Abre los ojos (1997)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Alejandro Amenábar

Writers:

Alejandro Amenábar (writer)
Mateo Gil (writer)

Release Date:

19 December 1997 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Mask | Nightmare | Psychiatrist | Suicide

Awards:

5 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Eduardo Noriega	...	César
Penélope Cruz	...	Sofía
Chete Lera	...	Antonio
Fele Martínez	...	Pelayo
Najwa Nimri	...	Nuria
Gérard Barray	...	Duvernois
Jorge de Juan	...	Encargado L.E.
Miguel Palenzuela	...	Commisario
Pedro Miguel Martínez	...	Médico Jefe
Ion Gabella	...	Recluso paranoico
Joserra Cadiñanos	...	Guardia
Tristán Ulloa	...	Camarero
Pepe Navarro	...	Presentador T.V.
Jaro	...	Médico 1
Walter Prieto	...	Médico 2

Also Known As:

Open Your Eyes (UK) (USA)
Apri gli occhi (Italy)
El contrato (Spain) (working title)
Ouvre les yeux (France)
Permanent Midnight (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for some strong sexuality, language and some violence.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

Spain | France | Italy

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:18 | France:U | Germany:16 (video premiere) | Hong Kong:IIB | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/16 (video premiere) | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Canal+ España

Trivia:

The film's title translates to "open your eyes," which is a repeated motif.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: A crew member is reflected in the car window when César picks up Pelayo for tennis.

Quotes:

Pelayo: Did you screw her?
César: Screw who?

Movie Connections:

References The Game (1997)

Soundtrack:

Island

The new brains of fantasy film.

Alejandro Amenabar is the new brains of the fantasy film,and maybe of the European cinema.Take the snuff movie topic :he did much better than Shumacher's "8 mm".Now he takes an hackneyed subject which has been treated many times and surprises the audience.

Combining Georges Franju 's "les yeux sans visage" (1960)-for the strange poetry which emanates from the mask the hero(heroine in the French movie) wears-,Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's ladder" and what will be LATER developed in "matrix" or "the sixth sense" ,Amenabar creates a disturbing,absorbing and mesmerizing movie.He succeeds in surprising the audience the way only Alfred Hitchcock could do before:the movie begins as some kind of two-bit comedy,with such futile subjects as trying and picking someone up and parties,then slowly but inexorably grips the audience's mind ,and the interest won't weaken till the very end.Like in "psycho" or "Rosemary's baby" or "Jacob's ladder" ,nothing should be revealed.

For the French,there's another surprise:Serge Duvernois is played by Gérard Barray.This actor was very famous in the sixties for playing in swashbucklers the likes of "Pardaillan" "Surcouf" and "les trois mousquetaires".He was some kind of Jean Marais's alter ego.Then he completely disappeared from the screens in the late sixties(he probably became a stage actor).So I had not seen him for thirty years or more!Seeing him in such a spooky part adds to the eerie atmosphere.I wish the French directors could think of him a little more now.