Spirit of the Beehive

Keith Harper Jr.
The Spirit of the Beehive(1973)
Director: Víctor Erice
Total Running Time: 97 Min.
Awards: (1974) Cec Award (best Director, Film, Actor)
(1977) Premio ACE ( Best director, Actress)
Language: Spanish

This film, The Spirit of the Beehive, was very interesting. This film is about a young girl that lives in a small village in 1940 in spain shortyly after the civil war ended. The young girl, Ana, sees the movie "Frankenstein" with her older sister, Isabel, and finds it very interesting and wants to know more about the story. In The Spirit of the Beehive, it uses a lot of symbolism through the characters. The Bees represent the society under facism, Teresa represents hope, Ana represents the innocent republicans, and Isabel represents the powerful nationalists.

The first article was entitled "The Depth of a Child's Gaze" by Nicolas Rapold. In this article the writer explains the essence of the film dealing with "Spirit". And how Ana's older sister Isabel inflames her imagination with talks of spirits in an abandon barn, to late they discover a fugitive hiding out there. He also points out that the director is a admirer to silent films. That in this film he accomplishes to use minimum amount of dialogue, but his images speak volumes. The second article was entitled "The Spirit of the Beehive" by Noel Murray. Noel points out a few crucial points in the movie. Like the conversation they girls share with their father.Tihis conversation brings the girls to do some experimenting of their own.

The articles I read helped me understand the film even more. They both touched on things that I may of either missed watching the film or just did not understand during watching the film. They showed how the curiosity of two little girls can be seen as a heartwarming story. When the little girls are curious about the movie "Frankenstein" the other sister explains to her that, "Movies are all fake" and that those things could not happen. The director returns to how "Frankenstein" is "beautiful," because it reflects "the great mysteries of creation." From the articles they show that the film is meant to nudge adult viewers back to a childlike state and faintly confuse them. "Spirit" is also to been seen as death in the film, but darker mysteries still run together with life in Ana's experience.

I think this film was done very well but far to long and drawn out.That scene is the child in us all, the help we would like to give, but aren't always capable of doing. With that scene we see the pure heart of a child connecting with the her viewing of the movie "Frankenstein". The film was done very well since it was made during those times of Franco's dictatorship. But i guess when one has a story to tell time is not a factor. this is simply a must see.