Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has finally made his “Frankenstein,” a film he’s been trying to make since he learned how to pick up a camera (and almost did so with a false start in 2008).
“Modern Prometheus” changed del Toro’s life by teaching him to love monsters. His “Frankenstein” revises the book to merge his affection for Mary Shelley’s novel and James Whale’s “Frankenstein” films. But there’s another story that guides del Toro’s love of “Frankenstein”: “The Spirit of the Hive,” a 1973 Spanish film directed by Víctor Erice. In an interview about “The Mind of the Hive” with the Criterion Collection, del Toro called it “one of the [his] the three best films of all time.”
“Whatever I do in life, two shadows are cast on mine,” del Toro proclaimed. “One is ‘Frankenstein’ by James Whale and the other is ‘Spirit of the Beehive’ by Víctor Erice, and they are one and the same.”
“Beehive” is set in a rural Spanish village in 1940, immediately after the Spanish Civil War, where the victory of Francisco Franco’s nationalists placed the country under authoritarian rule for decades. In this village, life is provincial; the opening of the film depicts a truck entering the town, bringing reels of film to give children the fantasy they need. The film being shown is the 1931 “Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff as the Creature. Six-year-old Ana (Ana Torrent) is fascinated by the film and it distorts her young perception of reality. Her older sister Isabel (Isabel Tellería) convinces her that the creature’s spirit prowls their village at night.
“‘Frankenstein’ came into my life at that age, and when I was a kid I was transformed in the same way,” del Toro told Criterion. In “Beehive,” Ana even sees “Frankenstein” dubbed into Spanish, del Toro’s native language.
The Hive Mind shaped Guillermo del Toro alongside Frankenstein
The opening cinematic scenes of “Spirit of the Beehive” are almost like a picture within a picture. “Frankenstein” plays interspersed with reaction shots of the children watching. The sequence shown almost in its entirety is where the creature encounters a little girl who is not afraid of him – who he then accidentally drowns while they are sitting by a lake. This scene, which in “Frankenstein” shows the innocent minds of children who have not yet been taught intolerance, foreshadows Ana’s fascination with the Creature and the film.
Ana, who does not understand the difference between reality and fiction, does not understand why the creature killed the girl and why an angry mob killed him. Isabel first explains that they are not dead because the movie is “fake”, but then teases that she saw the creature’s spirit.
Unlike Ana, “Spirit of the Beehive” remains tied to reality. It’s a melancholy image with little dialogue and a yellow tint that brings out the rustic look of the village. As for the “Hive” part of the title, Ana and Isabel’s father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) are shown tending to the hives, and several shots feature yellow, honeycomb-patterned windows.
In 1973, Franco was still ruling Spain (he died in 1975). Could hives, a social structure of drones serving an authority, reflect this dictatorship? In a 1993 interview with “Sight & Sound” magazine, Erice noted that “Spirit of the Beehive” had passed Spanish censors by speaking an “artistic language,” not a didactic political message.
“Frankenstein” itself was subject to censorship, including the scene where the Creature kills the little girl. Some critics, including Roger Ebert, have inferred that the “Frankenstein” print shown in “Spirit of the Beehive” was a censored copy, cutting out the girl’s death.
The hive mind is the original Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro himself directed two children’s films about the Spanish Civil War: “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” “Devil’s Backbone” takes place in a Spanish orphanage in 1939. As in “Spirit”, the war is present even if it is far away; there is an unexploded bomb in the orphanage courtyard. The orphans think there is a spirit among them; unlike Ana, they are right.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” takes place in 1944 and follows Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), young daughter-in-law of Franco’s captain Vidal (Sergi López). Like Ana, Ofelia keeps her attention fixed on fantasy (fairy tale books, in particular). She also sees magical figures that no one else sees.
While “Pan’s Labyrinth” suggests that this magic might be real, “The Mind of the Hive” has only one surreal moment: Ana looks into a lake and sees the face of Frankenstein’s monster (José Villasante) staring back. The creature itself appears and sits next to her, mirroring the lake scene from “Frankenstein.” The creature is silent and eerie, unlike the expressive Faun (Doug Jones) in “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
While “Spirit” uses yellow colors to downplay the spark of life, gold is the color of the fantasy world in “Pan’s Labyrinth.” The “reality” scenes have a rainy blue color, reflecting a line that the film draws narratively between Ofelia and the adults. This latest plot follows Vidal’s hunting down a cell of Spanish republicans, unaware that some of his servants are helping the rebels. In “The Spirit of the Hive”, Ana feeds a wounded Republican soldier because she thinks he is “the Spirit”. The soldier wears a pocket watch, a bit like Vidal in “Pan’s Labyrinth”.
“Pan’s Labyrinth” is Del Toro giving “The Hive Mind” a makeover after his own heart, the same way he did now with “Frankenstein.”
“Frankenstein” is streaming on Netflix.
