The Spirit of the Beehive

BRILLIANTAMAZINGHAUNTINGWONDERFULSTUNNINGGORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL.







Dir. Victor Erice (Spain 1973)

Any words here cannot do this film justice. This is film is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. The story, the performances, and the cinematography were all impeccable.

The film takes place in 1940 (after the Spanish Civl War) and is centered around the two young girls of a disjointed family. Ana, the younger of the sisters, is an adorable little girl whose world unravels quietly and darkly after viewing Frankenstein with her sister at a traveling cinema.

At just five years old, Ana Torrent delivers an extraordinary performance. The viewer feels the same suspense and fear as she escapes into the forest and sees her reflection turn into Frankenstein's. The fear and curiosity in her eyes can be easily and completely absorbed. Apparently, she wasn't only acting, but she was also living in the world of the film. Her reactions to Frankenstein are completely genuine, since Erice captures her as she views the film for the first time.

And the cinematography, OH GOD the cinematography! To begin with, (as over-used as this is) every single shot is like a beautifully composed photograph. Beautiful golden tones are used throughout the film to aid the allusion to the beehive, and even the windows of the house have a hexagonal pattern. Frames contain vast empty landscapes and desolate imagery. In fact, I want to call this a minimalist film because of the economical dialogue, clean lines, and white space in the framing (oh boy do I like white space). Every word spoken had incredible weight to it because of the small amount of dialogue, but it was something I really appreciated- to receive only the essential dose of phonetic information. The visuals were vital in setting the mood and communicating the somewhat difficult-to-decipher story. To top it off the film's cinematographer was going blind during the making of the film!

BRILLIANTAMAZINGHAUNTINGWONDERFULSTUNNINGGORGEOUSBEAUTIFUL.