The Beekeeper (film)

The Beekeeper

Film poster
Directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos
Produced by Theodoros Angelopoulos
Written by Theodoros Angelopoulos
Tonino Guerra
Dimitris Nollas
Starring Marcello Mastroianni
Cinematography Giorgos Arvanitis
Edited by Takis Yannopoulos
Release dates
  • 1986 (1986)
Running time
 122 minutes
Country Greece
Language Greek

The Beekeeper (Greek: Ο Μελισσοκόμος, translit. O Melissokomos) is a 1986 Greek drama film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. The movie is the second installment in Angelopoulos's "trilogy of silence", preceded by Voyage to Cythera and followed by Landscape in the Mist.

The Beekeeper was nominated for the Golden Lion in the 43rd Venice International Film Festival.[1] This movie is the first of Angelopoulos's films to use an already well-known actor, in this case, Marcello Mastroianni, who by the time has won the Best Actor award at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival once and has been nominated for the Best Actor at the 50th Academy Awards once.

Plot

The film follows the journey of Spyros (Marcello Mastroianni), a beekeeper, to various parts of Greece after his daughter's wedding. Spyros just retired as a teacher, before he sets out on his annual journey in spring for his bees to get honey. A girl (Nadia Mourouzi) hops on Spyros' truck early in the journey, and travels with Spyros for the most part of the story. Spyros and the girl visit Spyros' old friends and his wife along the way, and finally arrive at a theater owned by one of his friends and about to be sold. There in the theater Spyros and the girl finally have intimate physical interaction, long after Spyros has tried to coerce her into kissing but failed. The girl parts ways with Spyros after a few nights of stay in the theater, before the movie ends with Spyros turning over his beehive boxes and lying on the ground between the turned boxes. The final scene sees Spyros tapping on the ground probably a series of Morse code, which reminds of the tapping done by his sick friend (Serge Reggiani) right before Spyros left him in the hospital.

Cast

Reception

Ronald Bergan[2] calls the film a "metaphysical road movie".[3] Janet Maslin criticizes The Beekeeper, being Angelopoulos's first movie to have a well-known actor in the leading role, "wastes Marcello Mastroianni in his title role." Maslin further says that "(n)ot even those inclined to dwell on the film's occasional honeycomb imagery or its heavy sense of foreboding will find much to command the attention," and argues that The Beekeeper is interesting only in the context of Angelopoulos's other two titles in his "trilogy of silence", which includes Voyage to Cythera and Landscape in the Mist.[4] However, Acquarello of Strictly Film School[5] praises The Beekeeper for being "a haunting, compassionate, and profoundly melancholic portrait of isolation, dislocation, estrangement, and obsolescence," calling the movie an "indelible chronicle" of the contemporary Greek society.[6]

Accolades

The Beekeeper was nominated for Golden Lion at the 43rd Venice International Film Festival.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Venice Film Festival (1986)". IMDb. 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Ronald Bergan". The Guardian. 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Bergan, Ronald (25 January 2012). "Theo Angelopoulos obituary". The Guardian.
  4. ↑ Maslin, Janet (7 May 1993). "Review/Film; Buzzing Off After Grandpa". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ "Strictly Film School". Strictly Film School. 1987. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Acquarello (2003). "O Melissokomos, 1986". Strictly Film School. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  7. ↑ "Venice Film Festival (1986)". IMDb. 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
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