The Two cines con niño: Genre and the Child Protagonist in Over Fifty Years of Spanish Film (1955-2010)

247 Pages·3.578 MB·English

by  Erin K. Hogan

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‘In this extraordinarily rich study, Erin Hogan helps us to H
understand the distinction of the child in Spanish cinema as
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well as its resilience. Using dialogism as theoretical frame
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of reference, this intelligent book shows how the child has
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been variously ventriloquised and how it has learned to
talk back. Through exhilarating close readings of films which O
speak to one another through time or across geographical

boundaries, the child transforms from biopolitical tool into C
a flexible icon with which to interrogate some of the most I
N
deeply held precepts of Spanish culture.’
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Sarah Wright, Royal Holloway, University of London
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This is the first genre study of child-starred cinemas from C
Spain. It illuminates continuities in the political use of the O
child protagonist in over fifty years of Spanish cinema N
and how the child-starred genres deploy the concept of
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childhood to define retrospectively the nation and its future.
I
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From Francoist popular to oppositional auteur films, and
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including Spanish and Latin American cinema, this monograph
examines commonalities in aesthetics, narratives and genre
E R I N K . H O G A N
functions. It demonstrates the impact of these narratives
within Spanish film history and Francoist biopolitics, as well as T H E T W O
providing a broader transatlantic perspective on the genre in E
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select productions from Chile and Argentina. IN

K
C I N E S
ERIN K. HOGAN teaches courses in Spanish literature and .
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film and Latin American cinema at the University of Maryland, O
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Baltimore County. A
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C O N N I Ñ O
Cover image: Pa negre, 2010, Agustí Villaronga © Massa d’or Produccions
Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com
G E N R E A N D T H E C H I L D
ISBN 978-1-4744-3611-3
P ROTAG O N I S T I N OV E R F I F T Y Y E A R S
edinburghuniversitypress.com O F S PA N I S H F I L M ( 1 9 5 5 − 2 0 1 0 )
The Two cines con niño

