Details
Movie Description
After doing several films with screenwriter Rafael Azcona (GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, MY COUSIN AGNELICA) Carlos Saura made CRIA! from his own script. He continued using actors in dual roles, allowing for easily shifting time frames and multiple points of view. In a dreamy opening scene, Ana (Ana Torrent), a wide-eyed child of about ten, comes down the stairs and sees a half-dressed woman run from her father's room. She quietly and without emotion goes into the room where her father lies dead on the bed and removes a half-full glass of milk. In the kitchen, as she washes out the glass, her mother (Geraldine Chaplin) enters and scolds her for being up so late. But her Mother, we learn later, died earlier, and Ana blamed her father for it and put poison in his milk. When Ana is alone her mother appears to her again, but this time she looks right in the camera and explains that she's Ana, now age 29. Some of what came before was a flashback from her adult perspective. With Chaplin playing both parts, the film shifts between the story of Ana and her mother, and Ana's life as an adult, until what actually happened the night her father died is completely revealed. CRIA! is the most complex and ambitious of the many films that Saura and Chaplin made together.
Film Notes
The Spanish title comes from the popular saying, " Cria cuervos y te sacaran los ojos," meaning, Raise ravens and they'll scratch your eyes out.
Industry Reviews
"...Beautifully acted, haunting....A movie of marvelous moments and two superb performances..."
New York Times - Vincent Canby (05/19/1977)
"One of the most important films in Saura's long career, CRIA CUERVOS powerfully conjures the commingling of past and present, fantasy and memory."
Sight and Sound - Kieron Corless (12/01/2007)
|
All rights reserved.
