Themes: Sibling Relationships, Political Unrest, Innocence Lost
Main Cast: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Telleria
Release Year: 1973
Country: ES
Run Time: 99 minutes
Plot
Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's Frankenstein at a local cinema. Though they can hardly understand the concept, both girls are deeply impressed with the moment when a little girl gives a flower to the monster. Isabel, the older sister, tells Ana that the monster actually exists as a spirit that you can't see unless you know how to approach him. Ana starts wandering around the countryside in search of the kind creature. The film received critical accolades for its subtle and masterful use of cinematic language and the expressive performance of the young Ana Torrent. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
Review
Director Victor Erice's films, with his painterly images, languid pace, and patient working methods (three films in the past 30 years), are reminiscent of the lyricism of Terrence Malick. The Spirit of the Beehive is about a little girl who, in the child's dreamy desire to make sense of her world, constructs a Frankenstein monster of both benevolence and violence. Its depiction of childhood is tender, the story simple and clear. Yet what makes the film so gorgeously affecting is its summoning of a difficult to grasp intensity beneath its placid surface, where emotional extremes take on a supernatural aura and hover in the chest like a thick tremulous cloud. Realizing one's "spirit" involves a melancholy understanding of life's random potential for joy and sorrow and that the switch can be sudden, as when the Frankenstein monster switches from playing with to killing a child. This amalgam of conflicting emotions comes from humanity and yet seems to operate from without, and is a wonderful metaphor for the swirl surrounding war. (The Spanish Civil War has ended but the stink still hangs in the air like an uneasy mist.) Ana's spirit is her own, but the title refers to the universality of this essence. With her wide and brown-as-a-chestnut eyes and shyly bold demeanor, Ana Torrent is exceptional as Ana. In her search for the spirit she registers the complicated layers of a child realizing death. Erice elicits another fantastic young performance from Isabel Telleria, who plays Ana's older sister Isabel with a mischievous, vaguely menacing air. Achieving a beauty of ache-inducing intensity, cinematographer Luis Cuadrado shoots the Castilian village and countryside using astounding gradations of wheat and amber colors. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide
Miguel Picazo - Doctor; Juan Margallo - The Fugitive; Lally Soldavilla - Milagro; Jose Villasante - The Monster
Credit
Adolfo Cofino - Art Director, Victor Erice - Director, Pablo Gonzalez del Amo - Editor, Luis de Pablo - Composer (Music Score), Juan Margallo - Camera Operator, Jose Villasante - Camera Operator, Luis Cuadrado - Cinematographer, Elias Querejeta - Producer, Victor Erice - Screenwriter, Angel Fernandez Santos - Screenwriter, Francisco J. Querejeta - Screenwriter
