The Orphanage (2007)

[Heron Mathis]

TheOrphanage (Spanish: El orfanato) is a 2007 gothic supernatural horror film directed by J. A. Bayona in his directorial full-length debut. The film stars Beln Rueda as Laura, Fernando Cayo as her husband, Carlos, and Roger Prncep as their adopted son Simn. The plot centers on Laura, who returns to her childhood home, an orphanage. Laura plans to turn the house into a home for disabled children, but after an argument with Simn, he goes missing. The film is an international co-production film between Spain and Mexico.

The film's script was written by Sergio G. Snchez in 1996 and brought to the attention of Bayona in 2004. Bayona asked his long-time friend, director Guillermo del Toro, to help produce the film and to double its budget and filming time. The Orphanage is an international co-production between Spain and Mexico. Bayona wanted the film to capture the feel of 1970s Spanish cinema; he cast Geraldine Chaplin and Beln Rueda, who were later praised for their roles in the film.

The film opened at the Cannes Film Festival on 20 May 2007, where it received a standing ovation lasting more than 10 minutes. It received domestic critical acclaim in Spain, and won seven Goya awards, including Original Screenplay and New Director. On its North American release, The Orphanage was praised by English-speaking critics, who described the film as well directed and well acted, and noted the film's lack of "cheap scares"; subsequently, New Line Cinema bought the rights to the film for an American remake.

In Spain, a young girl named Laura Garca Rodrguez is adopted from an orphanage. 30 years later, adult Laura returns to the closed orphanage, accompanied by her husband, Carlos Snchez Rivera, and their seven-year-old son, Simn. She plans to reopen the orphanage as a facility for disabled children. Simn claims to have befriended a boy named Toms, and draws pictures of him as a child wearing a sack mask. Social worker Benigna Escobedo visits the house to inquire after Simn, and it is revealed that Laura and Carlos adopted Simn and that he is HIV positive. Incensed at Benigna's intrusion, Laura asks her to leave. Later that night, Laura finds Benigna in the orphanage's coal shed, but Benigna flees the scene. Later, Simn teaches Laura a game which grants its winner a wish. Clues lead the two to Simn's adoption file. Simn becomes angry, and says that his new friend told him that Laura is not his biological mother and that he is going to die soon.

During a party for the orphanage's opening, Laura and Simn argue, and Simn hides from her after she slaps him across the face in a fit of frustration, which she immediately regrets. While looking for him, she encounters a child wearing a sack mask who shoves her into a bathroom and locks her inside. When Laura escapes, she realizes that Simn is missing and is unable to find him. That night, Laura hears several loud crashes within the walls of the orphanage. Police psychologist Pilar suggests to Laura and Carlos that Benigna may have abducted Simn.

Six months later, Simn is still missing. While searching for him, Laura spots Benigna, (pushing a doll in a pram) who is then struck and killed by an ambulance. The police find evidence that Benigna worked at the orphanage, and that she had a son named Toms, who also lived there but was kept hidden due to his facial deformity (with Laura seeing old footage of Toms being made to remove his mask, presenting his face to the camera). A few weeks after Laura was adopted, the orphans stole the mask that Toms wore to conceal his deformed face and damaged eye. Embarrassed, Toms refused to leave his hiding place in a nearby sea cave, and the rising tide drowned him.

Laura asks for the assistance of a medium named Aurora in the search for Simn. Aurora conducts a seance during which she claims to see the ghosts of the orphans crying for help. Laura discovers the remains of the orphans she grew up with in the orphanage. Benigna poisoned their meals and killed them for having caused Toms's death and hid their remains in the orphanage's coal shed.[5] Unable to cope with the situation, Carlos leaves the orphanage.

Laura makes the orphanage look as it did thirty years ago and attempts to contact the children's spirits by playing one of their old games. The spirits lead her to the door of a hidden underground room. Inside is Simn's corpse, wearing Toms' mask. Laura finally realizes what happened: while searching for Simn the night he disappeared, Laura moved pieces of construction scaffolding, blocking the entrance to the secret room. The crashes that night were caused by Simn trying to get out. He fell and fatally broke his neck (when he was knocked back by something ramming the secret door while he was standing by it).

Laura appears to take an overdose of sleeping pills. Then, apparently dying, she begs to be with Simn again and the children's spirits appear, (including an unmasked Toms finally coming in to join the rest, no longer shy over his looks) with Simn among them. Simn tells Laura that his wish was for her to stay and take care of the orphans, she then happily tells them a story (as Toms makes the others sit down next to him to listen). Sometime later, Carlos visits a memorial to Laura, Simn and the orphans. Carlos returns to the orphans' old bedroom and finds a medallion that he had given to Laura. He turns to look as the door opens, and he smiles.

