A Companion to Spanish Cinema

Spanish cinema has firmly established itself on the international film scene over the last two decades, and is now an integral part of the syllabus for students of Spanish and Cinema Studies. A Companion to Spanish Cinema closes a gap in existing scholarship, presenting an insightful and provocative collection of newly commissioned essays covering the whole time–span of Spanish cinema.

Drawing on the best of the American, British, and Spanish critical traditions, twenty–six top international scholars discuss major issues in Spanish cinema from a variety of theoretical and geographical perspectives. The volume s thematic approach to the history of Spanish cinema is unique in the field, and combines coverage of key topics with in–depth textual analysis of specific films. A rich mosaic of genres and formats are explored from popular and art cinema to documentary, shorts, experimental film, and animation as are the cultural, artistic, industrial, commercial, and theoretical contexts of the medium.

An invaluable introduction to Spanish cinema for first–time students and teachers of Spanish culture, this companion also offers innovative models for future research that will benefit experienced scholars.

List of Figures ix

List of Contributors xviii

1 Introduction 1
Jo Labanyi and Tatjana Pavloviæ

Part I Reframing the National 13

2 Transnational Frameworks 15
Gerard Dapena, Marvin D Lugo, and Alberto Elena

3 Echoes and Traces: Catalan Cinema, or Cinema in Catalonia 50
Brad Epps

4 Negotiating the Local and the Global: Andalusia, the Basque Country, and Galicia 81
José Colmeiro and Joseba Gabilondo

Part II The Construction of the Auteur 111

5 Auteurism and the Construction of the Canon 113
Marvin D Lugo and Paul Julian Smith

6 Strategic Auteurism 152
Antonio Lázaro–Reboll, Steven Marsh, Susan Martin–Márquez, and Santos Zunzunegui

Part III Genre 191

7 Comedy and Musicals 193
Steven Marsh, Chris Perriam, Eva Woods Peiró, and Santos Zunzunegui

8 Melodrama and Historical Film 224
Jo Labanyi, Annabel Martín, and Vicente Rodríguez Ortega

9 Film Noir , the Thriller, and Horror 259
Jo Labanyi, Antonio Lázaro–Reboll, and Vicente Rodríguez Ortega

Part IV Stars as Cultural Icons 291

10 The Construction of the Star System 293
Kathleen M. Vernon and Eva Woods Peiró

11 Stars, Modernity, and Celebrity Culture 319
Tatjana Pavloviæ, Chris Perriam, and Nuria Triana Toribio

Part V Image and Sound 343

12 Photography, Production Design, and Editing 345
Vicente Sánchez–Biosca

13 Soundtrack 370
Román Gubern and Kathleen M. Vernon

Part VI The Film Apparatus: Production, Infrastructure, and Audiences 389

14 Censorship, Film Studios, and Production Companies 391
Josetxo Cerdán, Román Gubern, Jo Labanyi, Steven Marsh, Tatjana Pavloviæ, and Nuria Triana Toribio

15 Film Clubs, Festivals, Archives, and Magazines 434
Ferran Alberich, Román Gubern, and Vicente Sánchez–Biosca

16 Audiences 464
Manuel Palacio and Kathleen M. Vernon

Part VII Relations with Other Media 487

17 Cinema, Popular Entertainment, Literature, and Television 489
Sally Faulkner, Vicente Sánchez–Biosca, and Paul Julian Smith

Part VIII Beyond the Fiction Film 519

18 Newsreels, Documentary, Experimental Film, Shorts, and Animation 521
Josetxo Cerdán and Vicente Sánchez–Biosca

Part IX Reading Films through Theory 543

19 Isabel Coixet s Engagement with Feminist Film Theory: From G (the Gaze) to H (the Haptic) 545
Susan Martin–Márquez

20 Becoming a Queer (M)Other in/and/through Film: Transsexuality, Trans–subjectivity, and Maternal Relationality in Almodóvar s Todo sobre mi madre 563
Julián Daniel Gutiérrez–Albilla

21 The Space of the Vampire: Materiality and Disappearance in the Films of Iván Zulueta 581
Brad Epps

Index 597

Jo Labanyi is Professor of Spanish at New York University, where she directs the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center. A founding editor of the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, she edits the series Remapping Cultural History. Her most recent books are Spanish Literature: A Very Short Introduction (2010) and the coedited volume Europe and Love in Cinema (2012). She is a participant in the research project Los medios audiovisuales en la transición española (1975 1985): Las imágenes del cambio democrático, directed by Manuel Palacio at the Universidad Carlos III, Madrid. Her research interests include modern Spanish literature, film, photography, popular culture, gender, and memory studies. She was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2005.

Tatjana Pavloviæ is Professor of Spanish at Tulane University in New Orleans. She is author of the monograph Despotic Bodies and Transgressive Bodies: Spanish Culture from Francisco Franco to Jesús Franco (2003) and coauthor of the comprehensive survey 100 Years of Spanish Cinema (2009). Her recent monograph The Mobile Nation (1954 1964): España cambia de piel (2011) focuses on a crucial period of transition in the history of Spanish mass culture, examining the publishing industry, the expansion of the television network, popular cinema, the development of mass tourism, and the national automobile manufacturing industry.  Her research and teaching interests center on twentieth–century Spanish intellectual history, literature, cultural studies, and film theory.