My book

I'm using this book, Spanish Cinema (Inside Film) by Rob Stone. This has been especially helpful because there is a whole chapter on El Espiritu de la Colmena (1973, Victor Erice), my focus film.

• Erice is from Vizcaya in the Basque region, which could explain lots of the anti-Franco messages in the film (as the Basques, a people from the North of Spain, were suppressed by Franco, for example by being denied the right to speak their own language).
• Realism - all locations and characters keep their own names. Also, Torrent's reaction to watching Frankenstein was real, as it was the first time she had seen the film.
• The Life of the Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck was the source of the title. Used as a metaphor for Spain, eg that the Second Republic was 'invariably sacrificed to the abstract and immortal city of the future'.
• Subtle hints to oppression. For example, in one scene, the school recites a poem by Rosalia de Castro in Castillian, although it was originally written in Catalan.
• The train is a symbol for progress in the outside world bypassing Ana & compounding isolation.