Raise ravens ...

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Movie
German title Raise ravens ...
Original title Cría Cuervos
Country of production Spain
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1975
length 112 minutes
Rod
Director Carlos Saura
script Carlos Saura
production Elías Querejeta
music Federico Mompou
José Luis Perales
camera Teodoro Escamilla
cut Pablo G. del Amo
occupation

Breed ravens ... (Original title: Cría Cuervos ) is a 1975 film by Carlos Saura . It is about a little girl who believes that she can gain power over life and death with a harmless powder. The image of the crumbling bourgeois family was often interpreted as a mirror of Spanish society, whose authoritarian rule by Franco was in the process of dissolving.

“It's the story of a child obsessed with death. Or, which is the same, obsessed with life. "

- Carlos Saura

action

In 1995, the adult Ana remembers her childhood in 1975 when she was eight years old. At this time, her family is in the process of disintegration. The father Anselmo, a Spanish officer, cheats. The mother stays up all night to wait for his return, which, overheard by the girl, leads to a violent argument. When the mother develops cancer and dies in severe pain, Ana blames her father for the mother's death.

Ana remembers how her mother once told her to throw away a can. In frivolous whispering, she added that it contained a deadly poison, although the white powder was in fact only harmless bicarbonate . Without knowing exactly why, Ana picked up the can. Now she takes out the powder and pours it into her father's glass. In fact, he dies of a heart attack during an affair with Amelia that night. From then on, Ana believes she is responsible for her father's death and that with the powder she holds power over life and death in her hands.

The three sisters come as orphans in the care of the strict and emotionally cold Aunt Paulina. Only the maid Rosa gives them some warmth in their new home. Despite occasional games with her sisters, Ana remains alone at heart. Irene, the elder, is already interested in boys. Little Maite, on the other hand, is too innocent to suspect anything of Ana's conflicts. Ana is weaving more and more into her own world. It is a world in which children's games also revolve around death, in which Ana flies from the roof of her house and in which she can bring her mother back to life and bring her to her by sheer exertion of will.

Ana is also the only point of reference for the mute grandmother, who sits in a wheelchair in front of old photos, always hears the same old song and dreams of her youth. When Ana realizes that the grandmother wants to die, she offers her some of her secret powder. But the grandmother, unlike her granddaughter, does not believe in the deadly effects of baking powder and rejects the offer. Instead, Ana's guinea pig, Roni, dies, who she buries in the garden.

During a violent argument with Paulina, who Ana does not want to accept as a substitute for her dead mother, the latter throws her at her head: “I want you to die!” She pours her powder into a glass of milk that she brings to her aunt personally . Only after Paulina has already drunk the milk does she manage to build trust in the girl for the first time. During the night Ana sneaks up to Paulina, who is fast asleep, and strokes the apparently dead woman's hair.

When the girls are woken up by the living Paulina the next morning, Ana realizes that her powder has lost its magic. It's the first day of school and the girls have to leave the house early. Irene tells of a nightmare she had that night. And Ana seems to step back from her dream world into the reality of a new life for the first time on the way to school.

Film analysis

title

"Cría cuervos, y te sacarán los ojos" (German: "Breed ravens, and they will poke your eyes out") is a Spanish proverb that refers to the ingratitude of children or other people who are taken care of: ingrate People (ravens) will thank you for the care you give them (raising them) by saying that they harm you (peck out your eyes). Originally, this sentence was supposed to appear in the final scene of Saura's previous film, Cousin Angélica , in which the Falangist Anselmo chastises his indomitable nephew. Also in Zuchten Raben… Ana rebels against her educators, although the "scratching out of the eyes" in the form of her death powder only takes place in her imagination.

Levels of action

As in his earlier films, especially in Cousine Angélica , one of Saura's main themes is the different levels of time that exist in life. In Breed Raven… he weaves the present and the past, dreams and memories into one another without clear dividing lines until they merge into a mosaic in the world of little Ana, in which magical elements such as the resurrection of the dead or the flying from the roof are possible varieties of reality .

The interlocking of the various levels is most evident in the role of Geraldine Chaplin . From one scene to the next, she changes from the adult Ana to the mother in Ana's memories or from this as a real person to the dream figure that Ana conjures up in her forlornness.

Motifs

As in most of his early films up to the end of the 1970s, which were made under the Franco dictatorship , Saura also serves as a reflection of Spanish society in Züte Raben ... a crumbling bourgeois family. However, Saura himself always portrayed his film as less political than it was perceived by the public. He doesn't believe in the political impact of films, and if he were a political person he would have taken a different job.

The surreal elements that are always embedded in Saura's films also mostly have very concrete roots. In Breed Raven… a symbolically staged plate full of chicken legs appears several times, which Ana discovers in the refrigerator. Saura makes fun of the fact that everyone asks him about the meaning of these chicken legs. The picture arose from the simple fact that Geraldine Chaplin often kept such a plate in her own refrigerator to cook chicken soup from.

childhood

“I don't understand that there are people who claim that childhood is the happiest time in life,” says Carlos Saura, looking back at the adult Ana. And he himself affirms that he does not believe in a childhood paradise, but that a child experiences fears and loneliness at least as intensely as joys.

