Víctor Erice at Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía. In praise of isolation

Abstract

Even though Víctor Erice is one of Spanish cinema’s best studied directors, his film projects at the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas, later known as Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía, haven’t been studied in depth. Except for his third-year film, "Los días perdidos", his other shorts and scripts have been considered minor works, pieces of no consequence, or are simply thought of as lost. However, these films have been well preserved at the Spanish film archive. A total of four short films and scripts are kept in the archive. This article, a summary of the research done on these unpublished pieces, aims to show how they hold value by themselves and that they must be analyzed as an important part of the author’s filmography. All these projects, while being school exercises, show the gaze of a seasoned director. Some key elements of Víctor Erice’s themes and aesthetics are already present in them. Moreover, the artist addresses human com­munication, or its lack, as his main theme in his school projects. In those scripts and shorts preserved from his time at the EOC we can notice how Erice, under Michelangelo Antonioni’s influence, researches through aesthetics how to narrate and show those processes that lead to the isolation and lack of communication of his main characters.