This was an international co-production film between Spain and Mexico. The first draft of the script of The Orphanage was written by Sergio G. Snchez in 1996.[8] Snchez was not sure why he chose to write a genre film for the screenplay, as he explains, "I ended up writing a film in the style of those I liked as a kid, movies like Poltergeist, The Omen, and Rosemary's Baby which I ruined on the first VCR we owned at home."[9] Snchez revealed the literary influences underlying his writing of the script, such as The Turn of the Screw and Peter Pan.[10] Snchez originally wanted to direct the script but he was repeatedly turned down by various Spanish production companies.[10] While Snchez was working on the short film 7337 in 2004, he met with director Juan Antonio Bayona and offered him the script to direct.[9][10][11] Bayona accepted the opportunity because he felt that a fantasy themed script like that of The Orphanage would allow him freedom as a director, saying the fantasy genre was a great tool for learning as it "allows manipulation of space and time as we wish or the use of certain camera moves with an immediate efficiency".[12]

Bayona cut parts of the script, including the outcome of the other orphanage children, because he wanted to focus on the character of Laura and what happens to her.[13] To create the film as he wanted, Bayona had to double both the film's budget and the amount of filming time.[14] To accomplish this, Bayona received help from fellow film director Guillermo del Toro, whom he had met at Festival de Cine de Sitges when del Toro was presenting his film Cronos (1993).[14] Del Toro offered to co-produce the film as soon as he learned about it.[14] For the rest of his crew, Bayona worked with his regular team that he worked with on commercials and music videos.[15]

During casting discussions between Bayona and del Toro, Bayona expressed a desire to see Beln Rueda in the lead.[14] Bayona admired her after seeing her performance as Julia in Alejandro Amenabar's The Sea Inside.[16] Del Toro appreciated this choice, as he admired her as an actress and liked that Bayona was casting her against type.[14] Bayona asked Rueda to watch The Innocents and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to prepare for the role.[17] Another actress Bayona desired for the film was Geraldine Chaplin in the role of Aurora, the medium.[14] Bayona stated that he wanted the film to have "the mood of 70s Spanish cinema and Geraldine starred in one of the best movies of that decade, Carlos Saura's The Secret of Anna, as the ghost of the mother. It made sense to have her play the medium."[16] Bayona was nervous about filming with Chaplin. To break that tension, on the first day of shooting with her, Bayona hid under a bed during a scene which required Chaplin to portray Aurora kneeling down near it in the dark, and he grabbed Chaplin's leg when she did so.[16] Aurora's scream in the film is Chaplin's actual frightened scream as Bayona grabbed her.[16] Roger Prncep's test-screening was one of the first for the role of Simn.[11] Bayona test-screened over four-hundred children during two months before making his choice to cast Princep.[11] Edgar Vivar was cast in role of Balabn; Bayona knew him through his work on the Mexican television series El Chavo and sent him an invitation for the role through e-mail.[18]

Production on The Orphanage began on May 15, 2006 in Llanes, Asturias.[14] This location was chosen due to the area's diverse natural settings that include beaches, caves, cliffs, forests, a small village, and the Partarru Manor where the orphanage scenes take place.[14] The orphanage was an old colonial house from the end of the nineteenth century.[14] Bayona wanted to use certain cinematographic techniques that were impossible to achieve in the house, so several parts of the house were reconstructed in sound stages.[14] After four weeks in Llanes, the team moved to Barcelona to finish up the last ten weeks of filming in sound stages, making over 80% of the film there.[14] Bayona showed the films La residencia and The Innocents to his director of photography on the film, to make special notice of the Scope lensing used in both films.[5]

The Orphanage premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2007. The film was positively received with a ten-minute ovation from the audience.[19] The film's Spanish debut took place at the Sitges Film Festival on October 4, 2007 where it opened the festival.[20] The Orphanage premiered in Spain on September 10, 2007.[1] The Orphanage was released in Spain on September 10, 2007 and was immensely successful in Spain after an $8.3 million four-day launch from 350 screens. The film was the second highest-grossing debut ever for a Spanish film and was the biggest opening of the year, making it even larger than the worldwide success of the Spanish-Mexican film Pan's Labyrinth.[1][19][21] It opened in limited release in the United States on December 28, 2007 and had a wide release on January 11, 2008.[22] It opened in Mexico on January 25, 2008 and earned over $11,000,000 at the box office.[23]

3a8082e126