Open Your Eyes

1997 1h 57m ES

👍

7.5

SOLID

🍅

87%

FRESH

⭐

7.7

IMDB

★7.5TMDB · 1,258🍅87%Rotten Tomatoes★7.7IMDB · 76,220

DramaThrillerScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Handsome 25-year-old Cesar had it all -- a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women -- until he is thrown into a strange psychological mystery after a car accident scars his face and lands him in prison.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Eduardo Noriega
César
Penélope Cruz
Sofía
Chete Lera
Antonio
Fele Martínez
Pelayo
Najwa Nimri
Nuria
Gérard Barray
Duvernois
Jorge de Juan
Encargado L.E.
Miguel Palenzuela
Comisario

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Writers: Mateo Gil, Alejandro Amenábar, Natalia Montes
Languages: Spanish
Countries: Spain, France, Italy

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.9M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 13% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Spain, France, Italy.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, shot by Hans Burmann. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mariano Marín. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor María Elena Sáinz de Rozas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Eduardo Noriega and Penélope Cruz and Chete Lera carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alejandro Amenábar directs. Hans Burmann behind the camera. Mariano Marín scores. María Elena Sáinz de Rozas cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Spain, France, Italy. Dialogue in Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.9M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 13% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
329 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4International production across 3 countries: Spain, France, Italy.
5Directed by Alejandro Amenábar, shot by Hans Burmann. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Mariano Marín. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor María Elena Sáinz de Rozas shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Eduardo Noriega and Penélope Cruz and Chete Lera carry the top of the cast.
9IMDB entry: tt0125659 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 15 themes, including "loss of sense of reality", "love of one's life", "love triangle", "madrid, spain".
11Released under 22 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Hans Burmann
Original score: Mariano Marín
Editing: María Elena Sáinz de Rozas
Costume design: Concha Solera
Makeup / hair: Sylvie Imbert
Runtime: 117 min · 1h 57m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,900,000
Box office: $370,720
Return: 13% of budget
Original language: ES
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Open Your Eyes (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes: 87% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.7/10 · 76,220 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

6 wins & 14 nominations total

Ignotus Award for Best Audiovisual Production

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Alejandro Amenábar

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2023-01-03
★ 10/10
An excellent film where dream, reality, illusion and fantasy mix. In this film, we follow the ordeal of César, a young Spaniard who has everything a young man could want: a comfortable life, money, friends and all the women he wants (although he avoids serious commitments as much as possible). During a birthday party, in which he tries to escape his most recent case, he meets Sofia, a seductive and intelligent young woman who knows how to captivate him. However, his whole life is ruined when he has a car accident, intentionally provoked, and his face is completely disfigured. If the psychological, mental and physical difficulties caused by such an injury could be enough for a movie script, Amenábar goes even further by mixing this with various considerations about dreams, illusion and memory. Brutally intense, the film goes round and round, and from a certain point, it's hard for us to understand what is true and what is a dream or illusion of the protagonist. The ending is truly disconcerting. Although the film does not seem very expensive, it has a good cast. Eduardo Noriega does a good dramatic job and is an excellent protagonist. Penélope Cruz, undoubtedly better known as she “made the leap” into American cinema, is still a very young and beautiful actress at this stage, and she is genuine in the work she develops. Chete Lera and Fele Martínez give good support and effort in their roles, and even Najwa Nimri, the supposed villain of the film, is very good at the task given to her. A good part of the story told comes to us through the flashbacks that accompany César's report to his psychiatrist, and this resource was very well used and very effective. The film mixes well the themes it addresses, balancing very well in all of them and the dialogues are really good, they breathe naturalness and authenticity. Good sets, good costumes and the good choice of shooting locations helped a lot to make the film more visually beautiful, while the cinematography knew how to make the best use of the intense sunlight of the Spanish capital and the beautiful shades of blue in the sky, which contrast sharply with the dense penumbra that the main character seems to prefer.

Production companies