The Bee-Keeper

O melissokomos

Greece, France, Italy

1986

122 Min

Color

1.37:1

Greek, French

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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PROD Nikos Angelopoulos, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Giuseppe Colombo, Enzo Rispoli

SCR Theodoros Angelopoulos, Dimitris Nollas, Tonino Guerra

CAST Marcello Mastroianni, Nadia Mourouzi, Serge Reggiani, Jenny Roussea, Dinos Iliopoulos

SOUND Nikos Ahladis

São Paulo (Retrospectiva Theo Angelopoulos)

Synopsis

Spyros, a man soured by a secret, incestuous love for his daughter, on the day of her wedding, gives up his position as a schoolteacher, his wife and his home to take up again the profession of his father and grandfather: to tend the bees. Following the traditional beekeeper`s route, looking for flowers that will produce the best honey, he drives from town to town revisiting his old haunts and comrades relighting and reliving his history in his memory, trying to reconcile his past ideals with a swiftly changing nation that makes him feel uncomfortable. At some point he picks up a promiscuous young hitchhiker who sporadically tags along with him during his journey and seems to represent a new generation without memory and unconcerned with the past. —mostra.org

Director

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Theo Angelopoulos began to study law in Athens but broke up his studies to go to the Sorbonne in Paris in order to study literature. When he had finished his studies, he wanted to attend the School of Cinema at Paris but decided instead to go back to Greece. There he worked as a journalist and critic for the newspaper “Demokratiki Allaghi” until it was banned by the military after a coup d’état. Now unemployed, he decided to make his first movie, Anaparastasi (1970). Internationally successful was his trilogy about the history of Greece from 1930 to 1970 consisting of Meres tou ’36 (1972), O thiasos (1975), and Oi kynigoi (1977). After the end of the dictatorship in Greece, Angelopoulos went to Italy, where he worked with RAI (and more money). His movies then became less political. —IMDb

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joey Noodles

6May13

I was talking about this with someone and he said he didn't think it was one of Angelopoulos' more moving films, but I disagree wholly, this is a film that really shifts you, disturbs you and moves you. A masterpiece

joey Noodles

19Jan13

Quite stunning, Mastroianni excells in a very challenging role.

Kenji

22Jan12

A film of extraordinary vision, delicacy, beauty and poignant yearning,

joey Noodles likes this

tertzak

10May11

Seemingly unburdened by memory, bees are believed to be happiest in cities these days. A matter of agricultural priorities diminishing the countryside, combined with our own affinity for potted flowers (not aspidistras mind you)? Cultivation certainly goes a long way in this film by, unsurprisingly, a man who no doubt understands both poetry, and the distinction between natural and positive law.