One of the most famous films to have ever been produced in Spain is called The Spirit of the Beehive (El Espíritu de la Colmena). It is an utterly fascinating film. Deep, deep symbolism, and I will not try to summarize it here, but suffice it to say some elements involved are Frankenstein’s monster, little girls, a belief in the power of stories and spirits, a remote village in rural Spain, hope in the face of intolerable situations, and a looking at life and wondering if we are much better than the bees who work and work and produce and produce, and then drop dead. What is there to life?
Many of the actors appearing in the film could not make sense of the script, but they needed the money and followed the director’s direction. Even the film board under Franco could not make sense of the film, allowed it to be produced believing that it would bomb at the box office. But people started making connections between Franco—Frankenstein, the role of a freedom fighter, etc. I was shocked to see that it had been filmed in color. I think it probably would have been far more powerful in black and white.
