Tagline: Words may define us, but it’s love that connects us.
Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a beloved university professor, dotes on her talented elder brother Aaron (Max Minghella). Her scientist mother, Miriam (Juliette Binoche), seems consumed by her career. When a spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazes everyone: she wins.
Her newfound gift garners an invitation not only to the national competition, but an entrée into the world of words and Jewish mysticism that have so long captivated her father’s imagination. But Eliza’s unexpected success hurls the Naumann family dynamic into a tailspin, long-held secrets emerge and she is forced to depend upon her own divination to hold the family together.
About the Production
“My father told me once, that I could reach the ear of God… that words and letters would be my guide and like the ancient mystics, God would flow through me.” —Eliza Naumann, Bee Season
Eliza Naumann spells words. Lots of words. Hard words. Long words. And with an effortlessness and understanding that surprises everyone around her. Her teachers, her fellow students. But especially those closest to her: her father, mother and brother. The people whose lives Eliza’s newfound genius will irrevocably change. Bee Season is the kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family whose picture-perfect surface conceals an underlying world of secret turmoil.
As Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) trains for the ultimate test of her spelling powers — the pressure-packed National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C — her family simultaneously begins to fall apart. Indeed the more amazing the words are that Eliza learns to spell, the more communication seems to break down all around her. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a religious studies professor, sees something transcendent in Eliza’s magical gift, and begins to teach her the secrets of Kabbalah. He becomes obsessed with her victories, living vicariously through her path to God.
Her mother Miriam (Oscar winner Juliette Binoche) finds Eliza and Saul’s shared focus a painful reminder of the connection she once had with her husband and her own parents, who died tragically when she was a young girl. Meanwhile, Eliza’s older brother Aaron (Max Minghella), once her father’s favorite, rebels against his withdrawal of affection, experimenting with other religions, and eventually seeking out a connection with a beautiful Hare Krishna (Kate Bosworth). With her family disintegrating before her young eyes, it’s up to Eliza — and an unexpected act of selflessness and love — to put the broken pieces of her world back together.
At the heart of Bee Season lies a powerful thread of modern American family life: the yearning for perfection. On the surface, the Naumann family appears to be ideal – upper middle-class, highly accomplished, deeply spiritual, and seemingly tightly knit. But the film gradually reveals that the picture-perfect family is, in fact, comprised of individuals on disparate (and often desperate) paths toward their own notions of transcendence – quests that lead them to pursue intense and even dangerous spiritual experiences.
Eliza’s unlikely emergence as the ‘family star’ has the effect of tearing the fragile fabric that has thus far held them together. Through the glare of approbation that her anomalous spelling genius has brought her, Eliza nonetheless manages to discern that it’s up to her to restore what has been shattered – a feat she accomplishes through an act that can be interpreted either as a reclaiming of her self (and a tacit rejection of God’s voice), or, alternately, as a selfless channeling of God’s profound love.
Bee Season (2005)
Directed by: David Siegel
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Richard Gere, Max Minghella, Kate Bosworth, Flora Cross, Corey Fischer, Piers Mackenzie, Kathy McGraw, Alisha Mullally, Lorri Holt
Screenplay by: Naomi Foner
Production Design by: Kelly McGehee
Cinematography by: Giles Nuttgens
Film Editing by: Lauren Zuckerman
Costume Design by: Mary Malin
Set Decoration by: Kris Boxell
Art Direction by: Michael E. Goldman
Music by: Peter Nashel
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, a scene of sensuality and strong language.
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: November 11, 2005
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