The House of the Spirits

1993
R
2h 25m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

25K

YOUR RATING

Antonio Banderas, Winona Ryder, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Meryl Streep in The House of the Spirits (1993)

Play trailer1:38

1 Video

39 Photos

Drama Romance

A rancher, his clairvoyant wife, and their family face turbulent years in South America in this adaptation of Isabel Allende's best-seller.A rancher, his clairvoyant wife, and their family face turbulent years in South America in this adaptation of Isabel Allende's best-seller.A rancher, his clairvoyant wife, and their family face turbulent years in South America in this adaptation of Isabel Allende's best-seller.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

25K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 12 wins & 1 nomination total

Videos1

Trailer 1:38

House of the Spirits

Photos39

+ 33

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Film debut of Grace Gummer, Meryl Streep's daughter. She plays Streep's character, Clara, as a young girl.

Goofs
There is a sequence that occurs at Christmas. There is snow on the ground and the characters are dressed for winter. Winter occurs from June to August (approximately) in the countries south from the Equator, like Chile. (Much of the movie was filmed in Denmark.)

Quotes
Férula Trueba: I'm so sorry. It's just I'm not used to people hugging me or touching me.

Alternate versions
Was initially released as a 145 minute long film, which was shown in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and across Scandinavia. In all other territories, a version cutting over 10 minutes of footage and lasting 132 minutes was released instead to both theaters and home video. The opening in particular is drastically different between the two versions.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Four Weddings and a Funeral/The Cement Garden/Above the Rim/Raining Stones/The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1994)

Soundtracks
La Paloma
Written by Sebastian Iradier (as Sebastian De Yradier)/Michael Jary
Performed by Rosita Serrano
Published by Edition Cinema
Courtesy of Eastwest Records GmbH

User reviews100

Review

Featured review

6/10

great book, pretty good movie

The book was fabulous and remains one of my favorites. The movie, for some reason reminded me of "The Thorn Birds"--I guess because I felt so much was left out, and it would have been better as a mini-series.

The book evokes a much more magical, mythical, and "Spirit"-ual feeling that reflects the special flavor of life in South America, especially with Clara having green hair, and more powers in the book. A lot of that feeling is left out of the movie.

However, the movie mostly makes up for this lack in the extremely vivid presentation of the characters' emotions.