Directory of World Cinema: Spain

290 Pages·2011·7.56 MB·English

by  Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano

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directory of r
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world cinema
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EDITED By LorEnzo J. TorrES HorTELAno e
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Though well-loved by moviegoers worldwide, Spanish cinema has thus far r
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suffered from a relative lack of critical attention. Focusing on the vast corpus

of films that have left their marks on generations of spectators, Directory o
of World Cinema: Spain returns the national cinema of Spain rightfully to f

the forefront with numerous full-colour stills and essays establishing the key w a
players and genres in their sociopolitical context, including civil war films, o
romances, comedies, and the cinema of the transition. From the award- r
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winning big-budget productions of Pedro Almodóvar in Madrid to Pere
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Portabella’s experimental documentaries and the influential Barcelona School,
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reviews cover individual titles in considerable depth. Essential reading for
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aficionados of Spanish cinema at all levels, this volume provides an accessible
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overview of the main trends and issues in Spanish film.
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Intellect’s Directory of World Cinema aims to play a part in moving intelligent,

S directory of
scholarly criticism beyond the academy by building a forum for the study of
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film that relies on a disciplined theoretical base. Each volume of the Directory a pworld
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will take the form of a collection of reviews, longer essays and research n
resources, accompanied by film stills highlighting significant films and players.
cinema
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ISBN 978-1-84150-463-6
0 0
Directory of World Cinema ISSn 2040-7971
Directory of World Cinema eISSn 2040-798X EDITED By
Directory of World Cinema: Spain ISBn 978-1-84150-463-6 LorEnzo
9 781841 504636
Directory of World Cinema: Spain eISBn 978-1-84150-577-0
J. TorrES
www.worldcinemadirectory.org
HorTELAno
intellect | www.intellectbooks.com
Volume 7
directory of
world cinema
spain
Edited by Lorenzo J. Torres Hortelano
intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA
s
Directory of World Cinema
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First Published in the UK in 2011 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds,
Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
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First published in the USA in 2011 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2011 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
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photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Publisher: May Yao
Publishing Assistant: Melanie Marshall
Cover photo: La niña de tus ojos, Penélope Cruz, 1998. Lolafilms/Cartel /The Kobal Collection.
Cover Design: Holly Rose
o
Copy Editor: Heather Owen
Typesetting: Mac Style, Beverley, E. Yorkshire
Directory of World Cinema ISSN 2040-7971
Directory of World Cinema eISSN 2040-798X
Directory of World Cinema: Spain ISBN 978-1-84150-463-6
Directory of World Cinema: Spain eISBN 978-1-84150-577-0
Printed and bound by Cambrian Printers, Aberystwyth, Wales.
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2 Japan
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directory of
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acknowledgements 5 musical (But not only
flamenco…) 124
introduction by the editor 6
Essay
film of the year: Biutiful 9 Reviews
interview with Jaime rosales 13 period films/de época 144
Essay
industry spotlight: spanish
Reviews
t film production 19
dictatorship forgotten
cultural crossover 22
cinema 164
Influence of European Avant-garde
Essay
Representations of Violence
Reviews
Don Quixote Visual Ridings
the transition to democracy
festival focus 37
cinema/cine de la transición 182
n Semana de Cine Experimental de
Essay
Madrid / Experimental Film Week of
Reviews
Madrid
crime and thriller 200
film location: madrid 40
Essay
directors 45 Reviews
Edgar Neville fantasy and Horror 220
Fernando Fernán-Gómez
Essay
Carlos Saura
Reviews
Víctor Erice
o Pedro Almodóvar experimental documentary 242
Essay
auteur melodrama/
Reviews
melodrama de autor/ 66
Essay recommended reading 262
Reviews
spanish cinema online 266
Grotesque comedy/
test your Knowledge 271
esperpento 84
Essay notes on contributors 274
Reviews
Glossary 282
c iberian drama 104
filmography 285
Essay
Reviews
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This book began to take shape in my mind during Christmas 2009 on a visit to
Rome: an ideal place to dive into history. From that very first moment I began to
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contact the many contributors to this first edition of Directory of World Cinema:
