Der Bienenzüchter

"The Beekeeper" (1986) is Theo Angelopoulos' seventh film and features leading man Marcello Mastroianni. The minimal and meaningless plot (following the disintegration of his family, a beekeeper embarks on a trip and has an on/off affair with a young girl) is an excuse for Angelopoulos to indulge in his trademark semi-poetic images of Greek rural and urban landscapes.

A few of the sequences stick out, but most are unremarkable (and there's too much deja-vu about them, all Angelopoulos films are pretty much the same). There is very little action, very little dialog, too much boredom, too much doodling. This is the definition of pretentious art-house pomp.

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.

A beekeeper, Spyros, having just married off his daughter, who seems to be the only person he has any humanly connection with, embarks on a journey with his bees across the country as part of his profession. A journey during which he encounters a free spirited young girl who hitches a ride on his truck.

This movie quite brilliantly explores loneliness from two levels. One, from the aging beekeeper, who with the marriage of his daughter and the separation with his wife, has nothing for himself and seeks to fill this void through revisiting aspects from his past. The second, is from the young girl, whose loneliness is manifested through a destructive and meaningless attachment to whatever brings her instant gratification with no regard for consequences in the future. And the movie explores how the pairing of the two can lead to nothing but despair.

Theodoros Angelopoulos is a filmmaker who speaks through silence, where the unspoken is always the most expressive. And fittingly, the Beekeeper is a movie engrossed in a sense of yearning; either towards something you once had, or for things you think you should have. The tragedy of one's hopelessness in the world of Angelopoulos, lies not in one's choices, but in their unchangeable state of loneliness they so desperately try to escape.

What's not to love here?

A sad and extremely poignant movie from the unique, and sadly late, director Theodoros Angelopoulos. Is there such thing as the male menopause? Yes, there is, and Angelopoulos in this movie, portrays the subject through his main character with unique emphasis on the basics of human emotions of infinite sadness, loneliness, futile aspirations, rejection, desperation, ....

Wonderfully poetic movie, the images of which (gas stations, industrial grounds, and lots of rain) stick in one's mind. This film about a middle aged man searching for some meaning in his otherwise empty life is made the more poetic and unforgettable by the magnificently melancholic music of Eleni Karaindrou.