June 30 - Víctor Erice

Happy 80th Birthday, Víctor Erice! Born today in 1940 as Víctor Erice Aras, this Spanish writer and film director is best known for his two feature fiction films, which many regard as one of the greatest Spanish films ever made. 

 

These include the 1973 Spanish drama/fantasy film 'El espíritu de la colmena' ('The Spirit of the Beehive) and the 1983 Spanish/French drama/romance film 'El Sur' ('The South'). 

Of these, Erice is best known for co-creating the story, co-writing and directing the former feature. Today, the film id Erice's debut and is considered a masterpiece of Spanish cinema. 

 

In an allegory of life after Gen. Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War, life in a remote village in the 1940s is calm and uneventful.  

 

Two little girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and her older sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) sees James Whale's 1931 American pre-Code black and white science-fiction horror film "Frankenstein" at a mobile cinema. Afterwards, Ana starts wandering the countryside in search of this kind creature. 

 

The Spirit of the Beehive' also explores Ana's family life and schooling. The film has been called a "bewitching portrait of a child’s haunted inner life". 

 

Many have noted the symbolism present throughout the film, as an artistic choice, and a way Erice avoided the censors.  

 

Despite censors in Spain, which was under the Franco regime at the time of its making and release, the film still manages to symbolically portray Spanish life under Gen. Franco’s rule. 

 

And while censors were alarmed by some of the film’s suggestive content about the fascist regime, they allowed it to be released in Spain, based on its success abroad, and the assumption that most of the public would have no real interest in seeing “a slow-paced, thinly-plotted and ‘arty’ picture. 

 

Erice’s work on 'The Spirit of the Beehive' would eventually influence the work of Mexican filmmaker, author, actor, and former special effects makeup artist Guillermo del Toro on his own films.  

 

Most notably, these included his 2001 Mexican/Spanish gothic horror/drama film 'El espinazo del diablo' ('The Devil's Backbone') and the 2006 Mexican/Spanish/French/American fantasy/war film 'El laberinto del fauno' ('Pan's Labyrinth').  

 

Both of these films particularly feature the recurring idea of children believing in and acting on beliefs about imaginary worlds around this period of Spain’s history. 

 

In 2017, American executive editor of newyorker.com Jessica Winter in the 2006 biographical film criticism book The Rough Guide to Film wrote of Erice.  

 

She said, "The sole complaint one can make against Víctor Erice is actually a high compliment: the man simply doesn't work often enough.  

 

From his epochal start more than thirty years ago, Erice has made a grand total of three features, each a pensive, richly suggestive masterpiece."  

 

Erice had been active from 1969–2012. 

 

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