Spirit Of The Beehive Victor Erice 1975

Discussion Questions

How are the themes of isolation and alienation represented visually in the film? Why is the film set in the middle of no where’?

Why does Ana make friends with and evoke the spirit of Frankenstein? Discuss the many ways in which this image is portrayed in the film. What commentary is Erice making on the human condition’?

How many ways is the myth of Frankenstein alluded to The Father (Beekeeper) The Mannequin, the Film, and the Fugitive. Recall the beekeeper suit neatly hung on the coat rack as the Father (a scientist ie: Dr Frankenstein) prepares to write in his study. Or the headphones as he listens to the crystal radio set.

What is the significance of Ana placing los ojos’ on the mannequin?

Consider the use of sympathetic magic when Ana places her foot inside the footprint of the monster’ Is she evoking the spirit of Frankenstein?

Consider the analogy of the Beehive and its artificial habitat, to the house with its empty rooms.

The use of the Long Take often evoke a mood or feeling, a sort of languishing in no man’s’ land. It also has a poetic feel exploring the vistas and bleak landscapes. Contrast this with certain uses of the Close Up, where Erice purposely disorients the viewer. The shot of the Mother in Bed while the husband undresses. She feigns sleep, then s her eyes, but never to face him, never to include him in the frame. Instead his only presents are the muffled sounds of him undressing. Does not this suggest isolation, not only between husband and wife but you the viewer are left out of the picture’ unable to connect on any visceral or emotional level.

Mise en Scene is carefully crafted in the empty house, the long corridors etc all of this may convey an emptiness, an emotional vacuum, perhaps giving rise to Ana’s disturbing preoccupation with the monster’

When Ana calls into the well and dances around it she is performing a ritual, one that alludes to ancient folklore and the evocation of the spirits of the underworld.

The image of the blood on the lips is a provocative one. Is Isabel kissing evil, or using the blood in some ritual (satanic?) albeit naïve, blood on the lips. How might this reinforce her telling the lies to her sister and setting something dark and sinister in motion? Why the black cat?