As in the novel of the same title from Camilo Jose Cela, “La Colmena” is a sad composition with the stories of many people in the Madrid of 1942, just the postwar of the Spanish civil war. The main theme of the film is the contrast between the poets, surviving close to misery under the Franco’s regime, and the winners of the war, the emerging class of the people that makes easy money with illegal business.
Director: Mario Camus.
Stars: Victoria Abril, Ana Belén, Concha Velasco, Francisco Rabal, Mario Pardo, Fiorella Faltoyano, José Sazatornil, José Luis López Vázquez, Mary Carrillo, José Bódalo, Charo López, Marta Fernández Muro, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Elvira Quintillá, Luis Ciges, José Sacristán, Francisco Algora, Imanol Arias, Agustín González, Rafael Alonso, Antonio Resines.
1983 Berlin International Film Festival – Winner of the Golden Bear.
1983 Chicago International Film Festival – Nominated for the Gold Hugo.
Tres cool! A most welcomed addition to this wonderful cave of forgotten films!
always figured cela’s books would be unfilm-able, but this was an awfully good stab at a densely structured novel, and there was the old reprobate himself in the cast, enjoying himself immensely!
Great to discover an unknown masterpiece – takes its place with “La Vie de Boheme” & “Berlin Alexanderplatz”