The Quince Tree Sun (1992)

The artist Antonio López tries to capture the sunlight hitting his quince tree all autumn, but the struggle seems futile.

Director:

Víctor Erice (as Victor Erice)

Writers:

Víctor Erice (as Victor Erice), Antonio López (as Antonio Lopez)

Stars:

Antonio López, María Moreno, Enrique Gran

8 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Antonio López	...	Himself (as Antonio Lopez)
María Moreno	...	Herself (as Maria Moreno)
Enrique Gran	...	Himself
María López	...	Herself (as Maria Lopez)
Carmen López	...	Herself (as Carmen Lopez)
Elisa Ruiz	...	Herself
José Carretero	...	Himself (as Jose Carretero)
Amalia Avia	...	Herself
Lucio Muñoz	...	Himself
Esperanza Parada	...	Herself
Julio López Hernández	...	Himself (as Julio Lopez Hernandez)
Fan Xiao Ming	...	Himself
Yan Sheng Dong	...	Himself
Janusz Pietrzkiak	...	Himself
Marek Domagala	...	Himself

Storyline

The artist, Antonio Lopez, tries to paint the quince tree he planted some time back in his garden. Throughout his life, he has worked on the same theme many times, almost as if it were a physical necessity. Every year, with the arrival of autumn, this need resurfaces. The artist's work has never represented the sun's rays between the leaves of the tree, and, given his characteristic realist style, he tries to achieve this. But he goes about it in the same way, without consciously pursuing a finished picture - he just wants to be close to the fragile lavish tree for a few weeks.

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Plot Keywords:

agriculture | art | painting | painter | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography | Drama

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Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish Polish Mandarin

Release Date:

2 April 1993 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Dream of Light

Company Credits

Production Co:

Euskal Media, Igeldo Zine Produkzioak, Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

133 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Air Doll (2009)

User Reviews

Disingenuous

Highly-regarded semi-documentary about an artist's efforts to paint a quince tree in his garden over several months. He sets up a plumb line and a horizontal wire as guides, puts nails in the mud against which to position his toes, paints a 'grid' of little marks on individual leaves all over the tree, and tries to meticulously capture every tiny detail in his picture. At one point he has an assistant holding a long pole to nudge a particular leaf into position. You are beginning to suspect that he is the world's most obsessive (and slowest) painter when, after an hour (about six weeks in real time), with the picture only half-way finished, he scraps the whole canvas during a rainstorm. Here the illusion of authenticity is destroyed: the rain is clearly artificial, hosed over the garden in ridiculously excessive swathes. What a disappointment. You suddenly realise the whole thing is a set-up and you watch much more cynically as he spends the next hour (another six weeks) on a pencil drawing of the tree. This is equally ineffectual, but it doesn't matter because you realise it's all been a metaphor, and a rather facile one: the effort to distill something essential from life in your advancing years before it is too late. The intention was clearly existential, to slow right down and reflect and absorb and try to grasp something of life's fading richness – an original idea and very laudable, but unfortunately the images were not interesting enough, the sentiments not deep enough, and the execution not honest enough. Ceylan's "Clouds of May" attempted something similar much more successfully. It's art alright, but like the picture the artist creates, fairly weak art.