The Spirit of the Beehive
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
Collector's Set
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
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
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Edition introduction to The Spirit of the Beehive
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