Ten years after releasing his lovely and tender 1973 debut The Spirit of the Beehive, director Victor Erice made his second feature, based on a novella by Adelaida García Morales that was published in 1985. Set in 1957 Spain, 1983’s El Sur is narrated by the adult Estrella, who recalls her father Agustín (Omero Antonutti), a doctor with special "powers" that he channels—like a medium or a water diviner—using a pendulum on a chain to find water under the earth. Eight-year-old Estrella (Sonsoles Aranguren) idolizes her father, a loving enigma estranged from his own parents (his father supported the Fascists), who spends much of his time locked away in the attic performing experiments. But Augustín changes after seeing an actress named Irene Ríos (Aurore Clément)—a mystery woman from his past—in a movie melodrama. He begins to disappear at night and starts drinking until he becomes completely withdrawn, while Estrella's mother (Lola Cardona) takes to bed because of her "condition," leaving Estrella disillusioned with the parents she once adored. Part memory film and part reconstruction of childhood by a grown woman trying to make sense of her guarded parents and family mysteries, El Sur is a film of delicate images—a beautiful and intimate movie about storytelling, growing up, and coming to terms with the failures of family. Extras on this Criterion edition include a "making-of" featurette, a 2003 interview with Erice, a 1996 TV show episode with critics discussing El Sur, Morales’s original novella, and an essay by critic Elvira Lindo. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)
El Sur
Criterion, 94 min., in Spanish w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.99, Blu-ray: $39.99 Volume 33, Issue 5
El Sur
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