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El Sur



Ten years after making his mark on Spanish cinema with The Spirit of the Beehive, Víctor Erice returned to filmmaking with this adaptation of a novella by Adelaida García Morales, which deepens the director's fascination with childhood, fantasy, and the legacy of his country's civil war. In the North of Spain, Estrella grows up captivated by her father, a doctor with mystical powers—and by the enigma of his youth in the South, a near-mythical region whose secrets seem to haunt him more and more as time goes on. Though Erice's original vision also encompassed a long section set in the South itself, which was never made, El Sur remains an experience of rare perfection and satisfaction, drawing on painterly cinematography by José Luis Alcaine to evoke the enchantments of memory and the inaccessible, inescapable mysteries of the past.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Interview from 2003 with director Víctor Erice
• New piece on the making of the film, featuring interviews from 2012 with actors Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, and Icíar Bollaín; cinematographer José Luis Alcaine; and camera operator Alfredo Mayo
• Episode of ¡Qué grande es el cine! from 1996, featuring film critics Miguel Marías, Miguel Rubio, and Juan Cobos discussing El Sur
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by novelist and critic Elvira Lindo, and a new edition of the 1985 novella by Adelaida García Morales on which the film is based

Great! Glad to see Criterion including another literary source.

How was a 1983 film based on a 1985 novella?

swo17 wrote:How was a 1983 film based on a 1985 novella?

I guess Erice got to read it early, since Morales was his partner at the time.

Sad this doesn't include any of Erice's short films. La Morte Rouge is brilliant and fits together with this and Beehive.

Not sure how redundant this is given the relatively recent BFI release, but it’s still exciting to see Erice get his dues (next up, The Quince Tree Sun, please!). Let’s hope this convinced someone to give the man some damn funding for another feature.

furbicide wrote:Not sure how redundant this is given the relatively recent BFI release, but it’s still exciting to see Erice get his dues (next up, The Quince Tree Sun, please!). Let’s hope this convinced someone to give the man some damn funding for another feature.

The wording makes it sounds like a newer restoration than what was used for the BFI release which was decent but underwhelming PQ wise.

The BFI most certainly was not a new 2K restoration so the Criterion should be an upgrade over it.

Is funding the reason Erice made so few films?
I'd love to see his shorts.

He's said as much.

Which is a big shame. I've only seen Beehive and La Morte Rouge but I consider both essential, and I've only heard great things about this and Quince Tree.

furbicide wrote: (next up, The Quince Tree Sun, please!)

There's a new restoration of this, so there's a good chance somebody will have it out on BluRay soonish.

And an upgrade of Beehive. Why that hasn't been done yet makes no sense.
Here's hoping this is an improvement on the BFI.

Thankfully a substantial improvement over the BFI, time to sell that off.

Just watched this last night. I was blown away by how gently it probes into the darkness of memory and, more specifically, coping with the feeling a parent may have lost their true love in the past. While there are obvious shades of del Toro and Amenábar, each of whom are undoubtedly influenced by Erice (Pan's Labyrinth especially), I couldn't help but draw comparisons to Terrance Davies as well. Has this ever been mentioned before? Both in theme and approach the filmmakers seem uniquely bonded. What I found most compelling is how Davies deals with memory in poetic abstraction while Erice looks at it through the more concrete, if confused, eyes of children attempting to piece together the puzzle of adulthood. Like Spirit of the Beehive, I love how Erice uses the magic of movies to illustrate how memories are constructed fantasies. Really fascinating film.

I’m thinking of a blind buy at the next sale. I’d appreciate any slight nudges in that direction

How about a nudge away [wink]? Le chat qui fume is preparing a 4K restoration for this film, possibly with a UHD on the horizon.

I'm not UHD. Nonetheless I'll take this as a nudge (wink back)