100 YEARS of SPANISH CINEMA 9781405184205 1 Pre.Qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page Ii 9781405184205 1 Pre.Qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page Iii
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page i 100 YEARS OF SPANISH CINEMA 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page ii 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page iii 100 YEARS OF SPANISH CINEMA Tatjana Pavlovi´c Inmaculada Alvarez, Rosana Blanco-Cano, Anitra Grisales, Alejandra Osorio, and Alejandra Sánchez 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page iv This edition first published 2009 © 2009 by Tatjana Pavlovi´c, Inmaculada Alvarez, Rosana Blanco-Cano, Anitra Grisales, Alejandra Osorio, and Alejandra Sánchez Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing program has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley-blackwell. The right of Tatjana Pavlovi´c, Inmaculada Alvarez, Rosana Blanco-Cano, Anitra Grisales, Alejandra Osorio, and Alejandra Sánchez to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 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, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 100 years of Spanish cinema / Tatjana Pavlovi´c...[et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–1–4051–8420–5 (hbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978–1–4051–8419–9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—Spain—History. I. Pavlovi´c, Tatjana. II. Title: One hundred years of Spanish cinema. PN1993. 5. S72A15 2009 791. 430946—dc22 2008028051 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Set in 10.5/13pt Minion by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in Singapore by Utopia Press Pte Ltd 001 2008 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page v Contents List of Figures vii About the Authors viii Acknowledgments x Preface xi 1 Silent Cinema and its Pioneers (1906–1930) 1 El ciego de aldea, Ángel García Cardona 8 Amor que mata, Fructuós Gelabert 10 Don Pedro el Cruel, Ricardo Baños, Albert Marro 12 La aldea maldita, Florián Rey 15 2 Surrealism (1924–1930) and the Advent of Sound (the Second Republic: 1931–1936) 21 Un chien andalou, Luis Buñuel 26 Tierra sin pan, Luis Buñuel 30 3 Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) 39 Suspiros de España, Benito Perojo 46 Canciones para después de una guerra, Basilio Martín Patino 52 4 The Autarky: Papier-Mâché Cinema (1939–1950) 61 Raza, José Luis Sáenz de Heredia 66 Locura de amor, Juan de Orduña 74 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page vi vi Contents 5 Neorealism: Status Quo and Dissent (1951–1961) 81 El cochecito, Marco Ferreri 89 Viridiana, Luis Buñuel 96 6 The “Liberal” Dictatorship and its Agony (1962–1975) 104 El verdugo, Luis García Berlanga 113 El jardín de las delicias, Carlos Saura 120 7 Cinema of the Transition: The Period of Disenchantment (1975–1979) 127 El desencanto, Jaime Chávarri 140 El crimen de Cuenca, Pilar Miró 145 8 Post-Franco Spain: The Pedro Almodóvar Phenomenon (1980–1991) 152 Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón, Pedro Almodóvar 161 ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!, Pedro Almodóvar 169 9 Contemporary Trends (1992 to the Present) 180 Vacas, Julio Medem 194 Carícies, Ventura Pons 203 Flores de otro mundo, Icíar Bollaín 211 The Secret Life of Words (La vida secreta de las palabras), Isabel Coixet 218 Glossary of Film Terms 226 Historical Chronology 232 Notes 246 Bibliography 257 Index 263 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page vii Figures Figure 1.1 The city on the other side of the sierra (La aldea maldita, 1930) 18 Figure 2.1 The sliced eye (Un chien andalou, 1929) 28 Figure 2.2 Seduction (Un chien andalou, 1929) 29 Figure 3.1 Couplets of nostalgia (Suspiros de España, 1938) 50 Figure 3.2 “Spain’s salvation” (Canciones para después de una guerra, 1971) 56 Figure 3.3 Poorly paid postwar Spain (Canciones para después de una guerra, 1971) 58 Figure 5.1 The disabled go for a ride (El cochecito, 1960) 93 Figure 5.2 The impossibility of desire (Viridiana, 1961) 100 Figure 5.3 The decadent dinner (Viridiana, 1961) 102 Figure 6.1 Deceptive modernity (El verdugo, 1963) 116 Figure 6.2 The price of modernity (El verdugo, 1963) 118 Figure 6.3 The professional past (El jardín de las delicias, 1970) 124 Figure 8.1 Domestic perversions (Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón, 1980) 166 Figure 8.2 Wear Panties: “Whatever you do, wear panties” (Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón, 1980) 167 Figure 8.3 Consuming the consumer (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!, 1984) 174 Figure 8.4 “La bien pagá” (¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!, 1984) 176 Figure 9.1 Cow’s eyes (Vacas, 1992) 198 Figure 9.2 Barcelona as perpetrator and confessor (Carícies, 1997) 209 Figure 9.3 Contaminate me, mix with me...(Flores de otro mundo, 1999) 215 Figure 9.4 The austere “comfort” of mundanity (The Secret Life of Words, 2005) 222 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page viii About the Authors Tatjana Pavlovi´c is associate professor of Spanish at Tulane University in New Orleans. Her first book is Despotic Bodies and Transgressive Bodies: Spanish Culture from Francisco Franco to Jesús Franco (2003). Her research and teaching interests are twentieth-century Spanish literature and cinema, cultural studies, and film studies. Her next major book project, entitled España cambia de piel: The Mobile Nation (1954–1964), focuses on this key moment of transition in the history of Spanish mass culture. Inmaculada Alvarez received her PhD in Spanish from Tulane Univer- sity in 2006. She was a visiting assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, and is currently a visiting assistant professor at Clark University. Her research and teaching interests include transatlantic studies, contemporary Spanish cinema and literature, film theory, and Caribbean studies. Rosana Blanco-Cano received her PhD in Spanish from Tulane University in 2006. Currently she is an assistant professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Her research and teaching interests are twentieth-century Mexican literature and film, performance, and feminism. Anitra Grisales received her MA in Spanish from Tulane University in 2004. She worked in editorial acquisitions at Duke University Press prior to moving to Oakland, CA, where she is now a freelance editor and translator specializing in film and media studies. She is also a reporter and independent radio producer who focuses on Latino/a issues and on political relations between Latin America and the United States. 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page ix About the Authors ix Alejandra Osorio is a professor in the Communications Department of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa, Mexico. Her areas of interest are Mexican cinema and photography. Alejandra Sánchez is a PhD candidate at Tulane University in the Depart- ment of Spanish and Portuguese. Her research interests include the body in Latin American performance in the twentieth century and contemporary Latin American literature and cinema. 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page x Acknowledgments We have many people to thank for their support, guidance, and encourage- ment at various stages of this project. John Charles, Laura Bass, and Henry Sullivan each gave the manuscript detailed and insightful readings. We are deeply indebted to them for their friendship, ideas, and critical suggestions. Tulane University provided research support and a stimulating intellectual milieu in which to test our project. Thanks also to Anthony Geist and Marvin D’Lugo for years of personal and intellectual support that goes well beyond the pages of this book. We would also like to thank the Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Spanish Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, whose grant for the dissemination of Spanish cinema in the United States provided fund- ing for the film festival “Politics of Memory, Memory of Politics: Film and History in Contemporary Spain” (Tulane University, spring 2007). We thank our editor Jayne Fargnoli and her assistant Margot Morse at Wiley-Blackwell for their efficiency, patience, and commitment to the project. 9781405184205_1_pre.qxd 08/08/2008 15:08 Page xi Preface Trains thundering toward the camera, workers leaving factories, worshippers coming out of churches, and theatrical screen gags were some of the images that thrilled the first moviegoers in Spain in the early 1900s.