Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed, David Trueba’s 2013 film won five Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent of Hollywood’s Oscars, after its release and became Spain’s nomination for the category of Best Foreign Film at the 2015 Academy Awards and for good reason. With a meaningful message and an ode to the effect The Beatles had on the world, accompanied with the images of the sun drenched, warm Andalusian landscape and an award winning music score written by Pat Metheny, the film “is both a farewell to an era of repression and a welcome to a new age, capturing he spirit of both the 60’s and of a nation aspiring to a better future” (Palace Films). The film is the light and melancholic tale of three strangers who meet on the road while trying to
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For this reason, the film evokes some connections to the times. We, as the viewers, are exposed to some aspects of the fascist regime that are only pulling at the seams of the film. We do witness symbols of the harsh regime, such as the nuns and priests who freely hit children at school, the Andalucía men who beat up Juanjo for his “Beatle” haircut, and the mountainside displaying the word Franco repeatedly, but these subtleties didn’t project the true harshness faced during Franco’s era, especially not when compared to other contemporary films that are set during Franco’s regime. A clear example of this would be Pan’s Labyrinth by Mexican director and screenwriter, Guillermo del Toro. This film is very dark, which is a characteristic of Del Toro’s films, compared to the happy, and blasé attitude portrayed in Living is Easy with Eyes Closed. In Pan’s Labyrinth we see the violence and desperation that were characteristic in 1944, five years into Franco’s rule in Spain. In spite of all this, we can still see the effects of Franco’s rule in the film, especially when Antonio compels the youngsters to make a difference saying: “You can’t live in fear. Too many people live in fear in Spain, but you’re young, and you need to change things, damn
For this reason, the film evokes some connections to the times. We, as the viewers, are exposed to some aspects of the fascist regime that are only pulling at the seams of the film. We do witness symbols of the harsh regime, such as the nuns and priests who freely hit children at school, the Andalucía men who beat up Juanjo for his “Beatle” haircut, and the mountainside displaying the word Franco repeatedly, but these subtleties didn’t project the true harshness faced during Franco’s era, especially not when compared to other contemporary films that are set during Franco’s regime. A clear example of this would be Pan’s Labyrinth by Mexican director and screenwriter, Guillermo del Toro. This film is very dark, which is a characteristic of Del Toro’s films, compared to the happy, and blasé attitude portrayed in Living is Easy with Eyes Closed. In Pan’s Labyrinth we see the violence and desperation that were characteristic in 1944, five years into Franco’s rule in Spain. In spite of all this, we can still see the effects of Franco’s rule in the film, especially when Antonio compels the youngsters to make a difference saying: “You can’t live in fear. Too many people live in fear in Spain, but you’re young, and you need to change things, damn