El sol del membrillo

The small quince tree in the middle of Antonio López’s Madrid backyard is hardly spectacular, but it catches the artist’s attention nonetheless. At the end of September, he sets up an easel outside and starts a painting of the sapling, a study of green leaves, yellow fruits and changing light. He daubs white paint marks onto bark and quince alike in an attempt to fix the composition in place, but the tree keeps growing. Days turn into weeks, late summer shifts into autumn and everyday life in the house, neighborhood and city outside is captured, with the tree serving as both the axis around which everything revolves and a meeting point for López’s conversations with friends, neighbors and passers-by. In one such conversation, López says his painting seeks to “accompany the tree”, which is also an apt description for Erice’s third feature-length film, a sensitive, pensive illustration of all the many ideas and feelings that the simple, patient observation of nature can evoke; the final shots replace the easel for a camera. (jl)