''Dream of Light'' ( es, El sol del membrillo, lit. "The Sun of the Quince"), also known as ''The Quince Tree Sun'', is a 1992 Spanish narrative/documentary film directed by

Victor Erice The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

. The film centers on Spanish painter

Antonio López García Antonio López García (born 6 January 1936) is a Spanish Painting, painter and Sculpture, sculptor, known for his Realism (arts), realistic style. He is criticized by some modern artists for what they consider neo-academism, but has been prais ...

and his attempt to paint the eponymous

quince tree The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family (biology), family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard ...

. López struggles to capture a perfect, fleeting moment of beauty on canvas, and the film meticulously chronicles his work.

Synopsis

The film begins by showing

as a very meticulous painter. He drives in pegs to mark his stance, hangs a weight and uses strings to determine the symmetry and center of his painting. His first attempt starts out peacefully but he soon encounters problems due to the weather and the size of his canvas. As López and a friend discuss

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

's '' The Last Judgement'', painted when Michelangelo was in his 60s, which López is fast approaching, the film's subject takes shape as the relationship between the artist's work and his own mortality. López's future attempts are much more rushed and frantic as he struggles to compete with the weather, the fleeting sun and the rotting and weighed down fruit in maintaining his vision.

Participants

*María Moreno *Enrique Gran *María López *Carmen López *Elisa Ruiz *José Carretero *Amalia Aria *Lucio Muñoz *Esperanza Parada *Julio López Hernández *Fan Xiao Ming *Yan Sheng Dong *Janusz Pietrzkiak *Marek Domagala

Reception

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

wrote that "the purity and breadth of this meticulous study are all the more gratifying in view of its unprepossessing style."

Awards

At the

1992 Cannes Film Festival The 45th Cannes Film Festival was held from 7 to 18 May 1992. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Den goda viljan'' by Bille August. The festival opened with ''Basic Instinct'', directed by Paul Verhoeven and closed with ''Far and Away'', directed by Ro ...

the film won the

Jury Prize A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England durin ...

and the FIPRESCI Prize.

References

External links

* * 1992 films 1990s Spanish-language films Spanish documentary films Films directed by Víctor Erice 1992 documentary films Documentary films about painters 1990s Spanish films {{arts-documentary-film-stub