Open your eyes (film)

Open your eyes is a 1997 Spanish-French-Italian film, the second of those directed by Alejandro Amenábar. Its cast is made up of Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete Lera, Fele Martínez and Najwa Nimri in the role of "Nuria". The intertwining shots of dream and reality in the film have prompted some critics to suggest comparisons with Calderón de la Barca's play La vida es sueño (1635).

Plot

César (Eduardo Noriega) is a handsome and rich boy who likes women a lot, but commitment very little. However, at his birthday party he falls in love with Sofía (Penelope Cruz), the companion of his best friend, Pelayo (Fele Martínez). Nuria (Najwa Nimri), a former lover of César's, moved by her jealousy causes a car accident in which she dies and César's face is completely disfigured. From that moment on, his life changes completely, becoming a horrible nightmare.

Characters

• César (Eduardo Noriega): he is a handsome and safe boy of himself, with success among women, who lives a comfortable situation economically since he inherited the wealth of his parents after becoming orphaned. During her birthday party Pelayo, her best friend, introduced Sofia, a study partner. The next day Nuria, his previous ligue, causes a car accident in which Caesar is disfigured, so it becomes introverted, insecure and accompanied.
• Sofia (Penelope Cruz): is the girl Caesar falls in love with. He works as a mime and studies dramatic art at the same school as Pelayo. He's attracted to Caesar until his accident.
• Nuria (Najwa Nimri): a girl that Caesar has slept with a few times, even though he wants nothing more with her. Nuria does not accept the situation and adopts an obsessive attitude. After Caesar's birthday party, Nuria offers to take him by car; when he insists that his relationship will not go beyond the sporadic sex, Nuria unveils the car through a ravine. In the shock, she died and Caesar's face was disfigured.
• Pelayo (Fele Martínez): César's best friend. He feels at a disadvantage to Caesar with women because of his physicist. At first, he resigned himself to Caesar try to bind with Sofia.
• Antonio (Chete Lera): the psychologist of the prison hospital. Try to help Caesar remember and discern the reality of his dreams.

Impact

In 2001, an adaptation was filmed in the United States of Open your eyes, entitled Vanilla Sky, in which Penélope Cruz reprized the role of Sofía, changing her role as a mime and trainee actress for that of a classical dancer.

Awards

Goya (XIII edition)

Tokyo International Film Festival

Soundtrack

Vol. #1

1. "Glamour" - Amphetamine Discharge (6:03)
2. "Risingson" - Massive Attack (5:29)
3. "The EMX-3 detonator" - Chucho (5:17)
4. "How do" - Sneaker Pimps (5:04)
5. "Sick of you" - Onion (4:28)
6. "T-sebo" - side effects (5:44)
7. "Flying away" - Smoke City (3:50)
8. "Arrecife" - The Crowns (3:11)
9. "I myself" - If (3:37)
10. "Tremble (goes the nigth)" - The Walkabouts (5:02)
11. "The detonator remix" – Chucho / side effects (5:01)

Vol. #2 (Instrumental)

1. "Open your eyes" (2:28)
2. "Sofia" (1:12)
3. "To dream is shit" (1:04)
4. "The operation" (1:33)
5. "Where is Sofia?" (0:54)
6. "The park" (3:08)
7. "Hipnosis" (2:20)
8. Take off the mask (2:56)
9. "You are my best friend" (2:41)
10. "The only explanation" (2:05)
11. "I want to see you" (6:38)
12. "That smile" (0:53)
13. "Let go." (1:51)
14. "Excarceration" (4:28)
15. "Life" (1:46)
16. "The roof" (5:21)
17. "Concluding Credits" (3:31)

All the songs composed by Alejandro Amenábar and Mariano Marín, performed by the "Ciudad de Praga"philharmonic orchestra, conducted by Mario Klemens.

Filming

The film was shot in Madrid and they had to cut Madrid's Gran Vía to make one of the central shots of the film. The scene in a private clinic in which the protagonist discusses with the medical team about restoring his face it was actually filmed at the Moncloa Lighthouse.

Version

• Vanilla Sky is the name of the American version made in 2001 starring Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz (who repeats the same character).

Curiosities

• This is the second time that Eduardo Noriega and Fele Martínez work together, as in Thesisin 1996, which was also directed by Alejandro Amenábar.
• In the famous scene in which the character of Eduardo Noriega appears walking by a Gran Vía Madrileña desértica, in reality it is not totally empty, because when the plane opens you can see a person looking from his balcony (Amenábar mentions on the DVD that this can be digitally corrected but preferred to leave it to respect the original and because it had some grace by not realizing this fact until it was mentioned in a street The shooting took place on 15 August 1996 and the Madrid City Council granted only a 3-hour permit to roll.
• In the remake of the film, entitled Vanilla Sky and starring Tom Cruise, it is the Times Square in New York City that appears completely deserted.
• Alejandro Amenábar makes a cameo in the film. It appears at the scene where Eduardo Noriega is peeing after having been drinking at the disco all night and interprets a boy who laughs at the character of Noriega for his appearance, along with a group of friends in which there is also Mateo Gil.
• At the scene where a prisoner is squeezing on the psychiatric television, fragments of the short film can be seen Himenopter, also made by Amenábar.
• Alejandro Amenábar has denied any influence on the film of the science fiction novel Ubik (1969), Philip K. Dick, with which he holds some similarities.
• Open your eyes premiered on the same date it premiered Titanic.
• Many critics think that Open your eyes holds certain similarities or, if not, coincidences, with Matrix, 1999 film by the Wachowski sisters.
• This film has been parodied in the film Spanish Movie, showing scenes of Eduardo Noriega and Penelope Cruz.