#Spanish-Mexican Cinema

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

A LOVE FOR ONE’S WIFE GONE HORRIBLY WRONG – FETISHIZING THE DEAD IN SPANISH CINEMA.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on the late, great Mexican film actress Silvia Pinal in a scene from the 1961 Spanish-Mexican surrealist comedy-drama film co-written & directed by Luis Buñuel, also used as back cover art to the “Viridiana” DVD supplemental booklet from the Criterion Collection.

MINI-OVERVIEW: “The first act of the film shows Viridiana, a young woman who is about to become a nun, returning to her uncle’s country estate for a last visit. He, Don Jaime, is enormously taken with his niece, who much resembles his dead wife. He makes a fetish of his wife’s wedding clothes—white satin shoes, veil, long dress, corset—and finally persuades Viridiana, as a special favor, to dress up as her dead aunt. He drugs her, plans to rape her, but he can’t bring himself to do it. And then, in a tormented attempt at blackmail, he tells her he did rape her, only to confess the truth soon afterward. "Te ofendí solo con el pensamiento,” he says—literally, “I offended you only in thought.”“

– CRITERION COLLECTION, ”Viridiana": The Human Comedy, essay by Michael Wood, May 22, 2006

Source: www.criterion.com/current/posts/423-viridiana-the-human-comedy.

[frenchnewwaves]

y tú mamá también (2001)

[apicturespeaks]

Y Tu Mamá También, Alfonso Cuarón

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in Me estás matando, Susana (2016, dir. Roberto Sneider)

(these gifs also feature Verónica Echegui)

Gifs are all 540px wide so you can click to see larger.

[other gael filmography gifsets]

[freudianblunders]

Roma, 2018

The most profound portrayal of human experience I've ever seen on film.

Roma is a black and white art film which is also a highly personal project by Alfonso Cuarón that features the perspective of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a domestic servant working for a middle-class family – a character based on the Cuarón's family servant, Lobi.

Cuarón has done a marvelous job taking his childhood and adapting it for the big screen. He also stated that ninety percent of the scenes represented in the film are the scenes taken out of his memory. He went on to win the Golden Lion at the 2018 Venice International Film Festival.

Yalitza Aparicio became the first indigenous woman from the Americas (and only the second Mexican woman) to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role.

[roxysretrodrive-in]

Retro Trailer: Macario (1960)

Disclaimer: I am not associated with the uploader nor the creators of this trailer.

[a-pint-of-j-and-b]

Virdiana (1961), Luis Buñuel, Spanish-Mexican

[mise-en-scene-enjoyer]

The Stepmother (La madrastra) (1974), dir. Roberto Gavaldón IMDB

[winterzsurprise]

Ride me? || Miguel O'hara

Pairing: Miguel O'hara (Spider-Man 2099) x F!reader

Tags: Overstimulation, rough sex, choking, squirting, vaginal fingering, big dick Miguel, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it kids), fang kink if you squint.

Words: 1.8k

Summary: Just when you thought he's exhausted enough from chasing Miles Morales and had given you the chance to actually ride him, Miguel has other plans.

This man evokes something so feral in me that I forgot I was suffering through the worst writer's block. He got me giggling and twirling my hair yesterday at the cinema wtf. I used my very limited Mexican Spanish knowledge from watching streamers flirting in a block game for this.

cariño - honey || mi vida - my life || mi amor - my love || guapito - handsome

Miguel isn't the type to let someone control the pace, even if he did, his hands grounded on your waist would soon guide your hips into a rhythm he prefers, hard and fast.

You've been hearing the ruckus down the spider webs, something about another version rebelling against the usual stories of every Spider-Man in the multiverse to save his dad. Knowing that your husband sits at the top as their leader, you expected him to disappear for a long period of time.

Not that you mind of course, he's had plenty of times he charges in to handle an anomaly himself.

You do have to give some kudos to the kid for trying to change reality though. After Miguel's story, nobody in the headquarters, even you, dared to defy the fates laid upon every Spider-Man.

It's been three days since he left and honestly, you didn't expect him to arrive yet. A person deterring from the fates of every Spider-Man would be hard to handle, you couldn't even imagine how difficult it'd be.

So when the doors to your apartment flew open and came to him, practically drooping from exhaustion, you were surprised.

He came earlier than expected.

