Spanish Cinema 1973-2010: Auteurism, Politics, Landscape and Memory

Description

This collection offers a new lens through which to examine Spain's cinema production following the isolation imposed by the Franco regime. The seventeen key films analysed in the volume span a period of thirty-five years that have been crucial in the development of Spain, Spanish democracy and Spanish cinema. They encompass different genres (horror, thriller, melodrama, social realism, documentary), both popular (Los abrazos rotos/Broken Embraces, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and more select art house fare (En la ciudad de Sylvia/In the City of Sylvia, El espiritu de la colmena/Spirit of the Beehive) and are made in English (as both first and second language), Basque, Castilian, Catalan and French. Offering an expanded understanding of 'national' cinemas, the volume explores key works by Guillermo del Toro and Lucrecia Martel alongside an examination of the ways in which established auteurs (Almodovar, Jose Garci, Carlos Saura) and the younger generations of filmmakers (Cesc Gay, Amenabar, Bollain) have harnessed cinematic language towards a commentary on the nation-state. -- .

Maria M. Delgado is Professor of Theatre and Screen Arts at Queen Mary, University of London|Robin Fiddian is Professor of Spanish, Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford -- .

This exciting collection of essays from leading film scholars pays attention to the specificities of the Spanish cultural, social, political and aesthetic panorama (its 'landscapes'), while also acknowledging the importance of shifting transnational contexts for studies of Spanish cinema. Theories of the auteur (developed and extended here) act as a guiding framework for the study of key films, many of which are being afforded scholarly treatments for the first time. This volume offers important observations on current trends, theories and revisionist approaches to Spanish cinema. Sarah Wright, Royal Holloway, University of London -- .