Dream of Light
(El sol del membrillo)
Screening on Film
Directed by Victor Erice.
With Antonio López, María Moreno, Enrique Gran.
Spain, 1992, 35mm, color, 138 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.
With Antonio López, María Moreno, Enrique Gran.
Spain, 1992, 35mm, color, 138 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.
Recently voted the number one film of the 1990s in an international poll of critics, Dream of Light is a truly magnificent work from Victor Erice, best known for his 1973 film The Spirit of the Beehive. Effortlessly transcending the documentary form, the film follows Madrileño painter Antonio López as he meticulously labors over a painting of a quince tree in his garden. Seeking to capture the effect of the sun’s rays shining through the tree’s leaves, López’s hope is to finish his painting before the fruit falls. Janet Maslin, of the New York Times, has called it “a thoughtful, delicate inquiry into the essence of the artistic process and a tribute to the beauty and mutability of nature.”
