Three feature films and two short films in thirty years: even if this seems to be a limited number of films, it is a rich, authentic and important sum of work by Victor Erice. The Spirit of the Beehive and The South dive into the turbulent inner landscapes of the childhood, which is captured as an unknown country; poetic yet terrifying. In Dream of Light, the art of painting is transfigured into a bitter comment on the agony of creation, the corruption of things and the invisible passing of time. The book opens with a series of bold general texts, a section with the director’s views followed by his brief yet exceptional filmography carefully reviewed (the text by Monte Hellman on The Spirit of the Beehive was a true surprise). Equally remarkable is the text by Nikos Lyggouris on Dream of Light. A precious monograph edited by Irini Stathi.
