Featured Audience Ratings

• Matheus C

  
  "Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos." This stunningly directed Spanish classic is a perverse, dark and funny portrayal of childhood.

• Elvira B

  
  Astonishing, powerful, quiet classic. As far as I've seen, it might represent the pinnacle of 70s Spanish cinema. <br/> <br/>An adult Ana reminisces about the events of her childhood and their consequences, especifically her mother's death and her turbulent… More
  Astonishing, powerful, quiet classic. As far as I've seen, it might represent the pinnacle of 70s Spanish cinema. <br/> <br/>An adult Ana reminisces about the events of her childhood and their consequences, especifically her mother's death and her turbulent relationship with her father. <br/> <br/>I can say that without a doubt Cria Cuervos is the most realistic depiction of sadness and nostalgia I have ever seen. Ana Torrent as the young Ana brings an emotional credibility to her characters that is without precedent in child performances. She doesn't limit herself to putting on a sad face because her mother died. Ana continues to see (imagine) her mother, and the contrast between the bliss of these illusions/memories of happyday-to-day life with her mother, and the awfully lonely reality that she experiences is literally heartbreaking. <br/> <br/>Geraldine Chaplin plays Ana as an adult and also Ana's mother. I can barely remember a performance or a scene as mortifying as Ana's mother agonizing in bed shortly before her death. Chaplin plays to perfection an unhappy wife, purposefully nonchalant about her husband's infidelities, with an immense need for love. Little Ana remembers her mother's pain and most likely what brought her the disease that killed her, and so she develops a horrible hate for the people who are left alive. <br/> <br/>The best thing about Cria, though, is that Carlos Saura doesn't idealize or soften the real, raw, ugly process of mourn that Ana has to undergo: the things she misses, the things she remembers, the things she clings to, the search for new people to love. Also, after her father dies, Ana and her 2 sisters are left under her aunt's care, and Saura doesn't try to maker her into saint, or a devil. She is only a woman dealing with a sudden responsiblity, and making mistakes, out of nervousness or inexperience, that mark Ana's life forever. That's real life -things happen that you can't predict, or control. But it also goes on, and that's what happens here. <br/> <br/>The cinematography is beautiful, haunting, as is that eternal theme song that is often played throughout. Ana Torrent is even better here than in The Spirit of the Beehive, and Geraldine Chaplin is wonderfully adorable and melancholy. Beware people with a weak stomach or who cry easily. Cria Cuervos is a masterpiece of cinema, the closest portrayal of mourn on film.

• Stella D

  
  a dark film about childhood starring the wonderful ana torrent as a willful and imaginative girl haunted by the deaths of her parents. en espanol

• Eric B

  
  Like the earlier "The Spirit of the Beehive" (also starring Ana Torrent), "Cria Cuervos" is a story told from a child's perspective. It's as if the film's pace and structure are wholly steered by Torrent's own natural rhythm. She's an… More
  Like the earlier "The Spirit of the Beehive" (also starring Ana Torrent), "Cria Cuervos" is a story told from a child's perspective. It's as if the film's pace and structure are wholly steered by Torrent's own natural rhythm. She's an unusually somber little girl whose heartbreaking brown eyes are soaked with melancholy, and she spends much of the film just silently watching and thinking. Torrent's character (also named Ana) is the middle sister of three. Her mother (Geraldine Chaplin, superb in a small role) and father both died in the recent past. He was a cold military officer and a philanderer, and the marriage was not happy. Ana and her sisters are being raised by their well-meaning but irritable aunt Paulina, while a matronly housekeeper is another guiding hand. Ana's grandmother, mute and paralyzed from a stroke, also lives in the house. Nothing pleases her except blankly gazing at old family photos. She seems to connect more with Ana than her sisters, and their scenes together provide some of the more intriguing moments. Ana's departed mother regularly appears to her -- presumably, this is a fantasy but it's left somewhat ambiguous. Since the film also includes plenty of flashbacks, the entrances of the mother can be confusing. Adding to the near-surreal disorientation, Chaplin also portrays Ana as an adult and inserts some external commentary. As the story continues, the sadness deepens into a surprisingly dark tone. Ana quietly shows some murderous tendencies, and it's insinuated that she may have poisoned her father and could even kill again. Thankfully, the film retreats from becoming just another claustrophobic tale of gothic horror. Some critics interpret "Cria Cuervos" as an allegory about clashing forces of Spanish politics (it was shot during dictator Francisco Franco's final months). Resonances emerge in the grand but stifling home and the ceremony surrounding the father's death, but I suggest restraint in pursuing this metaphor too far. However, if this line of analysis could explain the repeated shots of refrigerated chicken feet, carry on!

• Quinto W

  
  I know this film achieves so many more wonderful things, but right now I just can't stop thinking about Ana Torrent, without a doubt the best child actress ever. She looks just like a child, with her constantly expressionless face, but if you look just close enough in her eyes… More
  I know this film achieves so many more wonderful things, but right now I just can't stop thinking about Ana Torrent, without a doubt the best child actress ever. She looks just like a child, with her constantly expressionless face, but if you look just close enough in her eyes you'll find the torment and confusion her character is always in.