Film Focus: Bee Season
November 15th 2005
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'Bee Season', starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche, is well made, well acted and nicely tracks the breakdown
of a modern American family replete with psychoses. But it's a story that explores a spiritual world that's hard to
fathom and hard to believe.
At first glance, the film seems to about the super-competitive world of spelling bees, in which American school
children take part in spelling competitions at local and national levels.'Bee Season', which is based on a critically
acclaimed novel, takes its title from this tradition but the film is actually a complex portrait of a family searching for
spiritual connection.
When Eliza Naumann, played by Flora Cross, starts winning spelling bees, the dynamics of her family begin to
change. Richard Gere plays Saul, a religious studies professor who is astonished by his daughter's gift and begins
to teach her the secrets of Jewish mysticism. Soon the fragile fabric of family life is torn apart; Eliza's older brother
Aaron, played by Max Minghella, the son of film director Anthony Minghella, starts to rebel against his father and
begins experimenting with other religions.
Richard Gere: "It's about four people who are trying to live together but they're also trying to have some kind of
relationship, an achievement towards God, however they define it."
Gere's character, Saul, draws his ideas from Kabbalah, which is a doctrine of Jewish mystical knowledge concerning
God and the universe. He believes that words and letters used in the right combination will lead to a religious
epiphany. Gere, a well-known Buddhist, found some similarities with his own beliefs.
Damian Fowler: "How did you feel about playing a Jewish theologian?
Richard Gere: "It'sa vast playing field, and in a few months I'm certainly not going to become an expert on that, so
my job is to learn enough about it that it will touch the places in me that have been working in the way I work in my
life, so it's meaningful. There was enough in the higher practices in Kabbalah that, after talking to a lot of Rabbis
and a lot of people, is colse enough to some Vidriana Buddhist practices that I am familiar with, that I feel I could
bring some depth to it."
Meanwhile, the character of Miriam, played by Juliette Binoche, is on her own quest for connection. As the story
progresses her psychological turmoil becomes more evident; she becomes alienated from her husband, who doesn't
understand her mind. Binoche delves deep into her character, a remote and less than endearing woman who
proves a powerful match for Gere.
Juliette Binoche: "When I spoke to him on the phone I said to him 'I'm sorry Richard, I'm going to be horrible, I'm
going to be terrible, forgive me, but that's my character'. He didn't expect that much, I think, he was a little surprised!
But that's the game. I relate to the actor the way I relate as Miriam."
'Bee Season' is a complex film about the universal search for spirituality. No doubt the main challenge was to give
visual form to all of the hidden conflicts the movie explore, but some critics have found the film cold and even
baffling.
Damian Fowler: "Do you think in some ways this might be too smart for mainstream audiences?
Richard Gere: "Yeah, it probably is. If you're looking for a movie about a spelling bee and you don't want anything
more, then this is not the movie for you. And that's okay. We wanted to make a movie that was as rich as the book
was, and found a cinematic way of telling that story. But it's not an easy movie."