Spirit of the Beehive - Criterion Collection (1973)

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 of childhood that we have forgotten, the intensity of first knowledge, of things experienced for the first time, the wonder and the horror that such experiences may contain. But more than that there is the unconditioned sense of life that the child experiences. When Ana sees the fugitive (from Franco, one imagines) who has injured his leg jumping off the train, she immediately knows what is essential in this situation. The man is hurt. He is hungry. He needs help. She gives him an apple from her lunch pail, which he eagerly devours. Although she has been scared by a Frankenstein movie and her sister's pretence of death and gloved hands around her face, she is not afraid.

This is the most laconic of films. Almost everything is done with the camera and the events. The children laugh and play and watch the world with wonder. They say a few words, direct and to the point. Six year old Ana (Ana Torrent) has dark eyes as big as saucers which she trains on the world as if to bore into the very nature of existence. Her older sister Isabel's eyes sometimes form slits of mischief or delight as she tests reality or teases her sister.

The pace of the film is deliberately slow. The essay by famed Spanish film expert Paul Julian Smith contained in the booklet accompanying the Criterion Collection two-disc set includes Smith's remark that when the film was first shown in San Sebastian in 1973 where it won the main prize, "Some of the audience, restless at the film's slow pace, even booed."

There is a technique in the theater, not so much observed today, that also works well in movies. Slow it down, begin with everyday, mundane events, and play them long like honey slowly oozing, so much the better to contrast with the events to come, and give those events the contrast they deserve as they have in real life. Director Victor Erice does this to fine effect. How drawn out seem the lessons at school, and how tedious. But such is the life of a child when every day is a little eternity, where so much happens that when the lights go out, the child falls into a deep, dreamless sleep for many hours at a stretch. We have forgotten this world of the child, but Erice reminds us.

I was not restless because, although the pace is indeed slow, the cinematography by Luis Cuadrado and the terse silent events of innocence set against the background of the late Spanish Civil War portended events to come. Just what those events might be it was impossible to guess; however it was clear there would be no compromise with audience expectations or any catering to any sort of correctness, political or otherwise. And this is part of what makes a great film.

Character, story, suspense, an important theme, beautiful visuals, truth--artistic truth of course, psychological human truth--and attention to detail: these are also what make a great film. And they are all here in El espíritu de la colmena.

Erice plays with our emotions of course. We are nearly terrified that something is going to happen to these beautiful little girls, and indeed once or twice it appears that our worst fears are realized. Are they or are they not?

It is said that Ana was traumatized by viewing the Frankenstein movie and by her sister's horrid joke, and then by the blood she sees in the old building by the well where the fugitive had rested. But I think it would be better to say that Ana was challenged by new-found knowledge of the ever close proximity of death, and in reaction she ran away into her own world to find an answer. Notice how the scene from James Wales' Frankenstein in which the monster kneels beside the water with the little girl is repeated in Ana's fantasy, and how she looks at the monster with big, wide-open, questioning, waiting eyes. What is life, and what is death? And, know this: I will always live in fear and dread if I do not know what they are and if cannot face them.

When she encounters the Frankenstein monster at the water's edge she has only her beauty to protect her. But that beauty resides in our head--in Frankenstein's head--and so she is safe. This is part of the deep psychology of the film, wondrously achieved, perhaps part by art and part by happenstance.

I believe that is what Ana experienced in her mind. But we do not know. We do not know the mind of the child. And we have forgotten what it is to be a child. Erice's masterpiece helps us to remember.

There is a documentary about the film on the second disc with interviews with Erice and with Angel Fernandez Santos who worked with Erice on the script, and others. We see Ana Torrent all grown up, which is what I most wanted to see. And we learn how the film was made. A masterpiece, it is my belief, whether it is in cinema or literature, in chess or music, or in some other art form always brings together unconscious elements that fuse with conscious intent. It is only later that we recognize what happened.
April 20, 2008

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 War; not a single one of those deaths upsets me because they are just abstractions. But when you hurt a cat you stroke my fur the wrong way. The movie takes place after this war and references to it are indirect and (to an ignorant foreigner like me) rather obscure. I have read some of the other reviews here and it amazes me that some people love this film. I suppose with love there are no explanations. If you still are thinking about seeing this film, rent it but don't buy it. I hope that you can find meanings in it which are apparently beyond my simple view.
March 14, 2008

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, but I need a little something to hold my interest. This movie takes place after the country's devastating civil war, which I tried to factor in.
Overall, this is a unique film that will require some patience. Any comments or insight anyone has will be greatly appreciated. February 9, 2008

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 eyes who enters the world of fantasy when she sees the famous 1931 film "Frankenstein". Ana becomes obsessed with Boris Karloff's good -bad monster, is convinced that he actually exists, and tries to find him. As her obsession grows, the world of her imagination becomes more and more real for her and most of the film's events take place inside her mind. "The Spirit of the Beehive" may be one of few most haunting films about childhood ever made, and it stands very close to Rene Clement's "Forbidden Games" (1951) - another disturbing exploration of the war and how it affects the gentlest, the weakest, and the most innocent - the children.
4.5/5

January 24, 2008

Mysterious and allusive

I find it hard to make a coherent description of this movie because it operates in such an offbeat and allusive way. What is it? A supernatural story? An exercise in cinematography? A potpourri of suggestive ideas? As one reviewer suggests, a cry against tyranny?

Having just seen it, and reflecting a little, I think the "cry against tyranny" has a lot to do with it. That title, that scene-setting in a bee-keeper's world: the opening scenes where Fernando examines his little creatures and transfers a comb from one position to another: what an apt metaphor for undiluted power. With the honeycomb-patterned windows in the house, and - there's no other word, "honey"-colored stone of the buildings, we never forget that all the little busy-ness of our daily life may be subject to forces outside our control, either human or - perhaps - deeper or higher. Incidentally, on the "beehive" theme, isn't the scene of the children flocking in groups into the door of the big rectangular school irresistibly reminiscent of bees returning to the hive?

But I am left with questions. Did Ana really see Frankenstein's monster (= a spook movie?) or was it all fantasy?- the latter, I think. And what no-one else seems to have mentioned, was the fugitive sheltering in the old building Laura's lover, escaped and trying to return to see her? She certainly had to exert tremendous self-control after his death, though there is admittedly no indication that she got to see the body. But she burned the letter she was going to send...or was that just a realization that ancient fantasies are not good to hold on to, after Ana's disaster?

Much to ponder. November 3, 2007

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