Victor Erice

Filmography

Short Films
1961 En la terraza
1962 Entre vias
Paginas de un diario perdido
1963 Los dias perdidos

Feature Films
1968 Los desafios (Episode)
1973 El espiritu de la colmena
1982 El sur
1992 El sol del mebrillo
1996 Celebrate Cinema 101 (episode, video)
2002 Alumbriamento / Lifeline (episode from the film Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet)

He was born in Carranza, Spain, in 1940. He directed two of the most important films of his country, "The Spirit of the Beehive" and "El Sur". He studied political science before going on to study film at the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematogrificas from where he graduated in 1963. He worked as a film critic and collaborated on the screenplay for Antonia Eceiza¢s "El Proximo Otono" (Next Autumn) and Miguel Piquazo¢s "Oscuros Suenos de Agosto" (Dark Dreams of August). The producer Elias Querejeta provided Erice his first opportunity to direct by assigning him one of three episodes in "The Challenges". Following his success with "El Sur", Erice became a prolific director of television commercials and worked uncredited on numerous other feature films. In 1992, he reemerged on the film scene with his documentary "The Dream of Light" or "The Quince-Tree Sun". In "Ten Minutes Older - The Trumpet", Erice and his colleagues Herzog, Kaurismaki, Spike Lee, Wenders, Jarmusch and Chen Kaige, were given ten minutes each to bring their own interpretation of "time" to the screen. The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2004.

 VICTOR ERICE

 THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE / El espiritu de la colmena

Direction: Victor Erice
Screenplay: Angel Fernando Santos, V. Erice
Cinematography: Luis Cuadrado
Editing: Pablo G. Del Amo
Sound: Luis Rodriguez
Sets: Adolfo Cofino
Costumes: Peris Hermanos
Music: Luis de Pablo
Cast: Fernando Fernan Gomez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Telleria, Kety de la Camara, José Villadante
Production: Elias Querejeta Producciones Cinematogrificas S.L.
  35mm Colour 98'
Spain 1973
SUMMARY
An introverted, remote scientist moves to the quiet Castilian countryside together with his wife and two young daughters. There he devotes his time to studying bees. Alienated from him, his wife finds solace in the memory of a "non-existent" lover, while the two girls are left to their own devices, which includes watching films at the local cinema.
An allegory of isolation and search for an identity in the politically and socially difficult climate of Franco¢s Spain. The heroes move around in a gloomy house that looks like a beehive and is crisscrossed by beams of light. Outside, the ghost of Franco¢s regime and the phantasm of cinema join together in a tortured coming of age, both actual and spiritual.

 

(c) 2004 Thessaloniki International Film Festival