Víctor Erice

Biography

Víctor Erice Aras (Spanish: [ˈbiɣtoɾ eˈɾiθe]; born 30 June 1940; Karrantza) is a Spanish film director. He is best known for his two feature fiction films, The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), which many regard as one of the greatest Spanish films ever made, and El Sur (1983). Erice was born in Karrantza, Biscay. He studied law, political science, and economics at the University of Madrid. He also attended the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia in 1963 to study film direction. He wrote film criticism and reviews for the Spanish film journal Nuestro Cine, and made a series of short films before making his first feature film, The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), a critical portrait of 1940s rural Spain. Erice was among other filmmakers, such as Luis Buñuel, who lived in “such restricted societies as Franco’s Spain,” to take aim at the authoritarian rule in power. At the time his first film was released in 1973, Francisco Franco was still in power. One of the things The Spirit of the Beehive is known for is its use of symbolism to portray what life was like in Spain under Franco’s rule. Setting the movie in 1940, at the start of Franco’s rule, was a risk for Erice, given that the film “was…

Directed

1. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) — Director
2. El Sur (1983) — Director
3. Close Your Eyes (2023) — Director
4. Dream of Light (1992) — Director
5. Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (2002) — Director
6. La Morte Rouge (2006) — Director
7. Historic Centre (2012) — Director
8. The Challenges (1969) — Director
9. Sea-Mail (2007) — Director
10. Los días perdidos (1963) — Director
11. Víctor Erice – Abbas Kiarostami: Correspondences (2007) — Director
12. Arroyo de la luz (2005) — Director
13. 3.11 A Sense of Home Films (2011) — Director
14. On the Terrace (1961) — Director
15. Ana, Three Minutes (2011) — Director
16. Between the Tracks (1962) — Director
17. Lifeline (2002) — Director
18. Broken Windows (2012) — Director
19. Plegaria (2018) — Director
20. Celebrate Cinema 101 (1996) — Director
21. Sketches (1990-2003) (2003) — Director
22. Memoria y sueño: El desprecio — Director
23. Pages From a Lost Diary (1962) — Director
24. Memoria y sueño: Sierra de Teruel — Director
25. Piedra y cielo (2019) — Director
26. Preguntas En El Atardecer (1996) — Director

Also appeared in

1. La Morte Rouge (2006) — Self - Narrator
2. The Footprints of a Spirit (1998) — Self - Filmmaker
3. Don't Expect Too Much (2011) — Himself
4. Nuevo / Otro Cine Español - Un Lugar En El Cine (2007)
5. Sodankylä Forever (2010) — Self
6. Víctor Erice – Abbas Kiarostami: Correspondences (2007) — himself
7. Antoñito vuelve a casa (1969)
8. Victor Erice in Madrid (2000) — Interviewee
9. Versión Española: Victor Erice (2003) — Interviewee
10. Víctor Erice: Paris-Madrid allers-retours (2010)
11. Wiara (2018) — Self