Although echoes of Saura's own childhood and the Spanish civil war , at the end of which Saura was seven years old, repeatedly appear in his films , he defends himself against an autobiographical interpretation of his films. He replied to a psychological study that came to the conclusion that he himself was the girl Ana, that this might play a role subconsciously, but that he didn't think much of it.

improvisation

When the film was made, Carlos Saura did not stick to the originally planned script. In particular, he gave free rein to the natural play of the child actors, for example in the girls' dance scene or in Maite's bathing scene. In this scene the bath water was too hot and the actress screams in unplayed panic, whereupon you can see the other girls laughing and looking at the film crew. Although the scene had actually burst, Saura did not shoot it again because such naturalness is difficult to imitate. Irene's dream at the end of the film also comes from a real nightmare of actress Conchita Pérez, which she told him two days before shooting began. Saura was so impressed with the story that he incorporated it into the film.

music

Three pieces of music run through the film as motifs that represent the three generations of the protagonists:

  • Ay, Mari Cruz is the grandmother's song. It stands for traditional, Francoist Spain and is sung by Imperio Argentina , who was a big star in the first years of the Franco era and was also worshiped by Adolf Hitler . For the grandmother, who only lives in her memory, the song is an echo of past, glamorous times.
  • Canzión y Danzas No. 6 by Federico Mompou is a solemn classical piano piece. It is the song of the mother, a pianist unable to attend. She had played it to Ana over and over again when she was in a sad mood. For the adult Ana it becomes a reminiscence of her childhood.
  • Porque te vas , sung by Jeanette , became known through Saura's film and was even a number one hit in Germany . It is the modern song of the young girls. Despite the sad text, they dance to the lively music, and at the end of the film it is on their way to school on the first day after the big vacation for a departure into a new future.

History of origin

Breed ravens… was Saura's first film to be made entirely from its own script. In general terms, Saura had had the film material in the back of her mind for a long time, but it finally took shape when Saura discovered Ana Torrent with her serious and sad charisma in the film El espíritu de la colmena (German: The spirit of the beehive ) by Víctor Erice , in which the seven year old Ana played her first role.

As in a total of nine of his films from this era, Saura's then partner Geraldine Chaplin took on the lead role of the film in a double role as adult Ana and Ana's mother. In an interview, Chaplin reported that Ana Torrent couldn't stand her and that the scenes between mother and daughter, which exude touching intimacy, required a lot of work. Conchita Pérez, who plays Irene, is the younger sister of Saura's second wife, Mercedes Pérez.

The shooting took place in eight weeks in the autumn of 1975 on the original locations. The peeling splendor of the villa where Ana's family lives was chosen by Saura because it was opposite his own apartment on María Molina. At the time of filming, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was dying and there was uncertainty across the country about future developments. As a result of disorientation and after Saura's latest film Cousin Angélica in Spain had led to fierce and sometimes violent clashes, the Spanish censors confiscated the film almost half a year without specific complaints before it on January 26, 1976 Madrid Conde Duque Theater 's Celebrated its premiere.

reception

The film, which was produced with little effort, became Saura's greatest audience success to date and the sixth most successful film in Spain in 1976 with over a million viewers. The film was also successful abroad, was celebrated at film festivals and received numerous awards. During this time, Carlos Saura became the most internationally known director in Spain and shaped the outside view of Spanish films.

In Germany at that time, Carlos Saura's films were mostly only shown on television. This is how Zuchter Raben… had its German premiere on December 3, 1976 on ARD . After all, the film made it into German cinemas later as only Saura's second film.

In an interview with Saura, the Italian film director Luigi Comencini described Zuchten Raben as one of the most beautiful films he has seen in his life. His film Voltati Eugenio (German: Come back, little one! ) Uses the Italian adaptation of Porque te vas as a leitmotif and pays homage to Züchter Raben… .

criticism

Lexicon of the international film : “The image of a lazy, frozen patrician family from Madrid as a metaphor for the Spanish society, which is suffocating under pressure and is falling apart. Critical social analysis marked by bitterness, excellently staged, incredibly dense in atmosphere, played in the main role in a fascinating way. "

Dieter E. Zimmer : "This is probably the most intelligent and sensitive film by the only Spanish director of international renown, and also most accessible to non-Spaniards."

Awards

literature

  • Ursula Beckers, Albrecht Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens. Film protocol Filmland Presse, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-88690-036-3 .
  • Carlos Saura: Cría cuervos… Elías Querejeta Ediciones, Madrid 1975, ISBN 84-400-9390-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 89
  2. ^ Cría cuervos, y te sacarán los ojos at the Centro Virtual Cervantes .
  3. ↑ a b Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 90
  4. ↑ a b c Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 99
  5. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 109
  6. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 97
  7. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 40
  8. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 100
  9. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 92
  10. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 95
  11. ↑ Interview with Geraldine Chaplin on the American DVD edition of Criterion
  12. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 91
  13. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 103
  14. ^ A b Paul Julian Smith: The Past is Not the Past. In: The Criterion Collection , August 13, 2007. (English)
  15. ^ Beckers, Lempp: Carlos Saura. Raise ravens . Film protocol, p. 101
  16. ^ Breed ravens ... In: Lexicon of international film . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  17. ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer: FilmtipPrograms . In: Die Zeit , No. 31/1978