that I had the space to project a future onto this girl. What was there was gorgeous though, but it definitely feels 'incomplete' to me.

[rohmerin]

I have copied what I found about El sur cuts from two books. In my blog

http://rohmerin.blogspot.com.es/2012/06 ... d-cut.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sadly I don't own books about Querejeta or Erice for knowing more.

[JPJ]

July 18th (what a day, the day our war started) all stores (if there's still one with this nightmare crisis we are living) will sell both El Sur and Colmena BR because FNAC has lost the exclusivity. Blu Ray for 9.99 euros each.

Ordered these from starscafe.com where they are only 6,97 euros each.Shipping rates(at least to europe)seem to be reasonable too, unlike at Dvdgo where they used to send everything by courier.

[PNeski]

been a while since I been on this forum so if this is old news sorry,El Sur is on Hula Plus's Criterion section and is a nice 16x9 transfer,also the interview in english which was on the
Japanese dvd Box set has been put on UTube

[JPJ]

July 18th (what a day, the day our war started) all stores (if there's still one with this nightmare crisis we are living) will sell both El Sur and Colmena BR because FNAC has lost the exclusivity. Blu Ray for 9.99 euros each.

Ordered these from starscafe.com where they are only 6,97 euros each.Shipping rates(at least to europe)seem to be reasonable too, unlike at Dvdgo where they used to send everything by courier.

Received these earlier this week and just took a quick look of El Sur.What a beautiful,natural looking 1,66 transfer.Images from Jose Luis Alcaine(who shot one of the best horror films of the seventies,Quién puede matar a un niño?/Who can kill a child?) are absolutely breathtaking.There is no extras but at this price I'm not complaining.Surely this is a candidate for Criterion or MOC?

[swo17]

Criterion has the rights to El Sur--it's currently on their Hulu channel.

[rohmerin]

He is filming two documentaries? shorts?
One in Portugal, an anthology film with Pedro Costa, Godard, Kaurismaki and Manoel de Oliveira
Another film with fragments of the cinema that influenced to him.

Article (in Spanish)

http://www.fotogramas.es/Noticias/Victo ... n-Portugal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DrSilence]

Spanish FNAC seem to be posting a re-release of the Blu-ray and DVD of El Sur, on 5 June http://cine.fnac.es/a1012232/El-sur-For ... specificar

Does anyone know any more about this? I've been chasing El Sur since it went OOP...

[Calvin]

Who's got Spirit of the Beehive in the UK? I know there was a DVD but I don't remember who put it out (Optimum, in which case it'd be with Studio Canal now?).

Optimum's release went OOP, so I presume it reverted to the Spanish rightsholder. But I'd be surprised if any UK label hadn't tried to pick it up since.

[zedz]

Does anyone have the DVD? I never managed to get hold of it. It might be a case where the materials aren't in particularly good shape for an HD transfer and would require restoration, in which case it would be a long-term project. But then that doesn't explain why nobody else has released it since, even on DVD. An odd one that's for sure...

Presumably everyone's waiting on somebody to restore it. Either that or some particularly fiddly rights issues.

A Spanish Blu-Ray was released a few years back. Caps-a-holic comparison with the Criterion DVD here. It looks like it needs tweaking (too dark?), but I'm not sure it requires an entirely new restoration.

My recollection of the Beehive / El Sur double Blu was that the Beehive transfer was noticeably older / weaker. I assumed it was the same source as the Criterion DVD.

That could maybe do with an updated / higher res transfer, but El Sur looked very nice and could respectably be issued as is.

A Blu of the exquisite Quince Tree Sun would make my heart skip a beat or three.

[Calvin]

El Sur is being released in UK cinemas by the BFI from September 16th, as selected by Pedro Almodovar to coincide with a season of his work at BFI Southbank

[oh yeah]

I've just watched El Sur for the first time on Hulu and am utterly blown away by the poetry, the light, the ambiguity and elisions and ultimately the truncated ending which somehow makes perfect thematic sense, this feeling of lack or longing, of missing a second half. What an absolutely beautiful and moving and mysterious film, more genuinely mysterious than most films ever attempt to be.

[der_Artur]

Shouldn't this be moved to the filmmakers board?

[bottled spider]

El Sur is being released in UK cinemas by the BFI from September 16th, as selected by Pedro Almodovar to coincide with a season of his work at BFI Southbank

Thanks for the heads up. The film was worth the trip to London. As a backwoods colonial, I was wonderstruck by the civilized BFI Southbank theatres: bar present, concession stand absent. And I picked up Ozu's Early Summer from their shop for half what it's going for on Amazon.

've just watched El Sur for the first time on Hulu and am utterly blown away by the poetry, the light, the ambiguity and elisions and ultimately the truncated ending which somehow makes perfect thematic sense, this feeling of lack or longing, of missing a second half. What an absolutely beautiful and moving and mysterious film, more genuinely mysterious than most films ever attempt to be.

Yes, I thought the most significant ellipsis of the film, the transition from the eight-year old to the fifteen-year old, was especially well managed. And like Renoir's A Day in the Country, the film in no way seems incomplete, so the funding difficulties that prevented it from being longer were perhaps serendipitous.

[Stefan Andersson]

http://cineparadiasterribles.blogspot.s ... tromo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brief info in Spanish about a 1990s project begun and abandoned by Erice. Finally made by Fernando Trueba. Link to trailer on Yotube included.

[Stefan Andersson]

Plegaria (2018), short film by Erice, previously unreleased according to page 71 here:
https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr:4a8b ... 023-fe.pdf

https://www.multiverso-fbbva.es/en/arti ... r-erice-2/
https://letterboxd.com/film/plegaria-2018/