A SUDDEN LOSS OF GRAVITY

He was born in Carranza, Spain, in 1940. He directed two of the most important films of his country, "The Spirit of the Beehive" and "El Sur". He studied political science before going on to study film at the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematogrificas from where he graduated in 1963. He worked as a film critic and collaborated on the screenplay for Antonia Eceiza’s "El Proximo Otono" (Next Autumn) and Miguel Piquazo’s "Oscuros Suenos de Agosto" (Dark Dreams of August). The producer Elias Querejeta provided Erice his first opportunity to direct by assigning him one of three episodes in "The Challenges". Following his success with "El Sur", Erice became a prolific director of television commercials and worked uncredited on numerous other feature films. In 1992, he reemerged on the film scene with his documentary "The Dream of Light" or "The Quince-Tree Sun". In "Ten Minutes Older - The Trumpet", Erice and his colleagues Herzog, Kaurismaki, Spike Lee, Wenders, Jarmusch and Chen Kaige, were given ten minutes each to bring their own interpretation of "time" to the screen. The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2004.