Victor Erice will be premiering his first film in over 40 years tonight, “Close Your Eyes.” His last film was 1983’s “El Sur.” He’s of course the director of 1973’s pantheon-worthy “The Spirit of the Beehive.”
Erice is now 83 years old, he won’t be at Cannes to present his movie. I suspect due to old age and/or health issues. Regardless, many had Erice’s film being in competition for the Palme d’Or, but, when the lineup was announced, “Close Your Eyes” showed up in the Cannes Premieres section.
We now know why.
A very interesting article today via Spanish outlet El País explains the situation quite clearly.
It turns out that El País’ source claims that Cannes couldn’t screen the film before announcing their lineup in April. In fact, they only saw Erice’s fourth feature just a few days ago.
Thierry Frémaux had mentioned at the lineup announcement, in April, that he had not known until six months before that Erice had a new film.
Even so, in 2016 Frémaux had admitted putting Sean Penn’s much-maligned “The Last Face” in Competition without having actually seen it, so he could have done the same for Erice.