A review of the classic Spanish film “The Spirit Of The Beehive” (1973)
This Spanish-language film is the archetypical art house product and critics adore it. It is very, very slow and very, very opaque and I confess that I found it hard work, although I admired the haunting cinematography with its stark terrains and muted colours.It was director Victor Erice’s first film and the key to its opacity is that it was filmed and set in a small Castillian town during the later days of the Franco dictatorship. So everything is a metaphor – not least the beehive which is probably an allusion to the mindless droning of Spaniards forced to comply with the demands of a queen bee.
All the characters in the story have the same name as the actors playing them, which apparently was to assist the two young girl actors Isabel and Ana who are frankly remarkable.