Contemporary Spanish Cinema
Welcome to the module!
Tutor
Dr. Mary Harrod
My office hours: Weds 11-1 and Fri 1-2
Contemporary Spanish Cinema
Useful intro textbooks if you are new to (Spanish) Film
Studies….
FILM ART (D. Bordwell & K.
Thompson) Various editions
El cine español: una
historia cultural (Benet,
2012)
Spanish Cinema. A
Student’s Guide (Jordan
and Allinson, 2005)
Structure of the First Session
• Rationale of the course
• Spanishness in cinema: questions of
identity and industry
• Almodóvar in context
• Mujeres al borde de un ataque de
nervios
-
Introduction to this film
Sequence analysis 1: opening sequence and whole film (discussing emailed questions)
MH ‘presentation’/leading discussion
What is Spanish about Spanish Cinema?
1. Rationale of the course
A bit of political history…
1936-1939: Spanish Civil War
1977:
First democratic elections after the dictatorship
TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY
1975
1978
Death of
Francisco
Franco
(Head of the
Catholic military
dictatorship:
1939-1975)
SPANISH
CONSTITUTION:
Spain becomes a
parliamentary
monarchy
ADULTERY,
HOMOSEXUALITY
AND
CONTRACEPTION
NO LONGER
CONSIDERED
CRIMINAL
OFFENCES.
1982
1986
General Elections:
PSOE (Socialist
Party) elected into
office (1982 – 1996)
Entry into the
European Union
1989
PSOE re-elected –
but loses majority
2. Narrating the nation & exporting the nation
Spanishness:
“An entirely
contingent
concept, a sort of
empty vessel to
be filled with
the nationalist
ideology of any
particular
moment”
(Núria TrianaToribio, Spanish
National
Cinema, p. 7)
Myth and popular culture
Cover: publicity still from
The Girl of Your Dreams
(La niña de tus ojos, Dir.
Fernando Trueba, 1998)
Comedy and Exportability
JAVIER
FESSER
2008 Camino
2003 Mortadelo & Filemón: The Big Adventure
1998 El milagro de P. Tinto
1995 El secdleto de la tlompeta (short)
Feature Films
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
1980-1988
1980
1982
1983
1984
1986
1987
1988
LA MOVIDA MADRILEÑA*
TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY
1975
1982
1986
1989
General elections:
PSOE: 1982 - 1996
Entry into the
European Union
PSOE re-elected –
but loses majority
1978
Death of
Francisco
Franco
(Head of the
Catholic military
Dictatorship:
1939-1975)
SPANISH
CONSTITUTION:
Spain becomes a
parliamentary
monarchy
ADULTERY,
HOMOSEXUALITY
AND
CONTRACEPTION
NO LONGER
CONSIDERED
CRIMINAL
OFFENCES.
4. Pedro Almodóvar: from punk aesthetics to
international auteur
Almodóvar in the 1980s
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap (1980)
Pedro Almodóvar and the Madrid movida
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap (1980)
Community of women: punk singer and
movida icon Alaska, alongside Eva Siva and
Carmen Maura.
•Almodóvar’s most
mainstream film in the 1980s.
•A box-office hit: €7m, 3
million admissions
Pedro Almodóvar, 1988
•The first real international
hit for Spanish cinema:
nominated to the Oscar to the
Best Film in a Foreign
Language (lost to SwedishDanish historical drama Pelle
the Conqueror); recently
adapted into a Broadway
musical.
Cinephilic tribute to Hollywood genre
cinema in Women on the Verge of a
Nervous Breakdown: explicit and implicit
quotations.
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock,
1951)
Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
See also All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)
Settings and
mise-en-scène
Pepa’s luxurious penthouse
is reminiscent of the
lifestyle portrayed in
sophisticated Hollywood
comedies such as How to
Marry a Millionaire (Jean
Negulesco, 1953) – complete
with matteshots (fake
backgrounds): a wished-for
modernity?
Visual Style: Pop Art, Banality and Emotion
Cultural ventriloquism and sound effects
Creating emotion
at a remove
through a collage
of sonic citations:
rancheras (popular
Mexican torch
songs);
Hollywood film
melodrama and
Spanish dubbing
Left: Joan
Crawford in
Johnny
Guitar
Right: Pepa
(Carmen
Maura) dubs
Crawford in
Women…
Masculinity and femininity in crisis:
how modern are Almodóvar’s women (and men)?
Lucía (Julieta Serrano)
Pepa (Carmen Maura)
El taxista (Guillermo
Montesinos)
Iván (Fernando Guillén)
Carlos (Antonio Banderas)