Been working lots of hours so haven't been to the cinema in a while now but I did see a film last night I'd like to suggest to anyone renting or netflixing films.
Bee Season(2005)
directed byScott McGehee & David Siegel
Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche, Flora Cross and Max Minghella
My initial attraction to this film was because the screen play was written by Jake’s Mom, Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal based on a novel by Myla Goldberg. First let me say, I love indie films, there are some real jewels to found outside studio films. They are often quiet, deep, introspective films like Brokeback Mountain. That’s what I found here, a quiet profound little jewel.
In many ways, the family at the center of this story is not that different from the family in the middle of the divorce drama THE SQUID AND THE WHALE. They enjoy the benefits of belonging to an upper-middle class society and their household is one full of books and musical instruments and a sense of harmony.
Or is it? Are they the perfect family? Meet the Naumanns: Father (Richard Gere) is an avid scholar who teaches the Kabbalah. Mother (Juliette Binoche) is an introvert who passes the time going into other people's properties and collecting items (some which she even gives her daughter Eliza) and has of late taken to a habit of coming home late to dinner. Oldest son Aaron (Anthony Minghella) has a quiet intensity and devotion to his family, particularly his sister, whom he clearly loves. And Eliza (Flora Cross) is one of those quiet individuals who have an ancient wisdom that makes her come across closer to an old soul. It is Eliza who senses all that is wrong with her family, as it appears they are falling apart in front of her, and as a little girl, she simply can't do anything at all to bring everyone together. As a way to escape the unhappy home, Eliza immerses herself in the spelling bee contests in which she excels. Not until then, does she get the attention of her father, who supports her newly found talent.
The advent of the spelling bee victories signals the downward spiral that eventually tears at the foundation and reveals the ugliness beneath. For people who are in love with words, and for Saul Naumann, who teaches the vibration of words and their connection to a greater reality, the reality of being One with the Verb, he is the one most at fault. He's the perfect student who knows what he's reading, but doesn't necessarily practice what he preaches. This spelling bee is a ways for him to bask in Eliza's prowess.
Aaron progressively becomes aware of this lie within his home and is the first to openly rebel. It's a predictable move because it's happened to the best of us. Since Dad practices the Jewish faith, why not choose a belief that challenges it? Enter Challi (Evan Rachel Wood), the girl whom Aaron finds attractive, like a siren calling out to him. Sure, their meeting feels cliché, but I've seen the same types of encounters happening with people of other sects. Her pat screen time serves to instill action in Aaron and create a deeper need to attack Dad's quiet, arrogant pomposity.
Even so, it's not a sincere move. Against this back drop the mother, Miriam is a woman who is deeply disturbed by what happened in her own life with the tragedy of her parents death. Saul and Miriam's marriage is over, but they don't do anything to correct the situation. Miriam's problems come to a head when she is taken away and makes Saul confront the many issues that he probably never dealt with before. And with Miriam 's progressive descent into her own world of trinkets and stolen gifts, the only one who seems capable of any real sense of spirituality is young Eliza who lives deep inside her own unformed, unnamed faith. It's of such a magnitude that she at one key moment, invoking the voice of God before her climactic contest, suffers a seizure immediately following an intense rapture.
BEE SEASON is a movie that looks hokey from different perspectives but spoke to me with its message of what true mysticism means