"How'd the chase go?"

"I don't want to talk about it. Come here." 

Drying your hands off on the towel hanging from the wall counter, you made your way to the man laid spread and heaving on the couch. His head tipped back with his usually neatly gelled hair now haggard and messy, he looked up when he sensed your presence and immediately pulled you onto his lap.

You laughed. "Don't fall asleep here, I don't want to carry your heavy ass."

His lips tugged into a weak smile, his pointy canines briefly appearing.

"Spider-Man is supposed to help the weak, are you really ignoring a civilian in need?"

You didn't get what he meant until he pulled your hips closer, dragging your core over the tent on his pants.

You hit his arm. "Go to sleep, you must've been really tired after chasing that kid around."

"Then ride me."

You paused before narrowing your eyes at him. He's baiting you with the very thing you've wanted to do since the beginning. But the dark cloud of lust in his eyes somehow convinced you of his genuineness.

His talons dug onto your flesh, hard enough to take control of your hips to grind on top of his dick sensually while keeping eye contact with yours. You couldn't ignore the pleasure and jolts of heat electrifying and burning your nerve endings alight at every drag of your heat over his.

"I want to feel you baby, I miss you so much."

Miguel pushes you down on his hardness and you moan, the feeling of his girth finding home between your legs shot electric pleasure down your spine.

"You are a convincing man."

"And you love it."

You lunged for a kiss and instantly, one of his hands threaded itself onto the back of your head, locking you in place as your lips danced against each other in a fierce battle. The raw hunger after being starved for a week now surfacing and consuming you both, mind and body. 

His other hand guided your hips up and down his clothed dick, his deep groans and growl lit fireworks in you, igniting your determination to coax more of them out of his lips.

"Get rid of the pants or I'll rip it off of you."

"Rip it then."

He didn't need to hear you twice. 

In one quick motion, he tore your sweatpants into two before doing the same thing to your panties and throwing them somewhere in the room. He groaned as his head fell onto the crook of your neck, hands crawling up to cup your breasts before your top and bra suffered the same fate as your other clothing.

"The pants, only the pants! I loved that bra!"

"I'll buy you something better, from another universe even." He responded, almost breathless as your scent invaded every speck of his senses. Miguel groaned. "Fuck, I miss this scent of yours baby."

"I don't care, get rid of the suit."

His attire dissolved into thin air and retracted back to god-knows-where, revealing his ruffled shirt and grey sweatpants that did nothing but proclaim his clear desire for you.

"Let me prep you real good, huh?"

Retracting his talons, two of his fingers delved into your heat, immediately drenching itself with your arousal and he groaned.

"So wet for me, mi amor."

"Only for you, guapito."

Two of his digits rolled your clit sensually and with the dexterity of an experienced man, urging more of your arousal to coat his fingers further. Once he was satisfied with the amount of fluid now dripping into his pants, he wandered lower and lower until he plunged his index in, curling it up so deliciously you moaned and grinded your hips onto the slow plunge of his hand.

His eyes watched your heat like a ravenous man holding back, the feral look on his face only pulled you closer to the edge.

And it's only a finger in.

"So tight, mi vida. You treat me so well."

He added two fingers in and you screamed, his pace now rapidly gaining speed. Your eyes rolled back as your hips thrashed and clumsily followed his thrusts, there was nothing else that mattered more than coming for your darling in that moment.

Miguel groaned, watching your face twist into the most sinful display of pleasure he has ever seen. The pride and smugness from knowing it was all because of him made him smile.

Only he could see you in such a state and no one else.

You clenched around his digits, tempting him to finally take the dive. Although his fingers coaxed pleasure out of you with no problem, you missed the feeling of his dick carving your insides, stretching you thin and reminding your cunt who it belongs to.

But Miguel ignored the bait and instead hastened up while curling up to push on your g-spot. You almost blacked out from the euphoria he feeds you, a coil in your stomach tightened and you moaned.

"I'm cl-close… Fuck!"

"Give it to me baby, I want it all."

It didn't last long until the coil exploded and your arousal squirts out of your cunt to drench Miguel's shirt, whose gaze turned a shade darker at the scene when you peered down to meet his gaze.

A tense atmosphere rose from his mere gaze and goosebumps prickled your skin. Your heartbeat jumped through the roofs as you stared back at his dark eyes, he triggered your spidey sense.

