Six Close Encounters 2017 / El espíritu de la colmena / Spain 1973
My love for The Spirit of the Beehive has been constant since my first year of university in Johannesburg, when it was shown to me on VHS by my film-obsessed Spanish teacher. Víctor Erice's shimmering, amber-lit masterpiece is cinema’s most poetic study of childhood imagination, how it is moulded and how it in turn moulds us forever… Bringing it to Karlovy Vary is akin to sharing a dream space.
Guy Lodge
For the better part of a decade, I’ve worked in London as a film critic for Variety, and attended a wealth of international festivals. It's a delightful job, but also a challenging one: your perspective on cinema is forever tested and expanded, and even some of your favourite films can change in your view. But my love for The Spirit of the Beehive has been constant since my first year of university in Johannesburg, when it was shown to me on VHS by my film-obsessed Spanish teacher. Víctor Erice's shimmering, amber-lit masterpiece is cinema’s most poetic study of childhood imagination, how it is moulded and how it in turn moulds us forever; by extension, it is one of the cinema's great odes to its own power, as it hooks and haunts its audience the way young Ana is changed by a projection of Frankenstein. Years later, I first saw it on a big screen in London's National Gallery, and its serene, eerie imagery burrowed further beneath my skin. Bringing it to Karlovy Vary is akin to sharing a dream space.
Guy Lodge
97 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Víctor Erice
/ Screenplay Francisco J. Querejeta
/ Dir. of Photography Luis Cuadrado
/ Music Luis de Pablo
/ Editor Pablo G. del Amo
/ Art Director Adolfo Cofino
/ Producer Elías Querejeta
/ Production Elías Querejeta Producciones Cinematográficas S. L., Jacel Desposito
/ Cast Ana Torrent, Isabel Telleria, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera
/ Sales Tamasa Distribution
/ Contact Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales
Víctor Erice (b. 1940, Carranza, Spain) first studied political economics before attending Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia in 1963 to study film direction. While at school he made a name for himself as a film critic and theoretician, and he began his professional moviemaking career as an assistant director. Thanks to producer Elías Querejeta he got a chance to direct his own work. He co-authored and directed a segment of the story showcase The Challenges (Los desafíos, 1969), awarded at the San Sebastián IFF. At the same fest in 1973 Erice took the Golden Shell for his feature debut The Spirit of the Beehive, which pits the poetic world of childhood fantasies against Franco’s totalitarianism. After a decade-long hiatus, the director came out with another esthetically elegant and stylized picture, El sur (1983), which also picked up a number of awards. Although shot at more extended intervals, he continues to make documentaries and features of varying lengths.
Tamasa Distribution
5 rue de Charonne, 75011, Paris
France
Phone: +33 143 590 101
E-mail: [email protected]
Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales
Plaza del Rey 1, 28004, Madrid
Spain
Phone: +34 917 017 000, +34 917 017 259
Fax: +34 917 017 394
E-mail: [email protected]
Guy Lodge
Film Critic, Journalist
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