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.
Cast
| The mother/Ana | Geraldine Chaplin |
| Ana | Ana Torrent |
| Irene | Conchita Pérez |
| Maite | Maite Sánchez |
| Paulina | Mónica Randall |
| Rosa | Florinda Chico |
| Anselmo | Héctor Alterio |
| Nicolas | Germán Cobos |
Credits
| Director | Carlos Saura |
| Screenplay | Carlos Saura |
| Producer | Elías Querejeta and Carlos Saura |
| Production manager | Primtivo Alvaro |
| Cinematography | Teodoro Escamilla |
| Editing | Pablo G. del Amo |
| Set decoration | Rafael Palmero |
| Sound | Bernardo Mens and Antonio Illán |
| Assistant director | Francisco J. Querejeta |
| Camera operator | Domingo Solano |
| Costume design | Maiki Marin |
| Music | Federico Mompou |
| “Hay Mari Cruz” by | Imperio Argentina |
| “Pourque te vas” by | Jeannette |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Portrait of Carlos Saura, a documentary on the life and career of the Spanish auteur
- New interviews with actresses Geraldine Chaplin and Ana Torrent
- Original theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith
From the Current
Cría cuervos . . . :
The Past Is Not Past
by
Aug 13, 2007
Cría cuervos . . . , Carlos Saura’s political and psychological masterpiece, was shot in the summer of 1975, as Spanish dictator Francisco Franco lay dying, and premiered in Madrid’s Conde Duque Theatre, on January 26, 1976, forty years after the civil war began. Saura could thus hardly...
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