The Beekeeper [1986]

The Beekeeper, the second chapter in Angelopoulos’ ‘Trilogy of Silence’, was thematically and stylistically a more apt companion piece to Eternity and A Day, along with Voyage to Cythera. Like the Bruno Ganz starrer, this was more of an intimate and personal drama than a sprawling or a political one, and had a renowned non-Greek actor as a middle-aged central protagonist who is quietly at odds with the fast-changing world around him. It began with a deeply emotional sequence – Spyros (Marcello Mastroianni), a soft-spoken teacher, internally weeping at his daughter’s marriage. Upon the completion of the event he leaves his wife and his job, and returns to his roots, so to speak – that of life on the roads keeping bees which he had learned from his father. During his journey he meets some of his old friends, and makes acquaintance with a young, carefree and promiscuous hitchhiker (Nadia Mourouzi). He initially avoids her advances because she reminds him of his daughters; yet, ironically for the same reason, he eventually embarks on a passionate tryst with her. Theo wonderfully counterbalanced the allusions of incest, self-guilt, mid-life crisis and futile attempts at personal redemption, with its broader, if subtler, sociopolitical observations on the chasm between Greece’s past and present. Mastroianni gave a masterful performance laden with restraint and near-passivity, while Mourouzi, too, was effective as the girl who briefly joins him in his physical, emotional, and ultimately, personal odyssey. As can be expected, the film comprised of exquisite washed-out photography, elegant camerawork, deeply melancholic tone, and leisurely pacing allowing for probing into the near impregnable psyche of the complex protagonist.

Director: Theo Angelopoulos
Genre: Drama/Psychological Drama/Road Movie
Language: Greek
Country: Greece