CRIA Movie Review

Cria Cuervos
Raise Ravens
Rear Ravens

When a young girl's father dies, the child mistakenly believes that the “poison” she has been playing with is responsible for his death. Carlos Saura's exquisite memory film is set primarily in the waning days of Spanish Fascism, touching delicately but not insistently on the themes of misplaced guilt and collective responsibility. Geraldine Chaplin has the showiest part in Cria (originally Cria Cuervos, or Rear Ravens), playing multiple roles in her own story as she reconstructs the mysterious memories of her childhood. But it's the amazing Ana Torrent as the 9-year-old Ana who does more than steal the show—she is the show. Torrent is the actress who first made a splash in Victor Erice's 1973 Spirit of the Beehive, and here, three years later, those huge eyes still have the ability to transform this simple tale of a child's discovery of her own power into something haunting and genuinely magical. If Chaplin's presence is perhaps less impressive than Saura (her real-life companion) intended, young Torrent more than makes up for it. The kid is something to see.

NEXT STOP … Dreamchild, Spirit of the Beehive, The Nest

1976 (PG) 115m/C SP Geraldine Chaplin, Ana Torrent, Conchita Perez, Maite Sanchez; D: Carlos Saura; W: Carlos Saura; C: Teo Escamilla; M: Federico Mompoll. Cannes Film Festival '76: Grand Jury Prize. VHS, LV, Letterbox INT, TPV