The Two cines con niño
Genre and the Child Protagonist
in over Fifty Years of Spanish Film
(1955–2010)
Erin K. Hogan
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK.
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information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Erin K. Hogan, 2018
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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Typeset in Monotype Ehrhardt by
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and printed and bound in Great Britain
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 3611 3 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 3612 0 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 3613 7 (epub)
The right of Erin K. Hogan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements viii
Figure Permissions x
Introduction. The Two cines con niño: The Ventriloquism,
Dialogism and Biopolitics of the Children of Franco in Genre
Film 1
1. The Black Market and the Stolen Children of Franco in
Demonios en el jardín 22
2. The Appropriative and Carnivalesque Ventriloquism of Altar
Boys from Joselito in El pequeño ruiseñor to Ignacio in La mala
educación 39
3. Ventriloquism, Kidnapping and the Carnivalesque in Marisol’s
Tómbola 64
4. Adopting, Adapting and Appropriating in the cines con niño:
Un rayo de luz and El viaje de Carol 88
5. Prosopopeia and the Gothic Child from Marcelino pan y vino to
El orfanato 107
6. Dialogism and Ritual Function of the nuevo cine con niño: El
espíritu de la colmena, Secretos del corazón and El laberinto del
fauno 128
7. Queering Post-war Childhood in Urte ilunak and Pa negre 141
8. The Transatlantic Dialogism in Narrative and Aesthetics of
Bildungsfilms: La lengua de las mariposas, Machuca, El espíritu
de la colmena, El premio, El laberinto del fauno and Infancia
clandestina 164
Conclusion. Spanish Movies: Genre, Nation and Spanish
Movie 200
Select Filmography 210
Select Bibliography 216
Index 232
vi the two cines con niño
8.2 Cecilia of El premio stubbornly roller skates on the beach of
San Clemente del Tuyú in the winter 182
Figures 8.3 Sargento Estévez addresses the schoolchildren in El premio 184
8.4 María blindfolds Juan/Ernesto for a camp game in Infancia
clandestina 191
9.1 Spanish Movie poster with its teetering capital S 202
9.2 Spanish Movie’s parodic homage to Magritte’s ‘Treachery of
Images’ 203
1.1 Dictator Francisco Franco as ventriloquist with daughter- 9.3 Joselito parading as Simeón at the breakfast table with Ramira 208
dummy Carmencita Franco Polo on her mother Carmen
Polo’s lap 27
1.2 Juanito on display at El Jardín in Demonios en el jardín 34
2.1 Joselito sings ‘La estrella y el monaguillo’ with the sexton’s
direction in El pequeño ruiseñor 47
2.2 The abuse fractures Ignacio in La mala educación 52
2.3 Father José introduces child singer Ignacio Rodríguez in La
mala educación 54
2.4 Father José directs Ignacio in La mala educación 54
2.5 A Sara Montiel impersonation in La mala educación 60
2.6 Juan and Mr Berenguer plot at a Valencian carnival museum
in La mala educación 61
3.1 Marisol’s Tío Pablo muzzles her in Tómbola 76
3.2 Marisol and Marieta, the dummy who resembles her in
Tómbola 77
3.3 María Belén and Marisol during her birthday party in
Tómbola 81
4.1 Marisol leads the troops to the tune of ‘Un paso firme’ in Un
rayo de luz 101
4.2 Tomboy Carol arrives in town in El viaje de Carol 103
4.3 Carol dressed in a sailor suit for her first communion in El
viaje de Carol 104
5.1 Marcelino explores the attic in Marcelino pan y vino 119
5.2 Javi explores the basement in Secretos del corazón 120
6.1 Ana reaches the threshold in El espíritu de la colmena 132
6.2 The postliminary embrace of Javi and Tía María in Secretos
del corazón 134
7.1 Andreu conversing with his consumptive friend from within
the monastery in Pa negre 158
7.2 Andrés fogs up the window between himself and his mother,
upon her exit from his new school in Pa negre 160
8.1 Gonzalo witnesses vivid violence in muted colour in Machuca 177
figures vii
8.2 Cecilia of El premio stubbornly roller skates on the beach of
San Clemente del Tuyú in the winter 182
8.3 Sargento Estévez addresses the schoolchildren in El premio 184
8.4 María blindfolds Juan/Ernesto for a camp game in Infancia
clandestina 191
9.1 Spanish Movie poster with its teetering capital S 202
9.2 Spanish Movie’s parodic homage to Magritte’s ‘Treachery of
Images’ 203
9.3 Joselito parading as Simeón at the breakfast table with Ramira 208
viii the two cines con niño
Office of the Vice President for Research. For the Latin American cinema
piece, I wish to acknowledge the generosity of Vania Barraza Toledo and
Acknowledgements the help of Gabriel Cea and Roxana Garcés from the Cineteca chilena,
Celeste Castillo from Buenos Aires’ Museo de cine Pablo Ducrós and
Julia Choclin from Arte Video. I thank Jack Sinnigen for his mentorship
and reading of chapter and proposal drafts. I would like to recognise my
undergraduate research assistant, Colin Hrenko, for his fine proofreading
of the manuscript prior to submission. I would also like to acknowledge the
valuable suggestions of Nicoleta Bazgan, Ana Corbalán, Ana Oskoz, Denis
