Thriller Maestro Spanish Prodigy Amenábar Invades America With ‘The Others’ by Ky N. Nguyen As a film student in Madrid, writer-director-composer Alejandro Amenábar failed a course taught by professor Castro. Amenábar rebounded from this setback by making shorts, which caught the attention of José Luis Cuerda, who directed the recent hit "Butterfly (La Lengua de las Mariposas)." Amenábar remembered: "He called me and encouraged me to write a feature film. I was 21, 22. I gave him the script, and he thought it was great. He looked for the money." Amenábar set his debut feature, "Thesis (Tesis)," in a Madrid film school—naming the villain Castro. Amenábar said, "I apologized for this later." Understandably, how could he have guessed that "Thesis" would become a national sensation? It went on to win seven Goyas, including Best Film, Script, and Director. That was the beginning of Amenábar’s partnership with Cuerda, who has produced all three of Amenábar’s features. Amenábar cast Penélope Cruz ("Captain Corelli’s Mandolin") in his edgy sophomore effort, "Open Your Eyes (Abre los Ojos)." One of Spain’s all-time highest grossing films, it reinforced his reputation as a prodigy of the thriller. Cameron Crowe is directing its high-profile American remake, "Vanilla Sky," with Cruz reprising her lead role as Sofia. She’s joined by Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and Scottish performer Tilda Swinton ("The Deep End"). "Cameron Crowe is a great admirer of ‘Open Your Eyes,’ and he describes ‘Vanilla Sky’ as a confirmation of it," said Swinton. At 29, the slightly built Amenábar still looks very young. Seeming very relaxed, he slumps into his chair while we’re talking in his suite at the St. Regis Hotel. In the other room, a couple of producers are busy with phones and faxes, preparing for the American release of "The Others." Amenábar’s latest film stars Australian actress Nicole Kidman and is executive-produced by Cruise, marking the now-divorced couple’s last collaboration. "The Others" is an old-fashioned supernatural horror film set during the last days of World War II on the Isle of Jersey. While her husband (Christopher Eccleston) is away at war, Grace (Kidman) is a devout Christian raising her two children alone in a huge Victorian mansion. To protect her children from an unusual malady where exposure to sunlight can kill them, Grace keeps the windows and doors firmly closed, leaving the interiors of the house perpetually in the dark. After new servants arrive, inexplicable events begin to occur. According to Amenábar, "The characters are neither heroes nor villains, but ordinary human beings trying to understand a situation that defies everything in which they believe. The story turns on this house of gray shades and long corridors. In these dark, empty spaces we are bound to bump into the things we most fear." The script was originally written in Spanish before it was transformed into Amenábar’s first English-language film. "It’s good for the story to be set in Jersey," he said. "The Catholic Church had a strong presence there. Also, it’s the only English territory to be occupied by Nazis." The religious and wartime influences add to the film’s palpable tension. "I came up with the idea for the film three years ago, when I was living in a big house in Madrid," he said. "I wanted to make a film full of long, dark corridors, a tribute to those beings, never unmasked, that stalked the hallways of my boyhood nightmares. My childhood was beset by fears—fear of the dark, fear of half-open doors, fear of closets, and generally speaking, fear of anything that could conceal someone or ‘something.’ Thus, it is no surprise that I should become an avid devotee of the occult film." He elaborates, "I like the use of silence in ‘The Innocents.&# 146; There’s an explicit homage where Nicole is praying as Deborah Kerr did. Also, I was inspired by films such as ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ ‘Alien,’ and ‘The Shining’ where the monster isn’t explicit. I have three main influences—Kubrick: the simplest way to shoot a scene; Spielberg: psychology that’s put into the audience; and Hitchcock: suspense and Grace Kelly." For Amenábar, "Working in English allows me to broaden my audience. I also have the opportunity to work with performers like Nicole Kidman. What really drew me and captured me completely about Nicole was the undeniable force of her stare. Much of the terror created in the film takes place in Nicole’s eyes. They are better than any special effects money can buy." Amenábar describes Kidman: "She’s a very hard worker, very intense. She loves repeating takes." Laughing, I interject that she must have learned that from the legendary perfectionist Stanley Kubrick on "Eyes Wide Shut." He said: "Yeah, I said that! I don’t mind … the best is possible. She always said, ‘Okay, I’ll give you one more time to try to explore this and this.’ She likes to do little subtle things, which is very helpful when you’re building up the character during editing." Kidman recalls her professional relationship with Amenábar: "It was truly a pleasure to work with such an imaginative and original talent. He has an incredible ability to build true suspense, which comes from the heart and mind, from the inside, rather than the outside. He’s not afraid to go to the very darkest places, and he gave me the courage to go there with him as Grace slowly begins to accept that reality is not quite what she thinks it is." Amenábar added, "I intended the Gothic tale to work on two levels. On the physical level, it’s very simple and audiences can have fun with it. On a psychological level, it’s much more complex. I think it is dangerously easy in this type of film to go overboard with special effects and turn the desired shivers into revulsion. For me, leaving something to the imagination is the essence of real horror." He concludes, "It’s about the anxieties, the obsessions, the paranoia that lie latent in our consciousness. Wake these primal feelings up and you will transport the spectator back to the darkest corners of childhood fear … back to that spine-tingling shiver that can only be described as terribly wonderful." Smiling, he then added, "‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ really scared me." Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.