Spain. Without the work of more than 60 of them, it would have been impossible
to accomplish. It is time, therefore, to thank them for their time; and those who
have worked as reviewers as well.
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I also thank those at Intellect for the fantastic work in publicizing new aspects of
national film, in this case, Spanish. I especially appreciate the help of the profession-
als who worked with me directly on this project: May Yao and Melanie Marshall.
l I would also like to acknowledge the help of one of the collaborators, Juan
Mas, who encouraged me from the beginning and ensured that EGEDA (Man-
agement of Audiovisual Producers) was interested in the project. Through this
w organization I have obtained permission for most of the reproductions that
illustrate the critiques. The commendable work of this institution on behalf of
Spanish cinema is much appreciated. It was Victoria Bernal who accompanied
me all the way and to whom I owe special thanks.
Other studios, producers and film-makers have independently provided their
consent, for which I am grateful: Andergraun Films, Antonio López García, El
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Deseo, Emiliano Otegui, Fresdeval Films, Cine Art Group , Impala, Messidor
Films, Mod Producciones, Nickel Odeon Dos, Paulino Viota, Producciones
Cinematográficas Telecinco and Rodar & Rodar Cine y Televisión.
Thanks also to those responsible from the Cines Verdi for assistance in captur-
n ing a few frames, as well as Alicia Potes, from Filmoteca Española.
Special thanks for his invaluable assistance in the final stage of the book to José
Miguel Burgos Mazas. With him I was able to complete an extensive interview with
one of the most interesting present Spanish film-makers, Jaime Rosales, to whom
I am indebted for his willing cooperation, and also with Helio San Miguel for the
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translation into English of his interview. I am very grateful to the team of reviewers
that gave me a invaluable help to improve the quality of the texts: Jaime Céspedes,
José Díaz-Cuesta, Almudena Escobar López, Pietsie Feenstra, Juan Mas, Victoria
Pastor-González, Helio San Miguel, John Sanderson, Ana Sedeño and Kuhu Tanvir.
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Finally, I dedicate this book to my wife, Covadonga Cocina, whose spirit ani-
mates every single line of this book.
lorenzo J torres Hortelano
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Acknowledgements 5
Directory of World Cinema
introduction
By tHe editor
Spanish cinema was born almost at the moment that crystallizes one of the burdens of
recent Spain: the permanent loss of the colonies; a moment that, in fact, created an
antagonism to the nation that would have such an important role in the development of
the new art – the US.
It is not, therefore, surprising that Spanish cinema is strange and contradictory, but I
am not proposing a reading with an inferiority complex. In any event, it is a wonderfully
contradictory story because, at base, it is an art developed in the country of Velázquez,
Goya and Picasso. But do our film-makers have the pre-eminence of these universal
masters of the painted image? It is debatable; nevertheless, one of the primary functions
of this Directory is to propose a kind of canon that gives new generations of viewers a
guide to this diverse cinematography that may assist them to decide whether the films
discussed here can excite them as much as, for example, the painting Las Meninas.
The films in this Directory are divided into ten genres, each looking at ten films within
the genre. But this is not a ‘100 best films’, nor is it a ‘history of cinema’ for academic or
professional use. What I have tried to reflect is the everyday ‘use’ that both professionals
and academics and the viewer make of the different film genres. Therefore, the concept
might be thought impure, in the sense that it does not correspond exactly with the
academic characteristics or with the specific professional uses of Spanish cinema or the
viewer’s normal conception of genre; and the ten proposed genres have been placed
within three broader areas:
De época/Period Films, Crime and Thriller, Fantasy and Horror and Experimental
Documentary: These are the most conventional genres of the Directory, as defined pri-
marily by the features that normally correspond to the genres. Its originality, then, comes
6 Spain
Directory of World Cinema
from the unique idiosyncrasies of the combination as formed by professionals of Spanish
cinema (and the inevitable legislature of their time) plus the Spanish audience. It may not
be obvious, since the Spanish film falls into that category of national cinema produced
primarily for domestic consumption, which does not detract from their validity or quality.
In any case, they are standard genres in their own right whose presence in the Spanish
cinematography is, accordingly, important enough to dedicate a space.
Melodrama de autor/’Auteur’ melodrama, Esperpento/Grotesque Comedy, Iberian
Drama and Musical (But Not Only Flamenco...): These are, in turn, genres that the reader
will probably not find elsewhere and are, perhaps, an original idea in terms of generic