On Rites of Passage
Provencher, and Margarita Vargas. I am beholden to all my colleagues
Writing a scholarly monograph is in many ways a rite of passage towards who believed in this project and to all the filmmakers, film archives, and
academic maturity. It has its preliminary, liminary, and postliminary steps production companies who have supported this academic enquiry.
and, what’s more, missteps. It’s a zig-zagging path that, for this mono- I have been fortunate to benefit from intellectual exchanges with a
graph, has come to a conclusion thanks to the generosity and support of number of experts whose perceptive scholarship I admire immensely.
many individuals. You can find them by name and in alphabetical order in The Two cines’
The Two cines was conceived as my doctoral dissertation at the bibliography. I would especially like to recognise Sarah Wright as a stellar
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I am grateful to my oral scholar, consummate professional, and humble academic role model.
exams and dissertation committee – Professors Jesús Torrecilla, Roberta Finally, during the postliminary phase, I thank Edinburgh University
L. Johnson, Teófilo F. Ruiz, and Cristina Pons – and, especially, to my Press (EUP) and all those who circulate, adopt, and engage with this
advisor Professor Adriana Bergero for her insight and patience. I am volume.
thankful for funding from UCLA’s Graduate Division and Department My adoption by friends, flatmates, classmates, and their families from
of Spanish and Portuguese, specifically Ben and Rue Pine, and Spain’s Spain – Covadonga, Pablo, Elisa, Natalia, Mónica, and Ricardo – has
Ministry of Culture Program for Cultural Cooperation. The Filmoteca enriched this project immensely. Cova, Belén, and María have been and
Española, especially Trinidad del Río, and Euskadiko Filmategia were become tireless supporters and collaborators.
enormously helpful. I appreciate the time and insight that filmmakers, This book is dedicated to my family: Janet and Charles; Catherine
screenwriters, and producers shared with me in conversations during my and Gene; Lindsey, Austin, and Grayson; and Alexander. Words cannot
graduate and post-graduate research: Montxo Armendáriz, Ramón Barea, sufficiently express a lifetime’s worth of gratitude.
the late José Luis Borau, Roberto Brodsky, José Luis Cuerda, Ana Díez,
Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, José María ‘Txepe’ Lara, and Imanol Uribe.
Many thanks to scholars Valeria Camporesi and María Pilar Rodríguez
who met with me during my investigations. I am grateful to Marvin
D’Lugo for inspiring my love for Spanish cinema through his under-
graduate summer course at Dartmouth College.
In relation to the liminary transition from dissertation to book, I would
like to recognise the support of a number of institutions and individuals.
The University of San Diego (USD) and the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County (UMBC) funded summer research, writing periods, and
conference travel. I am grateful to Jessica Berman and Rachel Brubaker at
UMBC’s Dresher Center for their thoughtful help in navigating the aca-
demic publication rites of passage and for other mentoring and research
support through the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and
acknowledgements ix
Office of the Vice President for Research. For the Latin American cinema
piece, I wish to acknowledge the generosity of Vania Barraza Toledo and
the help of Gabriel Cea and Roxana Garcés from the Cineteca chilena,
Celeste Castillo from Buenos Aires’ Museo de cine Pablo Ducrós and
Julia Choclin from Arte Video. I thank Jack Sinnigen for his mentorship
and reading of chapter and proposal drafts. I would like to recognise my
undergraduate research assistant, Colin Hrenko, for his fine proofreading
of the manuscript prior to submission. I would also like to acknowledge the
valuable suggestions of Nicoleta Bazgan, Ana Corbalán, Ana Oskoz, Denis
Provencher, and Margarita Vargas. I am beholden to all my colleagues
who believed in this project and to all the filmmakers, film archives, and
production companies who have supported this academic enquiry.
I have been fortunate to benefit from intellectual exchanges with a
number of experts whose perceptive scholarship I admire immensely.
You can find them by name and in alphabetical order in The Two cines’
bibliography. I would especially like to recognise Sarah Wright as a stellar
scholar, consummate professional, and humble academic role model.
Finally, during the postliminary phase, I thank Edinburgh University
Press (EUP) and all those who circulate, adopt, and engage with this
volume.
My adoption by friends, flatmates, classmates, and their families from
Spain – Covadonga, Pablo, Elisa, Natalia, Mónica, and Ricardo – has
enriched this project immensely. Cova, Belén, and María have been and
become tireless supporters and collaborators.
This book is dedicated to my family: Janet and Charles; Catherine
and Gene; Lindsey, Austin, and Grayson; and Alexander. Words cannot
sufficiently express a lifetime’s worth of gratitude.