Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed)
Winter 2015 Features series
Sunday, February 15, 2015 at 4:00pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by David Trueba
Screenplay by David Trueba
Starring Javier Cámara, Natalia de Molina, and Francesc Colomer
Rated 14A ·
1h 48m
Spain
Spanish
Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados (Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed)
The multi award-winning box office smash from writer/director David Trueba, Living is Easy with Eyes Closed—a title derived from the lyrics to the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever—is a buoyant and heartfelt road movie set in Franco’s Spain, about a free-spirited English teacher’s journey to meet his idol, John Lennon.
It is 1966, regional Spain: Antonio (played by the brilliant Javier Cámara, Paris, je t’aime, Talk to Her) is a teacher and an obsessive Beatles fan—a passion that carries through to his classroom, where he uses the lyrics from Help! to teach his pupils English. By the rigid standards of the day, this makes Antonio a radical. When he learns that John Lennon is filming Richard Lester’s How I Won the War on the other side of the country, Antonio drops everything and sets out in his tiny Fiat to find the production’s location, hoping Lennon can help him understand the lyrics to the newly released album Revolver.
En route, Antonio adopts two hitchhiking runaways: Juanjo (Francesc Colomer), a 16-year-old boy fleeing his Franco-loving father, and Belén (Natalia de Molina), 20 years old, single and pregnant, reluctantly heading home to her mother. Together they travel across the sundrenched landscape towards a destination where they will learn more about themselves—and one another—than they could have ever imagined.
Inspired by true events and fuelled by the affecting backbeat of pop euphoria, this funny and touching fable is both a farewell to an era of repression and a welcome to a new age, capturing the spirit of the 1960s and a country desperate for a better future.
“This small gem offers a lovely evocation of Spain as well as a touching tribute to an unforgettable moment in time when the Beatles seemed to offer brand new possibilities, the idea that strawberry fields might indeed go on forever.” (Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter)
“It’s visually lovely, and the performances are subtle, sunny and sympathetic. Camara lends a playful touch to Antonio’s Beatle-mania.” (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News)