(Víctor Erice, Spain, 1973, 35mm, 95 minutes)
Before Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth) or Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes), there was Víctor Erice.
While The Spirit of the Beehive isn't a conventional horror film or even a psychological thriller, it uses horror--specifically James Whale's 1931's Frankenstein--as a jumping-off point into a reckoning with Franco-era Spain wrapped in a story about the mysteries and wonders of childhood.
Erice's stunning debut would have a profound effect on Mexico's Del Toro, and I wouldn't be surprised if this dreamy, yet menacing movie didn't also serve as inspiration for Spanish filmmakers Amenábar and J.A. Bayona, whose work Del Toro has championed, especially 2007's The Orphanage.
Set in rural Spain in 1940, the film begins with a village screening of Whale's masterpiece. Afterwards, six-year-old Ana (soulful Ana Torrent, who will later appear in Amenábar's 1996 Tesis) asks sister Isabel (impish Isabel Telleria) why the monster killed the girl. Isabel tells her it's just a movie, then contradicts herself by claiming she's actually seen the monster or "spirit." Ana is more convinced by the second story than the first, and her world starts to echo that belief to the extent that she loses herself in it. It's only one echo among many; the film is full of them.
Their father, Fernando (Fernando Fernán Gómez), for instance, is a beekeeper and his study features a honeycomb-patterned window.
Is Erice suggesting, like A.S. Byatt in Angels and Insects, that these people are trapped by their biology--or their country's political regime? The question is left lingering in the air as other echoes, from both Frankenstein and the natural world that surrounds them--friendly dogs, creepy cats, poisonous mushrooms, etc.--build on top of each other.
Over the years, the elusive Erice, who has issued only three full-length features in over three decades, has been compared to everyone from Werner Herzog to Terrence Malick, but to my mind, The Spirit of the Beehive plays more like the film one-shot director Charles Laughton would have made had he moved to Spain, switched to honey-hued color stock, traded German Expressionism for magical realism, and made another film as miraculous as 1955's Night of the Hunter. Erice has done just that.
Over the years, the elusive Erice, who has issued only three full-length features in over three decades, has been compared to everyone from Werner Herzog to Terrence Malick, but to my mind, The Spirit of the Beehive plays more like the film one-shot director Charles Laughton would have made had he moved to Spain, switched to honey-hued color stock, traded German Expressionism for magical realism, and made another film as miraculous as 1955's Night of the Hunter. Erice has done just that.
The Spirit of the Beehive in a brand new 35mm print plays Mar 24-30, Fri-Thurs, at 7 and 9pm (Sat and Sun at 3pm) at the Northwest Film Forum. The NWFF is located at 1515 12th Ave. For more information, please click here. You can also call (206) 329-2629 for general information or (206) 267-5380 for show times. Images from the IMDb and Another Gaze.
No comments:
Post a Comment