El espíritu de la colmena [The Spirit of the Beehive]

Víctor Erice’s directorial debut feature has gone down in history as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema. It’s centred upon the debut performance of the young Ana Torrent as the girl fascinated with the 1931 American horror film Frankenstein, who becomes convinced that the wounded Republican soldier sheltering in her barn is the Frankenstein’s monster she’s seen onscreen. Outwitting the dictatorship-era censors, the film manages to symbolically portray Spanish life under Franco’s rule, 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. As Close Your Eyes, Erice’s swansong, is released in UK cinemas this month, we pay homage to the great auteur with a look back at where it all began.

This screening will be introduced by Andy Willis, University of Salford.