classification. They assume, first, a theoretical reflection on a body of films that are usu-
ally ascribed to standard genres of the type mentioned in the previous section – but
whose personality makes it appropriate to think otherwise; and, secondly, is a deduction
from my personal experience that attempts to explain what I think are the three great
spiritual veins of Spanish cinema: melodrama (and just drama), comedy and musical.
Dictatorship Forgotten Cinema, Cine de la Transición/The Transition to Democracy
Cinema: If the first two major groups of genres have referred to professional practice and
theoretical reflection, finally, in this third group, I attend to what many viewers on a daily
basis tend to think when they talk about certain types of films – ‘de la Dictadura’ or ‘de
la Transición’ (I left for a possible second volume another large group of films that would
fit here, ‘de la Guerra Civil’) – which, from a theoretical point of view, are not, logically,
comparable with the previous ones, but I think that enrich what the DWC: Spain can
offer to complete a journey through the best of more than 100 years of Spanish cinema
history. It is worth noting that in the genre Dictatorship Forgotten Cinema I also propose
a joint tribute to several generations of directors who, due to ideological reasons, have
had their work suppressed, which led, in many cases –such as with Edgar Neville – to
oblivion. Though International conferences and several books of various AEHC (Spanish
Association of Film historians) partners have preceded me in this tribute, it is, without
doubt, still needed.
The book opens with three articles (in Cultural Crossover) that address three aspects,
which, while not specifically cinematic, define Spanish culture in a universal way: first,
from the aesthetic point of view, the influence of the avant-garde, in which Spain played
an important role, and in which the figure of Buñuel has its own brightness; secondly, a
more sociological aspect about how violence is represented in Spanish cinema: a subject
that Marsha Kinder (1993) already pointed out in Blood Cinema, and somehow marked
the international theoretical understanding of Spanish cinema, but that now requires
some revision; and, finally, an article on film adaptations of that universal, Spanish char-
acter, titled ‘Don Quixote Visual Ridings’, since Don Quixote’s ridings are also readings
of the deepest Spanish being.
But Spanish cinema needs to be impregnated with new blood from the most avant-
garde currents worldwide. The task has been in progress for some time, as is pointed
out in the article about Experimental Film Week of Madrid, whose twentieth anniversary
was celebrated in 2010. This very important aspect is also discussed in the essay Spanish
Film Production.
From this need should be understood the inclusion, perhaps controversial, of Biuti-
ful for The Best Film of the Year. Although Iñárritu is a Mexican director, the film is a
co-production, set in Barcelona, and several members of the technical and artistic team
are Spaniards, with the Spanish roots in the story, etc, and it is even more Spanish if we
consider one of the biggest criticisms that it usually suffers: the relative weight of Javier
Bardem in the whole film. But his tone is aimed at a global audience – which is important
in contemporary Spanish production. Beyond this, we believe that Spanish cinema has
for too long turned its back on Latin American cinema and, therefore, in a sense, the
choice of Biutiful is a tribute and a desideratum.
Introduction 7
Directory of World Cinema
Madrid is the most important city in the history of Spanish cinema. This fact has not
been sufficiently weighed. Again, we see ideological and political motives in this. That is
why I dedicate to this city the Film Location section.
In considering directors, I have already noted the claim for Neville. The same goes
for Fernando Fernán-Gómez – as complete an artist as they come. Erice and Almodóvar
need little introduction: they are living examples of two radically-different ways of
understanding cinema. And finally, Carlos Saura, the first of the five to be recognized
internationally. But we do not forget an absence: Buñuel; but let us leave something for
the second volume...
A formal note: some of the films included does not have an official translated title from
Spanish into English, in cases like that, the offered title comes with parenthesis or square
brackets.
And a decisive declaration: synopses of all films are original and have dealt with all
of the events that occur in the film. I do not understand the fear of the so-called spoiler
alert. I think this continues to show a basic misunderstanding; the truth of a film is not
primarily about what is told, but how is it told, so, knowing the story is the best way to
focus on what is important. Anyway, what I have tried to do is what Santos Zunzunegui
(2005: 16) proposed as an analyst of Spanish cinema: what to choose to see the past; to
understand contemporary cinema; and, finally, analyse how film can help us to express
ourselves as a society and understand it better. Without the last task, the rest is in vain
and, perhaps, therefore, is, the most urgent task.
lorenzo J torres Hortelano
8 Spain
Directory of World Cinema
Biutiful, Javier Bardem in Biutiful, Mod Producciones.
film of tHe year
Biutiful
Film of the Year 9