El Sur - Víctor Erice (1983)

Víctor Erice hasn't made a lot of films. But he is one of the Spanish directors with best reputation. The Spirit of the Beehive is an amazing film, I have often read that it's the most beautiful film in Spanish cinema. I am not sure about that, but it is indeed beautiful and it is the mother of all the Spanish films that came after it.

El Sur is a nice film. It's beautifully filmed, nicely paced, softly narrated. It's got characters with feelings. It's well directed in every way. The actors are very good and the choice of camera is always interesting. The photography is cold and it does transmit that northern cold feeling the film is talking about.

The sounds. It's got Terence Davies moments... still camera and moving sounds, creates atmosphere, works poetically. The use of environmental sound and music are good. Yet... there's the dubbing. It doesn't completely ruin the film, but almost. The mother is good, the father and the child (who have the main roles) are so badly dubbed it's a shame. I was getting a bit annoyed at his lack of southern accent too, but another character explains it "he's a gentleman" so he speak properly.

There's a story about the making of this film. Both director and producer (Elías Querejeta, important producer in Spanish cinema) had agreed in 81 days of shooting. But after over 40 days they didn't have the rest of the funding, so the producer decided to stop the filming as there could be a film with half the story. They were going to film the second part when they had the money. But the film went to festivals and there really wasn't any need to make the second part... producer claims it worked, director claims it's incomplete. So the second part never existed. Of course the producer is the bad one of this story. But is he, really? I mean the half of the film that was indeed beautifully made was due to his production. Does it work as a film? Yes! Do we need further explanations? No? There relationship father-daughter is complete.

The second part was supposed to be in the south and was never filmed.There is a very interesting interview here where Erice explains his side of the story and tells us what the other part was about. You can imagine through his voice what it would be like*... but films that were never filmed are never films.

*Actually, I was surprised how the way he talks is so much like the way he films. As if his voice is exactly the tone and pace the camera uses to tell the story.

El Sur