And for some sick reason, it only ignited the simmering arousal in the pits of your abdomen.

"Fuck the ride, you're not getting up until I say so, cariño."

You barely sensed him flipping you both, with you now seated and spread on the sofa while he stood in front of you, hastily removing his remaining clothing as if it angered him.

It didn't take long until his hand cautiously wrapped around your neck and his other, pinning your hips as he plunged himself deep into your cunt. You screamed as he pushed more of him, inch by inch. He stretched you out to the point of no return, the burn of his cock carving you open once more made you light-headed.

And he loves nothing more but seeing the cock-drunk look on your face.

Miguel grinned, his fangs protruding so attractively. "God, I love how fucked you look for me, cariño. Give me more."

He pulls and plunged himself back in, shooting hot white pleasure in your body. Miguel didn't wait long before his usual hard and rough pace started. The hand around your throat tightened and your mind turned woozy from the lack of oxygen, his thrust taking your breath away only evoking the feeling of nirvana within you.

He drove in you hard and quick enough you can distantly hear the couch legs wincing as it gets pushed back with every plunge of his dick.

"Fuck…!"

"That's right darling, I'm fucking my sweet cariño open and wide for me."

The electric shocks the head of his cock briefly grazing the head of your uterus sent your legs flailing on his sides. Growing bothered by them, he halts to rest them on his wide shoulders and wraps his arm around your thigh before entering somehow deeper into you.

Your hands found his meaty thigh and dug itself onto it and it encouraged him to go even faster, pushing you closer to the edge and you swore you could see the pearly gates of the heavens.

"I'm co-coming…! Miguel!"

"Give it to me baby, you know how much I love seeing you convulse so helplessly around me."

The hand on your throat left to find purchase on your clit, rubbing you as fast his cock plunges into you.

With a scream, you came. 

Your legs trembled violently on his shoulder as more of your arousal spurts out of your heat, white hot pleasure burned and stirred every nerve ending awake as your eyes rolled back.

But this doesn't seem to be enough for Miguel who only took a break to see your thighs convulse before continuing his thrusts.

You hit his thighs as he kickstarted another orgasm now bubbling in the pit of your stomach but he paid no heed. 

Not that you minded of course, if anything, it only pleases the sick bastard in your head, wishing to be used and fucked so well by your husband like it's your sole purpose.

"I'm so close, baby. Can you give me another one? Surely you can, right?"

His fingers rubbed your clit to the point of pain yet it somehow enhanced the pleasure growing larger in your chest and you screamed. Miguel bent down to rest his sweaty forehead on your shoulder, in the clouded state you were in, you could make out the sharp points of his canines pushing down your skin.

The threat of his bite shot jolts down to your heavily beaten cunt, once again tightening its coil. The frequent groans and low growls escaping his lips alone told you he's near to climax.

And with that, he's dragging you down with him.

"Please please please, give it to me…!"

"Yes, cariño. Anything, Anything for you."

With a couple of thrust, scorching hot explodes inside of you and Miguel slows down, almost into a halt as he rides down his high. The face of pure unadulterated ecstasy painting his face, along with his fingers, you came with another shout.

When he's calmer, he lets his sweaty body fall into your arms before reaching around to do the same. 

As your breathing returns to normal and the fog in your head clears, Miguel places a gentle kiss on your temple and cheeks.

"I love you so much, cariño."

"I love you more, guapito."

[gael-garcia]

"It’s an interesting time, no? When I started to work, Mexican cinema was at its lowest point. There were only 6 films done that year when I made Amores Perros. And 50 years before, there were like 200 films made each year. Little by little, it started to get back. Among the many opportunities that allowed me, the most important one was that I’m able to play in Spanish and to perform with bigger dimensions and more complexity. English-speaking studio movies were an option as a nice alternative, but I also worked in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, France, and Italy. After COVID, the film experience has changed. Who knows where this will lead for me or for anyone. " x

Gael García Bernal photographed by Riccardo Ghilardi (Berlinale 2024)

[justforbooks]

Marisa Paredes

Spanish star of films by Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro and Roberto Benigni, and a champion of leftwing causes

The actor Marisa Paredes, who has died suddenly aged 78, was renowned for her elegance and “calm grace, that gentle cheerfulness that she ignited with one look of her pale eyes”, in the words of Gilles Jacob, former president of the Cannes film festival. She is best known for her roles in six films directed by Pedro Almodóvar.

