A Spanish fly-by-night

Press, 22 September 1983, Page 18

A Spanish fly-by-night

‘The Nest,” a Spanish film about the love story between a rich, eccentric, 60-year-old widower and an extraordinarily precocious 12-year-old girl, starts at the Academy tomorrow.

A strange relationship develops between them, patently platonic but covertly with sexual overtones.

“The Nest” begins with a white horse in the middle of a vast green field, standing uneasily motionless, waiting for something. It ends with the same horse in furious, exultant motion.

In between is a quiet, measured account of the mutual obsession of a lonely old widower, who dotes on riding, computer chess and “conducting” the symphonies and operas that blare from his commanding wall of hi-fi gear, and a 12-year-old girl whose father is a policeman, who knows everything about birds and whose teacher casts her as Lady Macbeth in the school play because she is the only child in the school evil enough to play the part. Torrent and Alterio are an extraordinary pair; his

pleading eyes and tremulous lower lip give the lie to his attempted off-handedness and urbanity, while her flinty voice, ramrod posture

and piercing eyes demonstrate a power nonetheless real for being under shaky control. Their relationship causes

a local scandal and, finally, she demands that Alejandro demonstrate the truth of his devotion to her by committing a murder.