Spirit of the Beehive March 24, 2006

It's 1940 in a small Castilian village. Two girls catch a screening of FRANKENSTEIN in the town hall, and Isabel explains to her curious younger sister Ana that the Monster is really a spirit � a spirit that, she claims, often visits her. The film perfectly captures the pleasant rhythms of childhood in the countryside, and the painful discoveries of growing up, as it reveals the quiet turmoil surrounding the girls. FRANKENSTEIN has left a huge, unspoken influence on Ana, and the Monster, as conceived by this observant, innocent little girl, becomes a curious presence in her world. Featuring what critic Andrew Sarris calls "perhaps the greatest child performance of all time," this first feature from director Victor Erice is widely regarded as one of the finest films to ever come out of Spain and was selected as one of the 20th Century's 100 Greatest Films in a TIME OUT poll of critics, programmers and filmmakers. In Spanish with English subtitles.

"[AN] EXTRAORDINARY FILM...Impossible to forget! The story that emerges from [Erice's] lovely, lovingly considered images is at once lucid and enigmatic, poised between adult longing and childlike eagerness, sorrowful knowledge and startled innocence." � A. O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES

"The most enchanting and purest poem to childhood in modern cinema." �Nicolas Rapold, NEW YORK SUN