Tuesday, May 28* @ 7:30 PM / NEIU — The Auditorium at NEIU — 3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Tickets: $10 at the door
THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
Directed by Víctor Erice • 1973
In Spanish with English subtitles
In a remote Castilian village, circa 1940, an itinerant film projectionist presents a screening of the 1931 Universal Pictures classic Frankenstein. In the audience are two young sisters, Isabel (Isabel Tellería) and Ana (Spanish film icon Ana Torrent in her first screen appearance). Their encounter with James Whale’s celluloid monster will imbue their experiences in the subsequent days with a mysterious and phantasmal power, particularly Ana’s discovery of a wounded revolutionary from the recently defeated Spanish Republican Army. Víctor Erice began his career as a filmmaker in the waning days of Spain’s Nationalist regime, when the heavy censorship exerted over film production began to loosen and artists began to tentatively and obliquely approach the political oppression of recent Spanish history. The Spirit of the Beehive, Erice’s first feature, would become perhaps the most indelible work of film art produced during the course of the Franco dictatorship, as well as a major cult item for cinephiles of all stripes: at turns wondrous, enigmatic, unnerving, and heartrending. With rapturously beautiful cinematography courtesy of the nearly blind Luis Cuadrado. (CW)
98 min • Elías Querejeta Producciones Cinematográficas • 35mm from Janus Films
Preceded by: Selected cartoon
*this screening was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 22. Please note the date change!
NEXT UP: Children of the Beehive on Wednesday, June 5 at NEIU