film by other means

erice & kiarostami in dialogue at acmi

The Spirit of the Beehive

Many RealTime readers will be familiar with the films of Abbas Kiarostami and have read about his photographic work (reported from an exhibition in Beijing in RealTime 84, p24). He’s soon to direct Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte for the English National Opera. Spain’s Victor Erice, filmmaker and reviewer, is a much less familiar figure having made only three, albeit acclaimed, feature films (The Spirit of the Beehive, 1973, The South, 1983, The Quince Tree Sun, 1992) over some 30 years.
An exhibition of film, video, photography and painting by the two artists will be accompanied by filmed dialogues. Erice and Kiarostami are the same age and their films share some common preoccupations with childhood and our place in the landscape as well as distinctively poetic and contemplative styles of filmmaking.

Correspondences: Víctor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami offers a rare opportunity, beyond film scholarship and documentaries, to engage with filmmakers through their other means of expression and their communication with each other. To be able to see some of their key films, like Erice’s remarkable The Spirit of the Beehive (a superior companion piece to Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth) in this context will make for a very special cinema experience. RT

Correspondences: Víctor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami, curators Alain Bergala, Jordi Balló, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona and la Casa Encendida de Madrid, ACMI Screen Gallery, Aug 21-Nov 2. Complementary film program to be announced,

RealTime issue #85 June-July 2008 pg. 22

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