The Orphanage/El Orfanato (2007) - Bayona arrives with memorable, haunting horror

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Star Belén Rueda stands in a dark corridor among what appears to be ghost children on this poster for J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage

A married couple with an adopted son want to reopen an old orphanage, which the woman Laura once lived in, but when their son Simón disappears, the place transforms from a place of promise into a sinful nightmare.

 

The Orphanage is written by Sergio G. Sánchez (7337 (2000, short)) and directed by great Spanish filmmaker, debuting J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls (2016)). The title is a literal translation of the original Spanish title.

SPOILER The house is haunted with masked children in The Orphanage, and there are shocks and a frightening medium scene, in which sound design is used to strike violently upon the gasping viewer. But the film's real brilliance may be the way it so finely balances warmly inviting the audience back to the innocent magic of childhood, - and gruesome, very adult offenses on the contrasting side.

SPOILER The ending is tragic, - but not devastating, - bringing to my mind H.C. Andersen's The Story of a Mother (1847). It perfectly fulfills this fairytale-reminiscent nightmare. Executive producer Guillermo Del Toro's preceding, more widely seen and hailed Pan's Labyrinth (2006) pales in comparison to The Orphanage, I find.

 

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The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - The 2004 tsunami depicted in one of the strongest disaster films ever  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4 mil. $

Box office: 78.6 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 19.65 times its cost)

[The Orphanage premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, Golden Camera section) and runs 97 minutes. The first draft was written in 1996. Sánchez gave Bayona his script in 2004. With Del Toro's support, the financing came together with 14 production companies and support bodies collaborating. Shooting took place from May - July 2006 in Spain. The film opened #27 to a 233k $ first weekend in 19 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 707 theaters, grossing 7.1 mil. $ (9 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market. Its biggest and 2nd biggest were Spain with 37.7 mil. $ (48 %), - here it was the biggest opening of the year with an 8.3 mil. $ four-day launch, - and Mexico with 11.6 mil. $ (14.8 %). The film was nominated for 5 European Film awards and won 7/14 Goya awards, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. A much talked about US remake never came to fruition. Bayona returned with La Desgracia en 3D (2008, short), Nena Daconte: El Aleph (2009, music video) and theatrically with The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012). Belén Rueda (The Sea Inside/Mar Adentro (2004)) returned in 8 Citas (2008). The Orphanage is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Orphanage?

Memories of My Melancholy Whores/Memoria de Mis Putas Tristes (2011) - Carlsen signs out with a dubious adaptation

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The ethereally beautiful poster for Henning Carlsen's Memories of My Melancholy Whores

We follow our old, nearly 90 year-old protagonist, who wants to spoil himself with a visit to an old, familiar brothel and to a virgin. But close to the young woman, his will freezes, - and then a murder is committed. (Or something.)

Great Danish filmmaker Henning Carlsen's (Hunger/Sult (1966)) last film is a very little-engaging offering, an adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez' (Love in the Time of Cholera/El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera (1985)) 2004 novella of the same title by Jean-Claude Carrière (The Monk/Le Moine (1972)) and Carlsen.
The film feels fabulating and distant. It is not without interest but a far cry from successful as a film.
Carlsen passed away in 2014, and this is his last film. R.I.P. 

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Watch the trailer for the film here - unfortunately, it doesn't have English subtitles

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[The production met considerable difficulties, as women's groups in Latin America fought against it on the ground that it supposedly glosses over prostitution and mistreatment of women. The film lost what seems like a large part of its budget on this back in 2009 and had to scramble to pick itself together again for a later than scheduled shooting. Carlsen was nearly 84 when the film premiered in his native Denmark. With the few commercial numbers publicized, the film looks like a big flop: It made 148k $ in Russia, 104k $ in Mexico and 28k $ in Poland, the three biggest markets, according to the information I have been able to find.]

What do you think of Memories of My Melancholy Whores?

Cría Cuervos/Cría!/Raise Ravens (1976) or, Mother Never Lets Go

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The poignant poster for Carlos Saura's Cría Cuervos

QUICK REVIEW:

Ana is a girl who lives in Madrid during Franco's dictatorship with her general father, her depressed housewife mother and her two siblings. Ana witnesses her mother's death struggle and tries to poison her father. The grown-ups spare their children nothing, which vitiates them. Ana sees her mother everywhere.

This fateful portrayal of a family is an outstanding, tragic film, which can be viewed literally, as Ana's story; symbolically, as a Freudian mother-nightmare, (SPOILER Ana even recounts her story in her late mother's figure); or metaphorically/politically, as an inventory of Spain in the Franco-years.
English-born pop-singer Jeanette's Porque te Vas plays as a musical motif in this pretty advanced yet accessible film, which came out to acclaim and popularity the year after Franco's death.
It is directed by great Spanish director Carlos Saura (Peppermint Frappé (1967)), who had fathered a son with Geraldine Chaplin (The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012)), who plays Ana's mother, at the time of Cría Cuervos. The title means 'raise ravens' and comes from the Spanish proverb, 'Raise ravens, and they'll take out your eyes.'
Saura has offered his perspective on this psychological family-themed drama with these words:
"Cria Cuervos is a sad film, yes. But that's part of my belief that childhood is one of the most terrible parts in the life of a human being. What I'm trying to say is that at that age you've no idea where it is you are going, only that people are taking you somewhere, leading you, pulling you and you are frightened. You don't know where you're going or who you are or what you are going to do. It's a time of terrible indecision."

Watch the trailer for this extraordinary film with English subtitles here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown, although admissions and reports make me count it as a box office success
[Cría Cuervos was the 6th highest grossing Spanish film in 1976, Saura's biggest hit up to that point. It won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes, was Golden Globe-nominated as Best Foreign Film and drew 1.2 mil. and 1.5 mil. admissions in Spain and France, respectively. It was also, reportedly, a hit in other foreign markets including the States, which solidified Saura's status as the best known Spanish director internationally. Cría Cuervos was also Spain's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, but did not receive a nomination.]

What do you think of Cría Cuervos?
Other Saura-films that are worth looking for?