Elisa, vida mía1977
Paired by the Criterion Channel, both directed by Carlos Saura, and both starring Geraldine Chaplin
- Criterion Collection
- Spine №403
- Connections
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Synopsis
Carlos Saura’s exquisite CRÍA CUERVOS . . . heralded a turning point in Spain: shot while General Franco was on his deathbed, the film melds the personal and the political in a portrait of the legacy of fascism and its effects on a middle-class family (the title derives from the Spanish proverb: “Raise ravens and they'll peck out your eyes” Ana Torrent (the dark-eyed beauty from THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE) portrays the disturbed eight-year-old Ana, living in Madrid with her two sisters and mourning the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost (an ethereal Geraldine Chaplin). Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes both the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows.
