color of mysticism

Tina 2022-12-05 17:57:01

A surreal artwork full of mysticism. Victor Ellis' mastery of color is top-notch, which has been shown to the world in "South". And this film is more obscure and dreamy than "South". In the period of Franco's dictatorship, under the depressing living environment and the family relationship that is detached, the childhood past is full of melancholy and curiosity. Unlike childhood films about sunshine, this childhood is haunted by ugly Frankensteins, poisonous mushrooms, empathic mothers, silent fathers who study the hive, and soldiers who are shot to death. This eccentric family temperament is quite the shadow of "South", but the depressing atmosphere is more than that.

In 1940, a projection car drove into a village in the Castilian Plateau. In the humble cinema, Anna and her sister Isabel were attentively watching "Frankenstein" shown on the screen. Their father was madly obsessed with his new hive, with windows built in the shape of a beehive, and the light in the room yellowed like honey. My mother would always write letters to a mysterious guy. The letters were full of missing words. Obviously, the parents had long since separated from each other, which is very similar to "Southern". One of the joys of a father is taking his two daughters to pick mushrooms and teaching them to identify poisonous mushrooms. Anna has always been involved in the plot of Frankenstein's movies, and Isabel imagines to Anna that an isolated brick house on the wasteland is the haunt of Frankenstein. She took Anna to the brick house, but did not see Frankenstein. Since then, Anna will always come to check the brick house from time to time, and at home, Isabel will play dead in front of Anna, and they will play the game of jumping over the flames in the yard. Soon after, Anna saw the soldiers who had fled to the brick house to avoid being pursued. Anna gave the soldier food and his father's clothes to keep out the cold, but in the end the soldier was shot and killed by pursuers at night. In the morgue, the father saw the dead soldier in his clothes and took his pocket watch from his pocket. That night, Anna ran out of the village alone. While everyone was looking for her, Anna saw Frankenstein by the river...

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Extended Reading
  • Denis 2022-06-22 18:36:37

    Rewatch. An absolute debut that cannot be imitated. The kind of quiet and heavy oil painting-like texture and suffocating composition, the kind of fan cultivation that cites film knowledge and principles, the kind that captures the intuitive sensibilities of children, pure and even evil. That kind of opening a crack in reality in the fictional ring structure, like the eyes of a little girl shining in the darkness of the cinema, the most miraculous moment of the movie.

  • Laurine 2022-06-22 14:16:04

    Rewatch. Mysterious and thrilling, the most terrifying moment in the world is the moment when a child realizes death. Fingers touch mushrooms, sparks burst, gunfire and Frankenstein by the water. The honeycomb window frame is the prison of the adult world, confining the innocence that destroys overnight and never can be traced into the honey and wax of time.

The Spirit of the Beehive quotes

  • Ana: [about a mountain where a lot of mushrooms grow] Why don't we go there?

    Fernando: It's too far, we would never make it with you weaklings. We will go sometime.

  • Isabel: Take the brush and you wash your face with it. Then put soap on it.

    Ana: [lathers up her face] Then I shave off all my little hairs?

    Isabel: [laughs] Yes. Then when you're done you put on cologne.