The Spirit of the Beehive
Studio: The Criterion Collection
Rated: NOT RATED
WorkNameSort: Spirit of the Beehive, The
Victor Erice’s 1973 film is often dubbed the high point of Spanish cinema, but it’s also one of the most elegant and emotionally engaging movies made in the last 50 years anywhere. Utilizing changing viewpoints and bits of improvisational acting, Erice lets this intimate drama unfold on its own terms. The desolate, harrowing backdrops of post’Civil War Spain naturally contrast with the warm, earthy tones of the story and cinematography. There’s much more to the story than just the story, the tale of a 6-year-old’s reaction to the movie Frankenstein. The delicate and unforced way that Erice draws correlations between the destruction of war and the terrors of childhood is breathtaking in its allegorical efficacy. For Beehive‘s U.S. DVD debut, Criterion pulled out all the stops; a masterful transfer captures the film-stock nuances that Erice manipulated to marvelous effect, while an entire second disc is devoted to extras, most notably the fantastic documentary The Footprints of a Spirit, in which Erice himself weighs in on his masterpiece.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2006.