Cría Cuervos, 1976
[Raise Ravens]
An
inquisitive, cherubic girl named Ana (Ana Torrent) overhears a tender
exchange between her father, a military officer named Anselmo (Héctor
Alterio) and his mistress, Amelia (Mirta Miller), before the intimate
moment gives way to tragedy and confusion, as Anselmo suffers a fatal
heart attack. Amelia hurriedly dresses, leaving Anselmo's body alone
in the bedroom for the discovery of others, and exchanges a reluctant
glance with Ana before running away to avoid a scandal. Young Ana
impassively observes Anselmo's rigid countenance before recovering
a water glass from the bedside table, and methodically washes the
item in the kitchen sink. Soon, the past, present, and distant past
seemingly fuse into a surreal and reassuring incident as Ana's dead
mother (Geraldine Chaplin) passes through the kitchen and affectionately
reminds Ana that it is past her bedtime. Later, a haunted and matured
Ana (Geraldine Chaplin) recounts her childhood animosity towards her
emotional callous and philandering father, blaming him for causing
her late mother's suffering that inevitably manifested in a slow,
consuming illness. With the death of their father, Ana and her sisters,
Irene (Conchita Pérez) and Maite, spend the rest of their summer
vacation in the family home, entrusted to the care of Aunt Paulina
(Mónica Randall), a stern, but well intentioned unmarried woman
who discourages discussion about their parents in a mistaken belief
that she is sparing the children from the grief of their profound
loss. However, Paulina's attention is preoccupied by her own surfacing
romantic relationship, and the children are invariably left alone
with their affable, obliging maid, Rosa (Florinda Chico) and their
silent, detached grandmother (Josefina Díaz) whose own thoughts
are consumed by cherished memories evoked from a collage of old family
photographs. With little guidance and supervision, the children create
an insular world that reflects the conflict, pain, and uncertainty
of the enigmatic and impenetrable adult world around them.
Carlos Saura presents an indelible, serenely hypnotic, and deeply
affecting portrait of innocence, death, and grief in Cría
Cuervos. The title of the film refers to a Spanish proverb,
"Raise ravens, and they will pluck out your eyes",
and alludes to the children's irrational compulsion for vengeance
and self-destruction: Ana's innate wish for her father's death; her
fascination with a mysterious jar discarded by her mother; the children's
resurrection prayer after playing hide-and-seek; Irene's kidnapping
nightmare. By juxtaposing low angle medium shots that represent the
children's perspective with fluid crane shots that reflect a birdseye
point view, Saura visually emphasizes the incongruous union of the
children's naïveté with an ominous sense of instinctive
cruelty. Inevitably, the fusion of haunted past and indeterminate
present, like the coexistence of innocuous wish and intentional malice,
becomes the tragic and unresolved legacy of a lost and misguided childhood.
© Acquarello 2001. All rights reserved.
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