Page 92 - Cinematic Thinking Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema

82 KrzysztofZiarek

narrative on Ana suddenly opens up onto "life" in mid-1970s Spain. In this
way the ending also recalls the projected/future scene with the adult Ana
and becomes another cinematic marker of temporality experienced as the
force of emerging possibilities. The power of Sauras Cria cuervos comes
from this complex cinematic blend of the painful experience of the tran-
sience of existence with the presentiment of new possibilities that owe their
transformative force to the banal and everyday passage of time.
The two entwined markers of temporality in Saura's films—finitude
and possibility—which Cria cuervos presents through the prism of Anas
remembrance of her childhood initiation into the finite character of life,
constitute the explicit parameters of Elisa, vida mia. They become liter-
ally visible in Luis's death, which, leaving an indelible mark of finitude on
the film, also makes possible the transformation of Elisa into the "true"
voice behind the memoir. This link between finitude and transformation
is underscored by two other scenes, in which Elisa becomes substituted
for a murdered woman whose body Luis claims to have found one day
on the road near his house. In both scenes "Elisa" gets murdered by a
man played by the same actor as Elisas husband, and although one of the
scenes seems to be invented by Luis, the other appears to be imagined by
Elisa herself, who apparently envisages a murderous conclusion to the dis-
integrating relationship with her husband. In either case the spectator is
violently reminded of Elisas mortality, as the film visually encloses within
the horizon of finitude the newly emerging possibilities in Elisas life that
are brought about by the ending of her marriage and her subsequent re-
placement of her father as the author of the memoir and the teacher at a
local religious school. Within the experience of temporality presented by
Saura's films, death becomes ubiquitous, from Cousin Angelica, through
Cria cuervos in particular, to Elisa, vida mia, and functions as the recur-
rent marker of finitude, a reminder that whatever one sees on the screen,
whether it be a memory, a fantasy, or a real occurrence, becomes subject
to displacement and revision, made possible at least in part by the force of
the future, whose finite horizon has its limit in death,

Cinematic Poiesis
The temporal rhythm in Sauras most important films can be defined
as the rhythm of finitude, of conjoined passing away and opening onto the
future, where an ending signals also a new possibility. Describing Sauras