UNIVERSITY OF OSLO The power of film in Venezuela and Mexico, 1980-2010 Contesting and supporting state power Audun Solli January 2014 PhD dissertation Audun Solli University of Oslo Faculty of Humanities 2014 © Audun Solli KULTRANS, University of Oslo Printer: O7 Gruppen ASP ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... vii Summary ................................................................................................................................ xi Sammendrag .......................................................................................................................... xii Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Problem statement ............................................................................................................... 1 Issues and objective: cultural and political power ............................................................... 2 Central argument ................................................................................................................. 3 Purpose ................................................................................................................................ 5 Structure ............................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter one. Communicating society: the power of popular films ......................................... 8 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 8 Introducing Gramsci ............................................................................................................ 9 Gramsci’s project ........................................................................................................... 13 Gramscian hegemony ..................................................................................................... 13 The state and the loss of hegemonic power ................................................................... 15 Film as popular culture ...................................................................................................... 18 Selection criteria............................................................................................................. 21 Sources and data issues .................................................................................................. 22 The power of framing social reality ................................................................................... 25 Framing theory and the study of popular films .............................................................. 28 Scope of the present study ................................................................................................. 44 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter two. The contest for hegemony in a new and an old cinema ................................... 48 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 48 El nuevo cine: for a national, realist, critical, and popular cinema .................................... 49 Tension one: making popular films................................................................................ 54 Tension two: popular films and Hollywood................................................................... 58 Tension three: the state................................................................................................... 62 El nuevo cine in Venezuela ................................................................................................ 62 Historical developments of Venezuelan cinema ............................................................ 66 Venezuelan cinema and the chavista state ..................................................................... 77 El viejo cine in Mexico ...................................................................................................... 81 The impact of el nuevo cine ........................................................................................... 86 iii Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 89 Chapter three. The counter-hegemonic strategies of Venezuelan cinema 1980-1999 .......... 91 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 91 Framing poverty as marginalization .................................................................................. 93 The dominant frame of Venezuelan nuevo cine: a corrupt state and marginalization ....... 96 Criticizing the state in the 1980s .................................................................................... 96 Criticizing marginalization in the 1980s ...................................................................... 102 Political crisis and marginalization in the 1990s.......................................................... 106 The counter-hegemonic politics of the crisis frame......................................................... 112 Recurrence in the dominant frame ............................................................................... 114 Points of disagreement within the dominant frame...................................................... 120 El nuevo cine outside the crisis frame ............................................................................. 125 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter four. Fear of violence and ambivalence in Venezuelan cinema 2000-2010 .......... 129 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 129 Framing poverty as a threat ............................................................................................. 130 Changes in the film sector ............................................................................................... 134 Critiquing the state with violence .................................................................................... 137 Ambivalently chavista: films on Venezuela’s recent history .......................................... 141 Culture of fear and politics of ambivalence ..................................................................... 147 Five films outside the crisis frame ................................................................................... 152 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 153 Chapter five. Mexico 1980-1999: everything in order ........................................................ 155 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 155 Framing harmless violence .............................................................................................. 156 Ni algún premio me van a dar: comedies and the 1980s ................................................. 159 There’s no place like home: Mexicans belong to Mexico ........................................... 161 Laughing at everyday life............................................................................................. 165 The melodramatic 1990s .................................................................................................. 168 Melodramatic teenage innocence ................................................................................. 172 Romantic woes and individual crisis............................................................................ 174 The politics of the harmony frame ................................................................................... 176 Potential Mexicans, indigenismo and a Golden Age ideology .................................... 176 iv Screening neoliberalism ............................................................................................... 183 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 188 Chapter six. Mexico 2000-2010: nothing in order .............................................................. 190 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 190 Framing arbitrary violence .............................................................................................. 191 Developments in the film industry .................................................................................. 193 Screening a Mexican crisis .............................................................................................. 195 Culture of fear and the politics of ambivalence ............................................................... 204 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 208 Conclusion: symbiotic and antagonistic relationships ........................................................ 209 Reformulating