The Spirit of the Beehive

Michael George

11/17/2010

The Spirit of the Beehive

Director: Victor Erice

Total Running Time: 01:37:00

Language: Spanish

Awards: "Silver Hugo," Chicago International Film Festival

     The Spirit of the Beehive is a Spanish film that was directed by Victor Erice in 1973. This film follows two young girls as they experience life together. Their lives are shaped by a traveling movie theatre that comes to town and shows the original Frankenstein film. The girls almost become obsessed with finding him after they believe he is haunting a small house in a deserted field. I really can't think of any specific theory that this film would fall into. Judging by the content of the film and background information provided in class about the director, I would guess that this is an auteristic film. During the time period showcased in The Spirit of the Beehive there was a lot of political termoil going on in Spain, mostly between two groups known as the Republicans and the Nationalists. As mentioned in class, many have speculated that each girl in the film represents a different side of the political debate in the country at that time. I think choices that he made in this film with casting, music, scene selection, and themes points that this is an auteristic film, as this all molds together to showcase his vision of the film.

     The two articles I chose for this journal entry can be seen here and here. The first article is a film review from a scholarly source, but it mentions things that I thought were important to mention. Firstly, the copy of The Spirit of the Beehive that most possess now is actually slightly different than the one that was originally released in the mid-1970s. Apparently as cencership strains began to losen up after cinema returned to the country, a different version was created. It's not mentioned how different the two versions are, but I'm guessing their is nothing too earth shattering or we'd all know about it. Secondly, the article mentions the theme of regression; regression being the act of trying to return to a previous state.

     The second article mentions the way in which the film plays down serious issues. The article cites the distant gunfire and the mother's maybe-scandal as being played down more than they should have. The word being used here is subtle. The children are fascinated, almost in their own little world, and don't seem to pay that much attention to important things. Isn't the usual response to gunfire to be to run? Isn't the usual response to a cheating scandal to me to question why? There is an apparent darkness to this film that the writer of the second source says creates a mesmorizing quality. Also mentioned here is that the beehive in the father's office was a metaphor for the repetitive nature of humans.

     In relating the two sources to the movie, it is noticable that the two sources both seem to have a different take on the same movie. This is ironic at best because The Spirit of the Beehive is a film about opposing worlds, opposing political views. The articles share the same values as the movie, but seem to play particular attention to certain themes than others. Both sources mention the history of Spain, which is fundamentally what fueled this movie to begin with. Both sources also cite Ana as the main character, although I would personally give both girls equal value to the film. If each girl represents a different stand, each girl is equally important to driving the plot forward. The second article mentions the repetitiveness of humans. I guess this is applical to the theme of war or how the mother get's up every morning to send a letter, but aside from that I don't share the same believe on that theme.

     I guess this film was allright. I don't really have an opinion on it either way. I think it would have been a short film at best, and dragged or was very repetitive at points. There were a lot of fluff scenes that I didn't get and left me questioning whether or not those scenes were important. The biggest thing I thought during this movie was, "Wow, these girls are creepy." Am I the only one who thought they were creepy? It was mentioned that Isabelle was the creepy one, but Ana would just randomly stare off at things. I'm more than likely she'll snap at some point in her life. I thought that the soldier was going to kill one of the girls at one point, since one of the biggest plot points in Frankenstein is when he accidently kills a lilttle girl. I'll give The Spirit of the Beehive some points for not being completely transparent and predictable.

SOURCES:
"The Spirit of The Beehive." A.O. Scott. NY Times. 27 January 2006. http://movies.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/movies/27beeh.html
"The Spirit of The Beehive." Row Three. 31 August 2009.