Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £6.99 a month
Close Your Eyes
At once a mystery about an actor’s sudden disappearance, and a meditation on memory, identity, friendship – and the power of cinema.
Director: Víctor Erice
Overview
Víctor Erice’s first feature in three decades is a characteristically ambitious meditation on memory, identity, family, friendship… and cinema. Twenty years after an actor’s mysterious disappearance led to a movie-shoot being abandoned, the director reluctantly contributes to a missing-persons television documentary which, once broadcast, has unexpected consequences for a great many people.
Besides succeeding splendidly as engrossing drama, Close Your Eyes is rewarding as a magisterial summation of Erice’s abiding preoccupations. Drawing and building on his own earlier films and unfinished projects while paying tribute to admired auteurs (Sternberg, Hawks, Ray et al), Erice has created a lovely, multi-layered work that is deeply personal, psychologically astute, philosophically profound, and very moving in its warm, generous humanity.
Infrequent strong language
Related
Downfall Downfall
Historical drama 2004 155 mins Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Bruno Ganz is extraordinary as Adolf Hitler, living out his final days during the fall of Berlin in Oliver Hirschbiegel's acclaimed drama.
Palindromes Palindromes
Comedy 2004 100 mins Director: Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz’s casting of eight different actors of varying ages, genders and races to play the lead role of Aviva, makes for a truly original film.
Distant Journey Distant Journey
Drama 1949 98 mins Director: Alfréd Radok
Blending documentary and fiction, Alfréd Radok's remarkable film chronicling the Terezin ghetto was one of the first films to address the Holocaust.
Dreamers Dreamers
Drama 2025 79 mins Director: Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor
Two Nigerian migrants dare to imagine a vibrant future outside of their confinement at a British immigration removal centre.
Amélie Amélie
Drama 2001 117 mins Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Audrey Tautou plays the shy waitress whose altruism leads to love, in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's BAFTA-winning hit romance.
Viridiana Viridiana
Drama 1961 91 mins Director: Luis Buñuel
Banned in Spain, condemned by the Vatican and celebrated at Cannes, Buñuel’s satire about an aspiring nun takes a stinging crack at society.
Celine and Julie Go Boating Celine and Julie Go Boating
Drama 1974 194 mins Director: Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit is an exhilarating combination of theatricality, paranoia and ‘la vie parisienne’, around an entrancing examination of making and watching films.
Swimming Pool Swimming Pool
Drama 2003 102 mins Director: François Ozon
A crime novelist seeks peace but gets a dangerous muse in this twisted bilingual thriller from François Ozon.
Enemy Enemy
Drama 2013 91 mins Director: Denis Villeneuve
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as doppelgängers in this dark, pulsating thriller from Denis Villeneuve.
Reawakening Reawakening
Thriller 2024 90 mins Director: Virginia Gilbert
BAFTA-winner Jared Harris stars as a father wrestling with uncertainty when his daughter reappears a decade after vanishing.
Memories of Murder Memories of Murder
Detective drama 2003 131 mins Director: Bong Joon-ho
A pair of detectives clash trying to solve the brutal murders of two women, in Bong Joon Ho’s masterful blend of true crime and dark social satire.
Following Following
Drama 1999 67 mins Director: Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan’s gritty neo-noir first feature about a young London writer who gets drawn into a criminal underworld.
El Sur El Sur
Drama 1983 94 mins Director: Víctor Erice
Victor Erice’s second masterpiece, following The Spirit of the Beehive, is a meditation on memory, deception and Spain’s 20th-century history.
Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
Documentary 2023 240 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman’s gastronomic dream of a film captures daily life in one of the world’s most prestigious restaurants.
Titicut Follies Titicut Follies
Documentary 1967 84 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman’s unflinching debut shows life inside an institution for the criminally insane, voted one of the greatest documentaries of all time.
Multi-Handicapped Multi-Handicapped
Documentary 1987 126 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
A compassionate portrait of students at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, directed by Frederick Wiseman.
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
Documentary 2017 206 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
An immersive journey into the New York Public Library with great documentarian Frederick Wiseman.
Welfare Welfare
Documentary 1975 167 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman’s remarkable glimpse into the Kafkaesque nature of New York’s welfare system.
Central Park Central Park
Documentary 1990 177 mins Director: Frederick Wiseman
A fascinating portrait of the comings and goings, and the people involved in maintaining Manhattan’s iconic green space.