Close Your Eyes12A

Directed by Víctor Erice | Spain | 2023 | 2h 49m | Spanish w/ English subtitles | Starring Manolo Solo, Jose Coronado, Ana Torrent, Petra Martínez, María León

During the shooting of film, an actor vanishes under mysterious circumstances, leading to the abrupt shutdown of the production. Decades later, the film’s director reluctantly takes part in a televised documentary about the actor’s disappearance which, once broadcast, has unexpected consequences. An elegiac and personal epic exploring themes of time, memory, and the power of cinema by legendary Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice (The Spirit of the Beehive, El Sur).

Reviews

‘Though his oeuvre is small, Erice only deals in masterworks, and this one is no exception. The slow and detailed build-up is worth it to feel the full impact of its astounding final passage.’
★★★★★
David Jenkins, Little White Lies

‘A shimmery, nourishing culmination of ideas and ellipses in a career so elusive as to have taken on a mythic quality, to the point that his latest feels almost dreamed into being.’
Guy Lodge, Variety

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Close Your Eyes between May 4, 2024 and May 9, 2024.

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What else is on?

Tomorrow (Thursday 12th November)

12:30

Fatherland 12A
Parent + Baby Screening
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

15:00

Fatherland 12A
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

18:00

NAZA 15
1h 17m | Arabic & Hebrew w/ English subtitles
Filmed at night from Tel Aviv rooftops, NAZA investigates civilian deaths in Gaza and the systems behind Israel’s targeted killings of Palestinians. Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land) premiered it at Venice, where it won the Special Jury Prize.

Book here

20:00

NTLive: Golden Boy 12A
2h 36m
Josh O’Connor leads the cast in this searing revival of Clifford Odets’ knockout American classic. Filmed live from the Almeida Theatre, Olivier Award-winner Sam Yates (Vanya) directs this propulsive drama exploring ambition, identity, and the high price of success.

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Friday 13th November

15:15

Wildwood 12A
2h 11m
When crows abduct her baby brother, teenager Prue follows them into an enchanted forest of bandits, talking animals and scheming rulers. The new stop-motion adventure from LAIKA (Coraline) is a breathtaking and emotional tale told on an epic scale.

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18:15

Primetime 15
1h 49m
In 2006, reality TV show To Catch a Predator becomes a hit. But when it moves to primetime, Chris Hansen and his team push their methods further to keep viewers. Robert Pattinson stars in Lance Oppenheim’s (You Can See Everything) narrative feature debut.

Book here

20:45

The Devils 18
1h 54m
Censored for more than half a century, Ken Russell’s visionary masterpiece returns to the big screen fully restored in 4K and cut to Russell’s direction — the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker.

Book here


Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!