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The Spirit of the Beehive, 1973
Ana (Ana Torrent) is a little girl living in rural Spain in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Ana lives with her older sister Isabel (Isabel Telleria), her beekeeping-obsessed father (Fernando Gomez), and her mother (Teresa Gimpera). After a traveling show screens Frankenstein, Ana finds her world transformed into a mix of reality and superstition.
I just loved this.
From the get go, Ana, with her brown, wide calf's eyes, seems like a character who was always meant to see things differently. When Isabel introduces her to the idea of invisible spirits, Ana's imagination takes flight and you can practically see her synthesizing the events and ideas around her into her own personal mythology.
I think that this film does an excellent job of capturing that potent mix of fear, excitement, and fantasy that can capture a child's imagination. The wisest thing that the movie does it keep the events subdued. A lesson in basic anatomy in Ana's elementary school classroom goes from whimsical to horrifying when the teacher stands next to the eyeless anatomical model and asks Ana what is missing.
There was something really neat to me about the way that, from the start, Ana empathizes with Frankenstein's monster. You would think that the critical scene where the creature throws the little girl in the water would instill fear in Ana. But instead Ana retains her sympathy. After viewing the film, she wants to know why the creature killed the little girl and why the villagers killed the creature. Later when Ana stumbles on a wounded and hiding soldier, her instinct is to help protect him. I really loved this scene, and especially that the film takes the time to show the soldier's reaction of gratitude to her kindness. A lesser film would put all the emphasis on the sense of danger: is this man going to do something to Ana? But the film isn't about that. It's about how Ana processes what happens in the world around her.
The visuals alone are worth mentioning. Beautiful stretches of land, but all in a muted yellow and brown palate. And the family's house is layered with the father's love of bees, including gorgeous windows with a pattern that evokes honeycomb.
This was a really beautiful film on all levels. I did feel that the subplot about the mother writing letters to her lover was a little underdeveloped, and it didn't quite cohere with Ana's story as well as the subplot about the father's interest in the bees.
The Spirit of the Beehive, 1973
Ana (Ana Torrent) is a little girl living in rural Spain in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Ana lives with her older sister Isabel (Isabel Telleria), her beekeeping-obsessed father (Fernando Gomez), and her mother (Teresa Gimpera). After a traveling show screens Frankenstein, Ana finds her world transformed into a mix of reality and superstition.
I just loved this.
From the get go, Ana, with her brown, wide calf's eyes, seems like a character who was always meant to see things differently. When Isabel introduces her to the idea of invisible spirits, Ana's imagination takes flight and you can practically see her synthesizing the events and ideas around her into her own personal mythology.
I think that this film does an excellent job of capturing that potent mix of fear, excitement, and fantasy that can capture a child's imagination. The wisest thing that the movie does it keep the events subdued. A lesson in basic anatomy in Ana's elementary school classroom goes from whimsical to horrifying when the teacher stands next to the eyeless anatomical model and asks Ana what is missing.
There was something really neat to me about the way that, from the start, Ana empathizes with Frankenstein's monster. You would think that the critical scene where the creature throws the little girl in the water would instill fear in Ana. But instead Ana retains her sympathy. After viewing the film, she wants to know why the creature killed the little girl and why the villagers killed the creature. Later when Ana stumbles on a wounded and hiding soldier, her instinct is to help protect him. I really loved this scene, and especially that the film takes the time to show the soldier's reaction of gratitude to her kindness. A lesser film would put all the emphasis on the sense of danger: is this man going to do something to Ana? But the film isn't about that. It's about how Ana processes what happens in the world around her.
The visuals alone are worth mentioning. Beautiful stretches of land, but all in a muted yellow and brown palate. And the family's house is layered with the father's love of bees, including gorgeous windows with a pattern that evokes honeycomb.
This was a really beautiful film on all levels. I did feel that the subplot about the mother writing letters to her lover was a little underdeveloped, and it didn't quite cohere with Ana's story as well as the subplot about the father's interest in the bees.