Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Night of the Sunflowers/La Noche de los Girasoles (2006) - Countryside crime drama investigates humanity's unflattering sides

9/09/2022

The Night of the Sunflowers/La Noche de los Girasoles (2006) - Countryside crime drama investigates humanity's unflattering sides

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Darkness envelopes two characters on this uninformative poster for Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo's The Night of the Sunflowers

A rapist and murderer of women is loose in a rural area of Castilly y Leon, Spain, when an outsider cave scientist arrives there with his beautiful girlfriend to to explore a newly discovered grotto.

The Night of the Sunflowers is written and directed by debuting Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo (Mustek (1997, short)). The title is a literal translation of the original Spanish title.

The film starts promising and shows a grueling rape crime in real-time. - We are boarded on The Night of the Sunflowers, as it turns out to be chronologically sophisticated. But its thriller promise is soon abandoned by Sánchez-Cabezudo in favor of a feel-bad crime drama, which reaches new heights in the depressing content variety. - Not least because all of the developments seem realistically enough.

SPOILER The scientist's crew soon strike down the wrong villager as revenge, and a local cop talks them into cutting up and disappearing the body. - But the deceased man's father-in-law, who is also the local police chief, finds them out, takes a bribe and informs everyone that he never wants to hear talk of the incident. Meanwhile the real criminal returns home to his wife and TV on the couch.

The Night of the Sunflowers is a study in humanity's willingness to sweep even truly horrific crimes under the rug, and about crimes' tendency to spur new crimes, and about the amoral in man. It is well-made but extremely depressing.

Sánchez-Cabezudo talks about the film in a 6-minute clip here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.6 mil. $

= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.45 times the cost)

[The Night of the Sunflowers was released 25 August (Spain) and runs 123 minutes. The film did not have a North-American release, (though it was screened at Cleveland International Film Festival). Its 3 biggest markets were Spain with 1.1 mil. $ (68.8 % of the total gross), the UK with 120k $ (7.5 %) and France with 114k $ (7.1 %). If made on a low budget of 3.5 mil. $, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film was nominated for 3 Goya awards, among other honors. Sánchez-Cabezudo has not returned with a feature since but instead turned to writing and directing for TV. 2.8k+ IMDb users have given The Night of the Sunflowers a 7.1/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Night of the Sunflowers?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

9/09/2022

The Night of the Sunflowers/La Noche de los Girasoles (2006) - Countryside crime drama investigates humanity's unflattering sides

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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