Directed by Víctor Erice.
Starring Fernando Fernán Gómez and Teresa Gimpera.
Starring Fernando Fernán Gómez and Teresa Gimpera.
In a Nutshell: A girl becomes transfixed by the film Frankenstein and seeks its spirit.
A withdrawn little girl named Ana (Ana Torrent) watches James Whale’s Frankenstein in her post-Spanish Civil War town. One of the film’s most famous moments depicts the monster drowning a little girl before he is burned alive. Later that night, the little girl obsessively asks her sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) about the monster; "Why did he kill her, and why did they kill him later?" only to hear that everything was staged for the camera. But the sister decides to then trick her into believing the monster is real and Ana can summon his spirit to an abandoned barn. The story is total nonsense, but Ana’s sudden consciousness of death has already taken hold. She calls the monster’s spirit, coinciding with a Republican soldier’s refuge in the barn.
A withdrawn little girl named Ana (Ana Torrent) watches James Whale’s Frankenstein in her post-Spanish Civil War town. One of the film’s most famous moments depicts the monster drowning a little girl before he is burned alive. Later that night, the little girl obsessively asks her sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) about the monster; "Why did he kill her, and why did they kill him later?" only to hear that everything was staged for the camera. But the sister decides to then trick her into believing the monster is real and Ana can summon his spirit to an abandoned barn. The story is total nonsense, but Ana’s sudden consciousness of death has already taken hold. She calls the monster’s spirit, coinciding with a Republican soldier’s refuge in the barn.
Ana’s pursuit of the monster’s spirit conveys her understanding of the world’s lies to a small child. The movie, her parent’s unstable relationship, and the incriminating identity of “the monster” are all deceptions. Once her ruthless father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) discovers the soldier, Ana’s innocent worldview is torn to shreds. No longer can her childhood perception disguise life’s cruelty and Ana retreats to the wilderness. But even nature does not offer solace, its hidden treachery revealed earlier by a father’s dutiful walk with his daughters.
There is a quiet social commentary to Ana’s non-conformity (a jab at Francisco Franco's rule over Spain), but Spirit of the Beehive is more effective in portraying the melancholy of growing up. The golden-hued Spanish landscape (shot by Luis Cuadrado) is both a world of quiet beauty and daunting expansiveness. Ana’s days consist of routine events that director Víctor Erice magnifies to capture a child’s fascination. But it is Torrent who is the centerpiece. Her fragile beauty and solemn expressions create a presence of fearlessness and naivety. Through her eyes, we can recognize a child’s helplessness to the world’s harshness and the power of own distortions. We leave Ana unguarded by her new worldview, unable to comfort herself with imagination. With Spirit of the Beehive, sometimes our earliest lessons become the hardest.
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