Spirit of the Beehive director Victor Erice’s 1950s-set drama is an intimate study of a girl’s attempts to fathom out – and forgive – her father
Related: El Sur: the unfinished Spanish drama that’s perfect the way it is
Here’s a vivid rediscovery. Ten years after 1973’s now canonical The Spirit of the Beehive, Victor Erice made this richly rewarding 1950s-set drama, which feels very much like an extension of its predecessor’s chief narrative concern – a child’s curiosity about a figure who might be a giant, a monster, or merely a man. Rather than Frankenstein’s creature, eight-year-old Estrella (Sonsoles Aranguren) is beholden to a charismatic doctor father (Omero Antonutti) who divines water between unexplained spells in seclusion. He could represent any number of patrician leaders, but Erice’s handling proves more intimate than allegorical, beckoning us into Vermeer-like compositions – and the cinema once again...
Related: El Sur: the unfinished Spanish drama that’s perfect the way it is
Here’s a vivid rediscovery. Ten years after 1973’s now canonical The Spirit of the Beehive, Victor Erice made this richly rewarding 1950s-set drama, which feels very much like an extension of its predecessor’s chief narrative concern – a child’s curiosity about a figure who might be a giant, a monster, or merely a man. Rather than Frankenstein’s creature, eight-year-old Estrella (Sonsoles Aranguren) is beholden to a charismatic doctor father (Omero Antonutti) who divines water between unexplained spells in seclusion. He could represent any number of patrician leaders, but Erice’s handling proves more intimate than allegorical, beckoning us into Vermeer-like compositions – and the cinema once again...
- 9/15/2016
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
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