Filme

Living is easy with eyes closed

Film Info

Spanien 2013 Regie: David Trueba

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Living is easy with eyes closed

Synopsis

In 1966, John Lennon found himself in the middle of an existential life crisis. Having decided to definitively break with the Beatles and eager to test his potential as an actor, he arrived in Almería to partake in Richard Lester’s anti-war flick, HOW I WON THE WAR. Antonio, an English teacher at an Albacete-based grammar school embarks on a journey to meet the ex-Beatle and put forth an unusual proposal.
En route, he picks up Belen, who has run away from the depressing shelter she has been forced to live in because of her family and the country’s social mores of the time. She is just over 20, but has a past which she is fleeing from. Both come across Juanjo, 16, who has run away in an act of rebellion and face-off with his father.
For all three, Lennon represents freedom, a living symbol to shoot for. The three travel mates share their days and adventure, representing as they do the expression of a country aspiring for something better in the Almería of the sixties. Their travels will take them to the very same locations and period in which Lennon composed “Strawberry Fields Forever”.

Cast & Crew

Regie

David Trueba
Produzent

Cristina Huete
Drehbuch

David Trueba
Kamera

Daniel Vilar
Schauspieler

Francesc Colomer, Natalia de Molina, Javier Cámara
Schnitt

Marta Velasco
Ton

Alvara Silva
Musik

Pat Metheny
Szenenbild

Pilar Revuelta
Kostüm

Lala Huete

Statement Regisseur

The backdrop for LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED is Spain in the 60s: grey, contradictory, dictatorship-driven. Its older citizens are still conditioned by a civil-war past while the new, younger generation craves for moral and social freedom.
This contrast is especially pronounced in the southern part of the country; for instance, the severely impoverished province of Almería, where the first waves of massive tourism and foreign film productions clash with delays and local limitations.
In this setting, John Lennon’s arrival in Spain to participate in Richard Lester’s HOW I WON THE WAR brightens the mood of a segment of the youth population, symbolizing as he does freedom, a new morality and progress.
The Lennon who arrives to Spain is a Lennon in crisis. He has just released his troubles-induced “Help”. Uncertain about the future of the Beatles, experimenting with drugs and at the brink of a personal and professional divorce, Almería offers Lennon a chance to isolate himself and reflect. It is an introspective period in which his songs reveal a hitherto unknown intimate side, drawing on childhood memories and his later frustrations, many of which originate with the conflicting facets of sweeping success. Musical history notes that during his stay in Almería, Lennon composed one of his most personal pieces, “Strawberry Fields Forever”.
Lennon is not the protagonist in this story; he is rather an unreachable icon, a symbol…
The protagonists, in reality, are the three characters who belong to that Spain of the sixties: a demanding and dynamic English teacher, who suspects that social reform is more the product of personal ambition than political planning, a person who allows himself to be swept away by enthusiasm and desire; and two young people who, in different ways, struggle with prevailing social frustrations and the idea that others can govern their destinies.
The three characters represent three types of rebellion against the established order. They are not historical characters but anonymous individuals who, by waging personal battles, both intimately and zealously, contributed to social change in their country. They are the true agents of a change brought about by atypical, non-traditional heroes.The formula for recreating this period was to do so from a personal perspective, along with identifying individual events which had a far-ranging resonance. Real social heroes are always ordinary people who are able to exceed their expectations.