The Spirit of the Beeehive
El Espiritu de la Colmena
Victor Erice
Somewhere in Castile circa 1940, two little girls, Isabel and Ana, see a projection of Frankenstein. Isabel makes her sister believe that she knows the "monster", and that she often meets him in an abandoned house in a neighbouring village...
With : Fernando Fernan Gomez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Telleria, Laly Soldevilla, Miguel Picasso
Screenplay : Víctor Erice
Image : Luis Cuadrado
Sound : Luis Rodriguez
Music : Luis De Pablo
Editing : Pablo G. del Amo
Screenplay : Víctor Erice
Image : Luis Cuadrado
Sound : Luis Rodriguez
Music : Luis De Pablo
Editing : Pablo G. del Amo
Production : Elias Querejera
Distribution: Connaissance du Cinéma
Distribution: Connaissance du Cinéma
"In The Spirit of the Beehive, Víctor Erice skilfully recomposes the confused universe, at the same time grandiose and sordid, warm and macabre, in which a little girl brutally discovers the nature of man and the world." (R. Royer) Erice's first film, it came out in 1973, in the middle of Franco's dictatorship: "What interests me is the underlying [political] discourse. It brings up the problematic relationship between cinema and politics through a filmic representation of one of the most conflict-filled periods in history - the war and post-war period so long ignored and avoided by Spanish cinema." (V. Erice) With, The Spirit of the Beehive, Erice manages to make a daring film in which the main character is a young prodigy, Ana Torrent. This young girl had already been remarked of in Carlos Saura's famous The Secret of Anna, a film released in France before, though filmed after, The Spirit of the Beehive.