Ana & Isabel

The scene: A small Castilian village, the year 1940, and two cutie-pie little girls Ana (7) and her sister Isabel (10) are tucked in their beds after watching James Whale's Frankenstein at a travelling cinema.

Ana: [unable to sleep] Isabel?
Isabel: [opening her eyes] What?
Ana: [whispering] Tell me what you were going to tell me.
Isabel: [whispering] About what?
Ana: The movie.
Isabel: Not now. Tomorrow.
Ana: Now. You promised. Why did he kill the girl, and why did they kill him after that? [pause] You don't know - you're a liar.
Isabel: They didn't kill him, and he didn't kill the girl.
Ana: How do you know? How do you know they didn't die?
Isabel: Everything in the movies is fake. It's all a trick. Besides, I've seen him alive.
Ana: Where?
Isabel: In a place I know near the village. People can't see him. He only comes out at night.
Ana: Is he a ghost?
Isabel: No, he's a spirit.
Ana: Like the spirit Dona Lucia talks about?
Isabel: Yes, but spirits have no bodies. That's why you can't kill them.
Ana: But he had one in the movie. He had arms and feet. He had everything.
Isabel: It's a disguise they put on when they go outside...
Ana: If he only comes out at night, how can you talk to him?
Isabel: I told you he was a spirit. If you're his friend, you can talk to him whenever you want. Just close your eyes and call him: It's me, Ana. It's me, Ana.

Sounds good, doesn't it? I wish I wrote it. But, noooo. It's from "El Espíritu de la Colmena" ("The Spirit of the Beehive") directed by Victor Erice. I think the word masterpiece would be fitting here...and would also be an understatement. The film was released in 1973. That's a year long, long ago just after the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs became extinct and just before the internet. Despite oodles of acclaim and widely regarded as the greatest Spanish film of the 70's/ever, I had never heard of it. Ever. (But then, with apologies to its 4 million citizens, I'd never heard of Moldova either.)

I watched it last evening and it's now added to my short list of very favourites.
El Espíritu de la Colmena. A beauty.