This film Abre Los Ojos or 'Open your ears' (1997) was a huge success in Spain and was distributed worldwide . This suspenseful movie starts when the protagonist appears moving by an empty Madrid's Gran Vía, without cars or people . It concerns about a very handsome young named Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) , as he meets the beautiful and sexy Sofia (Penelope Cruz), currently dating Pelayo (Fele Martinez) , but they are immediately attracted to each other finds the love of his life , but a girl (Najwa Nimri) is completely obsessed with him . He then suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured .
The motion picture displays genuine chills , suspense, mystery and dark atmosphere with a twisted finale . Packs excellent creation of tension , thriller , emotions and brief violence . The film's title translates to "open your eyes," which is a repeated motif . It's an exciting , bizarre film ; skillfully proceeded by Alejandro Amenabar and turns out to one of the most unusual Spaniard suspense movie ever made and certainly one of the most unsettling . Plenty of twists and turns , the strange images deliver the excitement united a thrilling score by the same Alejandro Amenabar , including some wonderful songs such as the song playing at the nightclub when César first arrives is "Rising Son" by Massive Attack, in which the phrase "dream on" is frequently repeated . Furthermore , Alejandro also wrote , along with Mateo Gil, the interesting plot , embarking into the phantasmagorical, psychological or even quasi-surrealist story . In fact , Alejandro Amenábar imagined the script after having horrible nightmares while ill with the flu. It includes director Cameo , as Alejandro Amenábar appears with other two people in the bathroom of the disco, when César goes there . Intelligent edition, special use of luxurious sets by Wofgang Burmann and slick utilization of shock images make this one, a magnificent film . Abre Los Ojos (1997) is his "remake" of Vértigo (1958), by Hitchcock. In fact, when the character of Sofia appears after hitting Cesar with a jar, it's the same shot of Kim Novak in Vertigo when she appears from the bathroom in the hotel - with green lights . Colorful and glowing cinematography by Hans Burmann which heightens the suspense . It was remade in Hollywood by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky (2001), starring Tom Cruise , Cameron Diaz , Kurt Russell and Penélope Cruz also stars in Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe's remake of this film, playing the same character, Sofia.
The picture was well directed by Amenabar in his second movie, after he achieved various hits . Since his perhaps best-known early short-film "Himenóptero" in 1992, in which he directed , produced, acted and wrote the script and the music, Amenábar progressed and reached his first commercial success in 1996 with "Thesis", Amenabar was 23 when he directed this his feature debut , a film which undoubtedly showed that a major new director had arrived on the scene . Later "Los Otros" (The Others) confirmed his arrival in the cinematographic world and is Amenábar's first English language film . In all his films he also writes the script and the music, as well as composing the music for other films , most notably "Butterflies tongue" (1999). He subsequently directed ¨Mar Adentro¨ with the Oscarized Javier Bardem and finally the epic/historical ¨Agora¨ with Rachel Weisz . Rating : Better than average.
The motion picture displays genuine chills , suspense, mystery and dark atmosphere with a twisted finale . Packs excellent creation of tension , thriller , emotions and brief violence . The film's title translates to "open your eyes," which is a repeated motif . It's an exciting , bizarre film ; skillfully proceeded by Alejandro Amenabar and turns out to one of the most unusual Spaniard suspense movie ever made and certainly one of the most unsettling . Plenty of twists and turns , the strange images deliver the excitement united a thrilling score by the same Alejandro Amenabar , including some wonderful songs such as the song playing at the nightclub when César first arrives is "Rising Son" by Massive Attack, in which the phrase "dream on" is frequently repeated . Furthermore , Alejandro also wrote , along with Mateo Gil, the interesting plot , embarking into the phantasmagorical, psychological or even quasi-surrealist story . In fact , Alejandro Amenábar imagined the script after having horrible nightmares while ill with the flu. It includes director Cameo , as Alejandro Amenábar appears with other two people in the bathroom of the disco, when César goes there . Intelligent edition, special use of luxurious sets by Wofgang Burmann and slick utilization of shock images make this one, a magnificent film . Abre Los Ojos (1997) is his "remake" of Vértigo (1958), by Hitchcock. In fact, when the character of Sofia appears after hitting Cesar with a jar, it's the same shot of Kim Novak in Vertigo when she appears from the bathroom in the hotel - with green lights . Colorful and glowing cinematography by Hans Burmann which heightens the suspense . It was remade in Hollywood by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky (2001), starring Tom Cruise , Cameron Diaz , Kurt Russell and Penélope Cruz also stars in Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe's remake of this film, playing the same character, Sofia.
The picture was well directed by Amenabar in his second movie, after he achieved various hits . Since his perhaps best-known early short-film "Himenóptero" in 1992, in which he directed , produced, acted and wrote the script and the music, Amenábar progressed and reached his first commercial success in 1996 with "Thesis", Amenabar was 23 when he directed this his feature debut , a film which undoubtedly showed that a major new director had arrived on the scene . Later "Los Otros" (The Others) confirmed his arrival in the cinematographic world and is Amenábar's first English language film . In all his films he also writes the script and the music, as well as composing the music for other films , most notably "Butterflies tongue" (1999). He subsequently directed ¨Mar Adentro¨ with the Oscarized Javier Bardem and finally the epic/historical ¨Agora¨ with Rachel Weisz . Rating : Better than average.