Ana Torrent was born on 12 July 1966 in Madrid to an upper-class family.[1] Her debut came in 1973 with the starring role as "Ana" in the film El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive), directed by Víctor Erice, when she was seven years old.[2] In reference to her recruitment for this first film, Torrent stated:
"I remember meeting Victor for the first time. He was standing around during recess at my school, taking pictures of me and other girls. He was traveling around many schools to find a young girl to cast. I remember telling my parents that some man is taking pictures of me at school. Then they called on me one day while I was in class and mentioned the movie. I also remember some things from the shoot: the atmosphere, the sounds, the lights. It wasn’t a difficult process because it wasn’t acting. I never considered myself an actress. I was just playing myself, a child, and they gave me instructions. I remember my character in the film was even supposed to have a different name, but at that age, I didn’t understand why they weren’t calling me my name, so Victor changed it to Anna. I wasn’t conscious of acting at all, and I didn’t understand what I was doing. It was just like a big mysterious game."[3]
After The Spirit of the Beehive, she played a character with the same name in Cría Cuervos (Raise Ravens) (1976) by director Carlos Saura. Despite her success in film as a young child, she later recounted how it was not until her teens that she began to consider herself to really be an actress:
"It was much later. My role in The Spirit of the Beehive was a coincidence. I would have never chosen to be an actress myself. And my family had nothing to do with the film world. I was a shy and reserved person. I wasn’t like the other kids that wanted to perform in the theatre. I began to understand what acting was, and I began to enjoy it when I was 17 or 18. Again it was thanks to Victor. We kept in touch after The Spirit of the Beehive, and when I was around 16, we were speaking, and he asked me what I wanted to do career-wise. I wasn’t sure, and he asked if I thought about acting and recommended I take some acting classes. I began classes around 17, and that’s when I knew I wanted to do this for a living."[4]
More recently, she rejoined Erice to star in the film Close Your Eyes. It premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, marking Torrent's return to Cannes after the presentation of Cría cuervos in 1976.[5] In the film, she portrayed Ana Arenas, the daughter of long-disappeared actor Julio Arenas.[6] Also in 2023, she starred in Foremost by Night, which debuted in the Venice Days.[7] She portrayed Cora, a woman unable to bear biological children.[7]
^Pavlović, Tatjana (2008). "Los paraísos perdidos: Cinema of Return and Repetition (Basilio Martín Patino, 1985)". In Resina, Joan Ramon (ed.). Burning Darkness. A Half Century of Spanish Cinema. State University of New York Press. p. 111. ISBN978-0-7914-7503-4.
^Benavent, Francisco María (2000). Cine español de los 90. Diccionario de películas, directores y temático. Bilbao: Ediciones Mensajero. p. 280. ISBN84-271-2326-4.
