O melissokomos (1986)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Writers:

Theodoros Angelopoulos (writer)
Tonino Guerra (co-writer)

Release Date:

18 December 1987 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A bee keeper, Spiros, travels from the north to the south of Greece with his bees to meet the spring.

Plot Keywords:

Bee | Cinema | Suicide | Death | Intercourse

Cast

Marcello Mastroianni	...	Spyros
Nadia Mourouzi	...	The Girl
Serge Reggiani	...	Sick Man
Jenny Roussea	...	Spyros' Wife
Dinos Iliopoulos	...	Spyros' Friend
Vassia Panagopoulou
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stamatis Gardelis
Mihalis Giannatos
Karyofyllia Karabeti
Konstandinos Konstandopoulos		(as Kostas Konstadopoulos)
Nikos Kouros
Christoforos Nezer
Stratos Pahis
Dimitris Poulikakos
Athinodoros Prousalis
Costas Tymvios
Dora Volanaki
Giannis Zavradinos

Also Known As:

Μελισσοκόμος, Ο (Greece)
Il volo (Italy)
L'apiculteur (France)
The Beekeeper

Runtime:

Argentina:122 min | Greece:140 min | USA:122 min

Country:

France | Greece | Italy

Language:

Greek

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13

Company:

Greek Film Center

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007)

The experience of Isolation

A middle aged teacher retires from his career, dedicates himself to his hobby, and embarks on a journey through Greece with his colony of bees in his lorry. Along the way he picks up a young woman hitch hiker, and a relationship develops between them that explores the depths of personal loneliness and and alienation.

Both Spiros and his young passenger have lost their perspective of the future - he is living in nostalgic reminiscence of the past, while the young girl's life is one of instant gratification, she seems to be aware of neither past nor future. Their inherent inner isolation expresses itself in a series of futile, almost savagely physical attempts at forming real contact with each other, that leaves the viewer with a harrowing picture of disturbed, painful existence.

This is a slow, carefully composed film, a sequence of memorable images, some visually beautiful, others showing the gritty harshness of life. There is a constant shifting between dreams and realities that leaves what actually happens shrouded in doubt, and a moody atmosphere of nostalgia that pervades the whole film.

An exceptional film that should not be missed by patient and observant people interested in the exploration of human feelings.