“¡Que Viene El Cartero!”: Fears and Fascinations of Childhood in the Film “La Morte Rouge” by Víctor Erice

Andrzej Pitrus

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyse and interpret Víctor Erice’s film La Morte Rouge. The director makes films quite rarely, but when he does, his work is of exceptional quality and it is outstanding within Spanish cinematography. The film analysed here is quite short. It was made as part of an exhibition comparing the work of Erice and an Iranian artist Abbas Kiarostami. Although it might appear that the artists, coming from two very different cultures, are more different than similar to one another, in fact there are similarities. Erice, just as his Iranian colleague, enjoys exploring self-reflexive themes in the cinema. In La Morte Rouge he returns to his own youth, and his first adventures with film. The showing of second-rate film about Sherlock Holmes is a starting point for the reflection upon the magic of the cinema and other themes. The director’s exceptional sensitivity and his unusual approach inspired the author to look back, towards long lost childhood, together with its traumas and fascinations.