Images from Spanish film, “The Spirit of the Beehive“. Which integrated eighteen year old Mary Shelley’s brilliant allegory on human nature, Frankenstein. Beautiful images of child actress Ana Torrent. Here are comments about the symbolism in the film and why it is pertinent today. I have studied this film for years. I am basing the construction of my “Indelible” project on what I have learned through this study.
From Wikipedia article on the film:
“The film is rife with symbolism and the disintegration of the family’s emotional life can be seen as symbolic of the emotional disintegration of the Spanish nation during the civil war.
The barren empty landscapes around the sheepfold have been seen as representing Spain’s isolation during the beginning years of the Francoist State.[5]
In the film, Fernando describes in writing his revulsion at the mindless activity of the beehive. This is possibly an allusion to human society under Francoism: ordered, organised, but devoid of any imagination.[3][4][5] The beehive theme is carried into the manor house which has hexagonal panes to its leaded windows and is drenched in a honey-coloured light.[3][5][6]
Ana represents the innocent young generation of Spain around 1940, while her sister Isabel’s deceitful advice symbolises the ‘Nationals’ (the Nationalist faction soldiers led by Franco, and their supporters), accused of being obsessed with money and power.[5]”
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