''The Beekeeper'' ( el, Ο Μελισσοκόμος, translit. ''O Melissokomos'') is a 1986 Greek drama

art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

directed by

Theodoros Angelopoulos Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos (; ; 27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on, and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely re ...

. The film is the second installment in Angelopoulos's "trilogy of silence", preceded by ''

Voyage to Cythera ''Voyage to Cythera'' ( el, Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα, translit. ''Taxidi sta Kythira'') is a 1984 Greek film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and ...

'' and followed by ''

Landscape in the Mist ''Landscape in the Mist'' ( gr, Τοπίο στην ομίχλη, translit. ''Topio stin omichli'') is a 1988 Greek film directed by Theo Angelopoulos. The film was selected as the Greek entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd ...

''. Swedish filmmaker

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...

hailed ''The Beekeeper'' as a "masterpiece". Florina Melissokomos

''The Beekeeper'' was selected for the 43rd Venice International Film Festival. The film was the first of Angelopoulos's to use an already well-known actor, in this case,

Marcello Mastroianni Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...

, who by the time has won the

Best Actor award Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to the ...

at the

1970 Cannes Film Festival The 23rd Cannes Film Festival ran from 3 to 18 May 1970. This year, Robert Favre LeBret, the founder of the festival, decided not to include any films from Russia and Japan (their flags were missing on the Croisette). He was tired of the "Slavi ...

once and was nominated for the Best Actor at the

50th Academy Awards The 50th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1977 and took place on April 3, 1978, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 7:00 p.m. PST ...

Plot

The film follows the journey of Spyros, a beekeeper, to various parts of Greece after his daughter's wedding. Spyros has just retired as a teacher and sets out on his annual journey in spring to move his bee hives to a series of locations with flowering plants. A girl hops on Spyros' truck, and travels with him. They visit Spyros' old friends and his wife along the way, and finally arrive at a theater owned by one of his friends, which is about to be sold. There, Spyros and the girl finally have an erotic encounter, long after Spyros has tried to coerce her into kissing but failed. The girl leaves after a few nights, before the movie ends with Spyros turning over his beehive boxes, causing him to be stung repeatedly by the understandably angry bees. The final scene sees the dying Spyros tapping on the ground, as he continues to suffer from more and more agonising stings, which reminds us of the tapping of his sick friend before Spyros left him in the hospital.

Cast

as Spyros * Nadia Mourouzi as the girl *

Serge Reggiani Serge Reggiani (2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-French actor and singer. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight. After studying acting at the Conservatoire des arts cinématog ...

as the sick man * Jenny Roussea as Spyros' wife *

Dinos Iliopoulos Dinos Iliopoulos (Greek: '; 12 June 1913 – 4 June 2001) was a Greek actor. He was one of the most prevalent film/theater actors in Greece. Biography He was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1915. A few years later his family moved to Marseille ...

as Spyros' friend, owner of Ciné Pantheon * Iakovos Panotas as soldier/the girl's boyfriend * Vassia Panagopoulou * Stamatis Gardelis *

Mihalis Giannatos Michalis Giannatos ( el, Μιχάλης Γιαννάτος; 11 July 1941 – 17 September 2013), alternatively spelled as Michael Yannatos, was a Greek actοr. Ηe was born in (Constantinople), Turkey. He left the city for Greece in 1964 dur ...

* Karyofyllia Karabeti * Konstandinos Konstandopoulos * Nikos Kouros * Christoforos Nezer * Stratos Pahis * Dimitris Poulikakos *

Athinodoros Prousalis Athinodoros Prousalis or Proussalis ( el, Αθηνόδωρος Προύσαλης; 15 December 1926 – 5 June 2012) was a Greek film and television actor. He was born in İstanbul, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republi ...

Reception

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

criticized ''The Beekeeper'' in 1993, writing that it "wastes Marcello Mastroianni in his title role" and 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," arguing that ''The Beekeeper'' is interesting only in the context of Angelopoulos's other two titles in his "trilogy of silence" (which also includes ''

'' and ''

''). It was also written in '' Time Out'' that the film "has a stately pace and a shortage of event or information that are a lot to take."

John Gillett John Gillett (1925–1995) was a British film critic and researcher whose career at the British Film Institute spanned over 44 years. He was also a programmer for the National Film Theatre on the works of Buster Keaton, early Russian cinema and J ...

for a London Film Festival screening praised ''The Beekeeper'' as having "wonderfully textured images by Arvanitis, a succession of beautifully sustained traveling shots, and an emotional intensity which moves to a grave, overwhelming climax."

Ronald Bergan Ronald Bergan (né Ginsberg, 2 November 1937 – 23 July 2020) was a South African-born British writer and historian. He was contributor to ''The Guardian'' (from 1989) and lecturer on film and other subjects as well as the author (or co-author) ...

, in his obituary of Angelopoulos, described ''The Beekeeper'' as a "compelling film" which "could be called a metaphysical road movie". In ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', however, Holly Williams in 2010 lauded the film as "ponderously paced but poignant" and stated that "the directing is assured, and the performances restrained and heartbreakingly believable." Acquarello of Strictly Film School called the work "a haunting, compassionate, and profoundly melancholic portrait of isolation, dislocation, estrangement, and obsolescence," referring to it as an "indelible chronicle" of the contemporary Greek society. ''The Beekeeper'' was nominated for

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...

at the 43rd Venice International Film Festival.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beekeeper, The 1986 films 1986 drama films 1980s drama road movies Films set in Greece Greek drama films 1980s Greek-language films Films directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos Films with screenplays by Tonino Guerra Films scored by Eleni Karaindrou Fiction about beekeeping Films about bees Films shot in Florina 1980s Greek films