The Spirit of the Beehive
![The Spirit of the Beehive](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/9ed25eb19c6d6f400c5a26266cb9ddc9/38WjZ61t2cZ8MZD8xKLCTaUHbpVeAf_large.jpg)
Criterion is proud to present Víctor Erice’s spellbinding The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena), widely regarded as the greatest Spanish film of the 1970s. In a small Castilian village in 1940, in the wake of the country's devastating civil war, six-year-old Ana attends a traveling movie show of Frankenstein and becomes possessed by the memory of it. Produced as Franco’s long regime was nearing its end, The Spirit of the Beehive is a bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life and one of the most visually arresting movies ever made.
Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- The Footprints of a Spirit, a documentary featuring director Víctor Erice, producer Elías Querejeta, coscreenwriter Ángel Fernández-Santos, and actor Ana Torrent
- Víctor Erice in Madrid, an interview with the director
- Interview with film scholar Linda Ehrlich
- Interview with actor Fernando Fernán Gómez
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith
New cover by Michael Boland
Collector's Sets
Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- The Footprints of a Spirit, a documentary featuring director Víctor Erice, producer Elías Querejeta, coscreenwriter Ángel Fernández-Santos, and actor Ana Torrent
- Víctor Erice in Madrid, an interview with the director
- Interview with film scholar Linda Ehrlich
- Interview with actor Fernando Fernán Gómez
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith
New cover by Michael Boland
![The Spirit of the Beehive](https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/9ed25eb19c6d6f400c5a26266cb9ddc9/38WjZ61t2cZ8MZD8xKLCTaUHbpVeAf_large.jpg)
Cast
- Ana Torrent
- Ana
- Isabel Tellería
- Isabel
- Fernando Fernán Gómez
- Fernando
- Teresa Gimpera
- Teresa
- Queti de la Cámara
- Milagros
Credits
- Director
- Víctor Erice
- Cinematography
- Luís Cuadrado
- Editing
- Pablo G. del Amo
- Screenplay
- Àngel Fernández Santos
- Producer
- Elías Querejeta
- Screenplay
- Víctor Erice
Edition introduction to The Spirit of the Beehive
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