Average Rating: 8.9/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.8/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 5,697
Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's
Jan 27, 2006 Limited
Sep 19, 2006
Janus Films
All Critics (22) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (0) | DVD (8)
It's a film that transports us back not just to the sights and sounds of childhood but to a core of sweet innocence and sometimes ignorant bliss.
This is a modest marvel of grace and framing that unfolds with the patience of a cloud and is driven more by wonder than pure emotion.
Those who haven't seen it since the '70s may find themselves amazed all over again by its lyrical potency and grace; those who have never seen it may wonder how it can be that a film this great isn't shown somewhere all the time.
Takes place at the particular intersection of reality and fantasy defined by youthful moviegoing.
Ana Torrent gives perhaps the greatest child performance of all time.
... the finest and most beautifully wrought first film of the European '70s, a mysterious crucible as elusive, concrete, and visually primal as anything by Herzog, Straub, Olmi, or Denis.
A most exceptional vision of the inner life of a child just learning about the darker complexities of life.
Considered by many as one of the key Spanish films of the Seventies.
...a graceful, lyrical masterpiece wound around one of the most natural and engrossing performances by a child actor we've ever seen.
A haunting, atmospheric film that focuses on a young girl's obsession with the Frankenstein monster.
filmmaking art of the highest caliber.
Erice meant his film as a sly social commentary, but his opinions are so well enveloped in the film's dreamy coming-of-age tapestry that moviegoers worldwide (especially younger ones) have embraced it.
Screening in a new print so pristine you forget that this film is 33 years old, Spirit of the Beehive sweeps you into its quiet world.
Ana's fearful, credulous eyes are as wide as the flat Castilian horizon, striated by clouds and railroad tracks, which reach beyond the known world.
If only they had better monster makeup. I jest - wonderful film.
April 3, 2007Super Reviewer
A young person learning about death is universal, but here in Spirit of the Beehive it's filtered into a very specific situation: a girl coming to grips with mortality in the shadow of the Spanish Civil War, through a viewing of James Whale's Frankenstein. Perhaps not the most relatable set of circumstances, Victor
May 24, 2011Super Reviewer
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