After seeing her in a play, Almodóvar cast her as Sor Estiércol (Sister Manure) in Entre Tinieblas (Dark Habits, 1983). Later, she starred in his surreal melodrama Tacones Lejanos (High Heels, 1991). For her performance as a writer of romantic novels in his slightly more sober La Flor de Mi Secreto (The Flower of My Secret, 1995), she was nominated for a Goya best actress award. She also featured in Almodóvar’s Oscar-winning Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother, 1999).

She became one of Spanish cinema’s great figures, but was also outspoken throughout her life in support of leftwing causes. As president of Spain’s film academy from 2000 to 2003, she attacked the participation of José María Aznar’s Conservative government in the planned invasion of Iraq. Her televised speech at the annual Goya awards in 2003 helped mobilise mass demonstrations: “There is no need to be afraid of culture, entertainment or freedom of expression, and much less satire or humour. We should be afraid of ignorance and dogmatism. We should be afraid of war.”

In the 1980s Paredes built a solid reputation in Spanish cinema, working with up-and-coming young directors, such as Fernando Trueba in Ópera Prima (Debut, 1980), Jaime Chávarri, Jaime Rosales and Agustí Vilaronga in Tras el Cristal (In a Glass Cage, 1986). Her performance in Vilaronga’s macabre anti-Nazi film was her own favourite. For José Sacristán’s comedy Cara de Acelga (Like Death Warmed Up, 1987) she was nominated for a Goya as best supporting actress.

In the 90s, her leading parts in Almodóvar films broadened her career into international cinema. She worked with Alain Tanner in France, Manoel de Oliveira in Portugal and shot two films with the Mexican Arturo Ripstein: Pintura Carmesí (Deep Crimson, 1996) and El Coronel No Tiene Quien le Escriba (No One Writes to the Colonel, 1999), a successful adaptation of a Gabriel García Márquez novel. She was in the Italian Roberto Benigni’s La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful, 1997) and Guillermo del Toro’s El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone, 2001). Over her six-decade career, she acted in more than 70 films.

The youngest of four daughters, Marisa was born in Madrid, in the block of flats on Plaza de Santa Ana where her mother, Petra (nee Bartolomé), was the concierge. Her father, Lucio Paredes, worked in the El Águila beer factory. These were years of hunger after the civil war (1936-39) and her family was poor. From the age of six, she told her mother she wanted to be an actor: the Teatro Español, one of the city’s main theatres, just across the square from her home, inspired her. Reasonably, her parents opposed this insecure career: they aspired for her to become a secretary. Paredes was always proud of her working-class origins. “My elegance comes from my grandfather, who was a farm-worker,” she would say.

Focused on her ambition, she left school aged 11, defeated parental opposition to study at the Madrid dramatic arts school and pushed her way into small film roles at the age of 14. In 1962 she met Fernando Fernán-Gómez, anarchist and brilliant actor and director, who helped mould both her acting and her view of the world. She acted in his film El Mundo Sigue (The World Continues, 1965).

In the 60s and 70s she worked in many films without breaking through to leading roles. The story was different on Televisión Española, where she acted in around 80 plays, often dramatisations of novels. “I had the good fortune that, as I don’t look Spanish ... when television was cultured and broadcast plays, I was in all the dramas of Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Ibsen. I was the Russian soul,” Paredes explained. She was an all-round talent, acting not just in theatre and highbrow TV, but in musicals, comedies and even a spaghetti western.

With her height, aristocratic bearing and blond hair, Paredes was reminiscent of a classic Hollywood star. Yet she was not vain: she had a warm smile and generous nature, and had the enthralling gift of great screen actors of expressing emotion with a single look or grimace.

She won prizes for her theatre, television and film work, and an honorary Goya for her career in 2018.

Paredes supported #MeToo vigorously and campaigned in the July 2023 general election for Sumar, the junior leftwing partner in Spain’s coalition government. As recently as 30 November, she read the manifesto in a demonstration against Israel’s actions in Gaza. She understood her political commitment in no narrow terms: “Freedom, education and culture are fundamental to human life. This is what remains. Art is what remains.”

