1973 Spanish slow-paced drama film with lots of symbolisms and silences directed by Victor Erice (one of the only two full-length films he made) and produced by Elías Querejeta, originally titled El espíritu de la colmena. It stars Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, and a young Ana Torrent.
Set in a remote village in Segovia, Spain just after the end of the Spanish Civil War, the film follows six-year-old Ana, who, mesmerised by a travelling cinema screening of the 1931 film Frankenstein, begins a search for the gentle monster.
It was a major influence on Guillermo del Toro - The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth both have similar themes, particularly the latter in regards of the coming of age story of a young girl and the limits between fantasy and reality in a post-Civil War period.
It is on the Roger Ebert Great Movies List and was ranked 42nd on the List of Films You Should See By The Age of 14.
This film provides examples of:
- Art Imitates Art: When Ana runs away, the villagers search for her at night with flashlights, in a scene that echoes a scene from the 1931 Frankenstein.
- Call-Back: When running away from home, Ana comes across a poisonous mushroom, similar to the one her father warned her about in an earlier scene.
- Color Motif: A lot of yellow, which alludes to the implicit comparison between the beehive, and Spain itself (yellow being the predominant color of the Spanish flag).
- Comforting Comforter: In the second to last scene, Ana's father is shown asleep at his desk and her mother takes off his glasses and covers him with a jacket.
- Curtains Match the Window: Dark haired, dark eyed Ana.
- Faking the Dead: Isabel plays a prank on her sister by pretending to be dead.
- Free-Range Children: Ana and Isabel love to make escapades to the abandoned building, where the spirit is supposed to be living. Then it's Ana herself who makes escapades, especially when she makes good friends with a fugitive.
- Imaginary Friend: After watching Frankenstein, inspired by the ghost story of her sister, Ana becomes obsessed with the idea of befriending the imaginary monster.
- Let the Past Burn: Teresa apparently received a letter from her lover. She reads it, then throws it into the fire.
- Match Cut: From Ana's head lying on her pillow, the the fugitive soldier's head lying on his knapsack, in the same position, as the soldier sleeps in the abandoned farmhouse.
- No Ending: The movie has no conclusion, it ends with Ana talking to her Imaginary Friend.
- Once Upon a Time: Befitting the fairy tale theme, the movie opens with the words "Erase una vez", or the Spanish for "Once upon a time."
- Protected by a Child: The Republican fugitive is briefly sheltered by Ana.
- Shout-Out: Ana meeting the monster at the lake parallels the scene from Frankenstein.
- Skip of Innocence: Both Ana and Isabel.
- Trivial Title: The titular bees are only featured in one scene, though bee symbolism – like the hexagonal windows that look like honeycomb – is present elsewhere.
- Voiceover Letter: Ana's mother Teresa is seen writing a voiceover letter full of desperate longing to her old lover.
