The

Beekeeper
Theo Angelopoulos
LANGUAGE : Greek

RELEASE : 1986

RUNTIME : 2hr 20mins

GENRE : Drama, foreign

DIRECTOR : Theodoros Angelopoulos

CAST : Marcello Mastroianni, Nadia Mourouzi, Serge Reggiani,

Jenny Roussea, Dinos Iliopoulos
The Movie Beekeeper is the the
tender character study of a man
who dreads the passing of time.

It is a film about nostalgia and

the dangers of nostalgia, it is a
film about growing old, it is a
film about the passage of time.
THE FILM IS FRAMED WITH A 1 .3 7 :1
ASPECT RATI O, THE SHAPE OF A N OL DER
ERA.

THE SHOTS OF THE FILM

ARE SILENT ,L ONG AND
CAREFULL PROVIDING A

THE SILENT SCENES SPEAK MORE

EMOTIONALLY T O T HE AUDI EN CE

THE OUT USE OF MOVING IMA GE S ,T E L L US MOR E

THAN THE WORDS SPOKEN THROUGH
THOUGHTFUL USE OF LON G T A KE S,
ABOUT

The movie is about the title character, Marcello

Mastroianni’s Spyros is charged with several
responsibilities. First is his daughter, who is
married in the opening scene. The second is his
entire farm of bees — not an unmanageable size for
one man, but hardly what most would call small.
The third is a mysterious child of the road, a young
woman out hitchhiking who simultaneously teases
him and looks up to him as a father-figure.
 IT SHOWCASES T HE
MAIN CHARACT ER AND
HIS FRIENDS FADEED
DESIRE TO LI VE

THE
STRUGGLE
IT IS A STRUGGL E OF
ACCEPTANCE OF OL D
AGE WITH THE FAST
MOVING WORLD
THE FILM THE SCENE IS NEEDED TO SHOW THAT SPYRO STRUGGLES WITH LIVING IN THE
PRESENT AND CAN’T (OR WON’T) ESCAPE HIS PAST – REPRESENTED THROUGHOUT THE FILM
BY HIS SHABBY CLOTHES AND HIS OLD, WORN-DOWN BEEHIVES – AND THE SCENE WORKS.

ONE SCENE THAT RESONAT E S P A R T ICUL A R L Y WEL L I S WHER E SP YR O F I N A LLY

EXPRESSES A NEED FOR HI S WI F E A N D SEEMS T O WA N T TO MA K E EVER Y THI N G
UP WITH HER, BUT SOON T UR N S F R OM A T OUCHIN G DI SP LA Y I N TO A N
UNPLEASANT SCENE IN WHI CH HE L OSES CONT ROL OF HI S P EN T-UP
FRUSTRATIONS AND, JUST F OR A F EW SECONDS, SMOTHER S HER WI TH KI SSES
THAT WE KNOW, AND IT SEEMS T HAT SHE KNOW S, A R E N OT A CTUA LLY I N TEN DED
FOR HER.
THE GREECE PORTRAYED I N T HE F I L M
IS, LIKE SPYROS, BARREN AN D BR OKEN
DOWN. IT IS MADE UP OF CRA CKE D
BUILDINGS AND SOL IT AR Y T R EES
GROWING FROM COBBL EST ON ES AN D
OLD AND SCRUFFY CARS

THE CRACKS T HAT EXIST IN SP YRO ON L Y EMER GE OCCA SI ON A LLY , I N EX P LOSI ON S THA T
APPEAR FROM NOWHERE A N D DI SSI P A T E QUI CKLY . THE HI TCH-HI KER ’S TA UN TI N G,
DAUGHTERLY PLATONIC CA R ESSES A R E BE ST DE MON STR A TED I N A SCEN E I N WHI CH SHE
KNEELS AT HIS LAP AS HE SI T S ON T HE BE D A N D SHE SHA VES HI S F A CE
THE MOVIE IS MADE UP
AND DOES NOT DEPICT
REAL LIFE

THE SCENE JUST AFT ER T HE

WEDDING IN WHICH SPYRO
PICKS UP HIS NEWLY- MARR I ED
DAUGHTER AND SINGS HE R A
LULLABY COULDN’T , AND
WOULDN’T, HAPPEN IN RE A L
LIFE.
CONCLUSION
Angelopoulos' odyssey of a middle-
aged man in the grip of terminal
emptiness has a stately pace and a
shortage of event or information that
are a lot to take. It's always raining,
usually evening, and the settings are
mainly petrol stations and sad
rooming houses in Greek tank towns.
S p y r o s ( Ma s t r o i a n n i ) r e s i g n s h i s
j o b a s a s c h o o l ma s t e r , l e a v e s h i s
wi f e , a n d d r i v e s o f f wi t h h i s
beehives to follow the pollen
route. A teenage hitchhiker
( Mo u r o u z i ) a t t a c h e s h e r s e l f ,
b u mmi n g f a g s a n d f o o d , a n d
even using his room to score
wi t h a p a s s i n g s o l d i e r .
CONCLUSION

SPYROS REMAINS UNCOMPL AI N I N G, W ORDL E SS A N D LI F ELESS

THROUGHOUT.
THEY FINALLY GET IT ON IN A NEGL ECT E D CIN EMA , WHI CH N OT ON LY F A I LS
TO BUCK UP HIS IDEAS, BUT A P P EA R S T O CONF I R M HI S DI SEN CHA N TMEN T,
BECAUSE THE NEXT DAY HE SUR R EN DER S T O DEA TH B Y B EE-STI N G. A
MUFFLED, DEEPL Y INT ERI OR F I L M.