Paredes had a daughter, María, with the film director Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi in 1975. From 1980 until her death she lived with José María Prado, director for 27 years of the Filmoteca Española (Spain’s film institute). She did not believe in marriage.

Prado and María survive her.

🔔 Marisa (María Luisa) Paredes Bartolomé, actor, born 3 April 1946; died 17 December 2024

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"THIS MASTERPIECE IS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SPANISH FILMS AND IS UNIVERSALLY REGARDED AS ONE OF THE BEST."

PIC(S) INFO: Resolution at 880×1242 -- Spotlight on a 79x55 Italian movie poster for the Spanish-Mexican comedy drama film "VIRIDIANA" (1961), co-written & directed by Spanish cinema auteur, Luis Buñuel.

OVERVIEW: "This masterpiece is one of the most famous Spanish films and is universally regarded as one of the best. The film was produced by Gustavo Alatriste and directed by Luis Bunuel. It stars Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey and Francisco Rabal. The story revolves around a young novice named Viridiana who is on the verge of taking her vows, when her Uncle, Don Jaime, who has been supporting her, summons her to visit him. She travels to where he lives and encounters a tangled and deceptive atmosphere. It is a life-changing moment for Viridiana, and Bunuel takes us inside her situation. The movie was a Spanish-Mexican co-production, and it was released in May of 1961."

-- KIRBY MCDANIEL MOVIE ART (original movie posters)

Source: www.movieart.com/viridiana-1961-30078-movie-poster-italian-four-foglio-79x55-sylvia-pinal-fernando-rey-francisco-rabal-luis-bunuel.

[apicturespeaks]

Japón, Carlos Reygadas

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal Doesn’t Believe in Skincare

The actor talks about Mexican coffee, his rock collection and reuniting with his Y tu Mamá También co-star Diego Luna.

From the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 14, 2024 8:00 am ET

By Lane Florsheim

(source) When Gael García Bernal landed a role in Y tu Mamá También in his early 20s, he didn’t know his career was about to take off. It was a small-budget film, and Mexican cinema had yet to break through in the American box office. 

But the steamy 2001 movie, about best friends on a road trip through Mexico, was a hit. It became one of the highest-grossing Spanish-language films in the U.S. And it anointed García Bernal and his costar, Diego Luna, as leading men.

The two actors had known each other since infancy, growing up together in Mexico City. “Anything I say stays short of all the complexities of the love and the brotherhood we have for each other,” García Bernal, 45, said of Luna. Together, he said, “we learned that to make cinema, you have to misbehave a little bit, but be humble as well.”

García Bernal has gone on to star in a variety of Spanish and English projects, including The Motorcycle Diaries, Babel and the TV adaptation of Station Eleven. All the while, he and Luna have remained close collaborators. The actors run a production company together called La Corriente del Golfo. And this month, for the first time in over a decade, they’re reuniting onscreen. Their new show, La Máquina, features García Bernal as an aging boxer and Luna as his flashy, corrupt manager. 

Now available on Hulu, La Máquina is the streamer’s first original Spanish-language series. “It was about time,” García Bernal said. “We’re very happy that it’s happening like this.”

García Bernal lives in Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Here, he shares his most prized possessions, how he got into character for his latest role and advice from a Nobel laureate. 

What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?

Naturally, I wake up very early. My ancestors must have been people who worked the land. I hate when I wake up late. Sometimes I go straight to having a coffee or reading the newspaper or even, heroically, exercising. But that doesn’t happen so often because I always wake up very hungry.

What do you eat in the morning, and do you drink coffee?

Mainly fruits. In Mexico, there’s really good coffee. I do a pour-over. 

What do you do for exercise? 

I’ve been into boxing for a long time. I jump rope, go run, sometimes I hang from things. And I love playing football and baseball. 

What about skin care?

Nothing. I think it’s better actually. The washing-your-face industry has created a lot of problems for skin. I think it’s too much soap. 

How did you prepare to play the boxer Esteban in the new Hulu series? Did you model the character on any real life boxers or athletes? 

It was an amalgam of many boxers that I admire. We took a lot from all of them, but at the same time, there was something that came out, which is the boxer I have inside. It’s a bit like the clown in acting. We all have a boxer, we all have a clown. 

How would you describe your boxer?

