Description: Set in rural Spain in 1940, Victor Erice's (El Sur, Dream of Light) extraordinary debut film is a haunting portrait of the isolation of an introverted child within her own family. Ana Torrent is absolutely unforgettable as the lonely little girl who sees Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, and is convinced that the monster actually exists. Encouraged by her sister, she sets off into the woods to find him and becomes immersed in a mysterious and poetic imaginary world. A poignant exploration of the fragile innocence of childhood, The Spirit of the Beehive is Spanish cinema at its very best.
Amazon.com: Victor Erice's hauntingly beautiful The Spirit of the Beehive features one of the most unforgettable child performances in the history of cinema. Hailed as the greatest Spanish film of the 1970s, Erice's visually elegant "poem of awakening" takes place in a small Castilian village in the early 1940s, as echoes of the Spanish Civil Wart can still be heard throughout the countryside. It is here, in this richly rural atmosphere, that six-year-old Ana (played by six-year-old Ana Torrent) is introduced to alternate world of myth and imagination when she attends a town-hall showing of James Whale's Frankenstein, an experience that forever alters young Ana's perception of the world around her... and her ability to mold reality to her own imaginative purposes. Is she using her imagination to escape what is essentially a bleak reality, or is she protecting herself with an inner world of innocence, to counter the darker worldview of her slightly older sister Isabel? While her emotionally distant parents go about their mundane daily affairs, Ana's world becomes the film's mesmerizing focus, and The Spirit of the Beehive unfolds as an enigmatic yet totally captivating study of childhood unfettered by the strictures of reason. In Erice's capable hands, young Ana Torrent really isn't performing at all; her presence on screen is so natural, and so deeply expressive, that you almost feel as if she's living in the story being told--a story that retains its mystery and beauty in equal measure, full of visual symbolism and metaphor (including the title, which yields multiple meanings), yet never self-consciously "arty" or artificial. Simply put, this is one of the timeless masterpieces of cinema, produced at a time when Franco's repressive dictatorship was finally giving way to greater freedoms of expression. No survey of international cinema is complete without at least one viewing of this uniquely moving film. --Jeff Shannon
On the DVDs Disc 1 presents a new, restored high-definition digital transfer of The Spirit of the Beehive, with a new and improved English subtitle translation. The supplements on Disc 2 are thoroughly fascinating, beginning with "The Footprints of a Spirit," a very well-made documentary about the making of the film, combining present-day (2006) visits to the film's original locations along with interviews with director Victor Erice, producer Elías Querejeta, coscreenwriter Ángel Fernández Santos, and actress Ana Torrent (now a beautiful 40-year-old veteran of many Spanish films). "Victor Erice in Madrid" is an extensive and thought-provoking interview, conducted by Japanese filmmaker Hideyuki Miyaoka, in which Erice discusses his films, and specifically The Spirit of the Beehive, including his observation that the film's shot of young Ana Torrent watching Frankenstein for the first time (a real-life reaction filmed with documentary realism) represents "the most important moment I have ever captured on film." Two other 2006 interviews round out the supplements: One with the great Spanish actor Fernando Fernán Gómez (who describes how he "couldn't understand a word" of the Beehive screenplay, but played the role of Ana's father because he needed the work), and another with scholar Linda C. Ehrlich, who astutely discusses the film's visual qualities (including its warm color palette and the influence of Vermeer's paintings on Erice's sunlit interiors), the significance of Frankenstein to the story, and the qualities that made The Spirit of the Beehive both timely (in terms of its sociopolitical context) and timeless. The accompanying booklet contains an informative essay on the lasting influence of Erice's film, including the startling revelation that Erice (as of 2006) had directed only two more feature-length films (El Sur and the documentary Dream of Light) since The Spirit of the Beehive was released in 1973. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - The Perfect Child's-eye perspective
A wide-eyed little girl in Spain c. 1940 tries to make sense of adult issues, including the quietly unhappy marriage of her parents and the abstraction of death. For her everything - starting with a viewing of James Whale's Frankenstein - has magical significance, and everything connects. She has an older sister, further along the road to self-knowledge and loss of innocence; the younger one is only at the very beginning of that road.
Beehive is an absolutely accomplished portrayal of a child's perspective on the world as a numinous place. To be so young is to live inside a series ... Read More
Rating: - Through Ana's eyes: a masterpiece of childhood
Every once in a while I stumble upon a masterpiece. This is a masterpiece of childhood set in Franco's Spain in 1940. There are political allusions and asides that somehow escaped Franco's censors, or maybe they were indulged. It matters not because the bleak landscape surrounding the house with its honeycombed windows and its honey colored light says more than words could.
I would compare this favorably with two other masterpieces of childhood, the French films, Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games) (1952), and Ponette (1996) What is explored in all three of these films is the reality ... Read More
Rating: - don't get stung
I should start by saying that before seeing this film I knew nothing about Spanish cinema. And now that I have seen it I feel I know even less. I bought the DVD (a mistake) because I respect the Criterion Collection and the blurb on the back of the box made it sound interesting (also I had a discount coupon burning a hole in my pocket). There is no point in giving away the plot - which is quite sparse. The acting by the two little girls is very good. Audiences should be warned that there is an unpleasant scene involving a house cat. I don't know how many million people were killed in the Spanish Civil ... Read More
Rating: - One of those "cinematic treasures" that broke my concentration
Sorry, I bought this and tried to appreciate it. The Spirit of the Beehive is widely regarded as a supreme classic in Spanish film literature. Plus I love Criterion films, but this time I just couldn't catch the significance. It's set in Spain 1940, where a young girl watches the classic movie Frankenstein and becomes entranced by the memory of it. And, uh well, that's pretty much it. The narrative simmers around her outlook and imagination as that character is engrained deeply in her mind. This movie is beautifully shot, but there just isn't much going on. I really like slow paced movies, ... Read More
Rating: - Forbidden Game
"The Spirit of the Beehive" (1973), an impressive cinematic debut by Victor Erice is a poignant study of a human isolation and fragile innocence. It is also about power of film, and its ability to affect and even change a life of a child. While watching the film, we can relieve our own childhood movie experiences and our own fascination and readiness for miracle to happen. At the same time, "The Spirit of the Beehive" is a thoughtful commentary on the tragedy of Spanish Civil War. Eight-year-old Ana Torrent gives an unforgettable performance as Ana, a lonely, quiet, dreamy little girl with wide-open dark sad ... Read More
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