What I found is that I’m really good at receiving punches. I think I read the ring really well. I’m able to figure out what’s going to happen, how to move around. The problem is that I run out of stamina very easily from hitting hard. Something happens after 10 punches. My punches start to become complete butter. 

Diego looks so different in this role, with his spray tan and a face that appears full of fillers. How did you keep a straight face while playing opposite him?

We had to try really hard not to laugh, but we managed. He made a big sacrifice as well. It takes a lot of time to do all of that, and it’s uncomfortable. 

There’s a great karaoke scene in the series. What’s your go-to karaoke song? 

I’m very promiscuous with my karaoke tastes. Most of the songs that I would end up singing in karaoke are older, like from the 1980s—the time of a man or a woman and a microphone. Nowadays it’s more complicated because a lot of songs have autotune.

Your characters from Y tu Mamá También, Julio and Tenoch, would be around 40 years old today. What do you think they’d be doing now?

I think maybe my character would be in government in Mexico right now. Diego’s character would be, I don’t know, a successful lawyer somewhere. I always wonder, where did they end up? Maybe because those are the characters that are closest to our upbringing as well, the closest we’ve ever been to playing ourselves. 

The movie captures so well the feeling of being young and having your entire life in front of you. How do you look back on it?

Our voices sound different. It’s actually very tender because we were very innocent. We didn’t feel like it when we were that age, but I hear us: We sound hopeful and interested and also brave and wanting to experience [life].

What’s your most prized possession? 

The notebooks I write in. The stones I gather. On every journey I make, I put stones in my bag. They weigh a lot, but I have a lot of stones. Certain photographs of my family. And there’s a football and some shoes that remind me of my childhood.

Do you have any hobbies that might surprise your fans? 

I do a lot of jumping rope, I can do a few tricks with that. I juggle. I play a lot of chess.

What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that’s guided you? 

José Saramago, who was a Nobel Prize winner of literature from Portugal, and I did a play together at a book fair in Guadalajara, where I’m from. I introduced him to my family. I’ve got a huge family. He was fascinated by my grandmother and the amount of kids she had and all the many, many, many people in my family. Before saying goodbye, he said, “You would be very stupid if you missed all this. You would be such an idiot if you have it and don’t experience it.” I grew up in a loving environment, and I was very lucky to be born into it. 

[abwwia]

Dolores del Rio, Hollywood, 1938, by Louise Dahl-Wolfe

María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (Spanish pronunciation: [doˈloɾes ðel ˈri.o]), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin American crossover star in Hollywood. Along with a notable career in American cinema during the 1920s and 1930s, she was also considered one of the most important female figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, and one of the most beautiful actresses of her era. Via Wikipedia

[romanceyourdemons]

i really enjoyed the spirit of the beehive (1973), a spanish film made under the franco regime that provided clear inspiration to later mexican filmmaker guillermo del toro. the film is lush and laconic, employing a rich web of symbolism to portray its coded criticism of the fascist regime that only barely allowed it to be released. central to the film, of course, is the image of a beehive, framed as a locus of deadening labor, where bees wear themselves out in an intricate living machine that does not care if they live and has no use for their death. yet within that beehive, there exists not an ever-decreasing fractal of business but instead a void. the film centers around a young girl, who, similar to the protagonist of guillermo del toro’s pan’s labyrinth (2006), finds herself emotionally isolated from her parents by the strain and violence of the spanish civil war, which her parents keenly feel and she can only observe without context. although the film opens with her being fairly connected to her community, attending school and the traveling cinema, the longer the film continues the less others are able or willing to communicate with her, until at last the only mentor figure she dares seek out is her imaginary friend, frankenstein’s monster—a creature she cannot understand why she is expected to hate, just as she cannot understand why she is expected to hate some mushrooms, or the wounded republican soldier who takes shelter in a nearby abandoned farmhouse. her sympathy for the monstrous, even coming from such an innocent and well-meaning source, leaves her frightened for her life and isolated beyond repair. artistically, the film makes beautiful use of match-cuts to link together the disparate images of a film that prefers images to dialogue; the whole thing is a web of unspoken association, mirroring the muting conditions of censorship and trauma that the film is set and produced in. i really enjoyed the spirit of the beehive (1973), which well deserves its shining reputation in the world canon, and i would highly recommend it