Catalan Cinema


Book Description

Catalan Cinema offers a theoretical reading of the most relevant cinematic productions to emerge from Catalonia in the last twenty years. The essays in this collection examine cinema in relation to the Escola de Barcelona (The Barcelona School), a group of cinema directors that drew inspiration from British pop-art, Free Cinema, and the Nouvelle Vague to create works that defied and challenged the Franco dictatorship. Highlighting the aesthetic, social, and political elements of Catalan cinematography, contributors to this volume explore what young directors have in common with works created by more notable directors such as Joaquim Jordà, Jacinto Esteva, Jordi Grau, and Pere Portabella. Catalan Cinema focuses on the importance of modern production and its connection with the avant-garde and underground cinema from the Barcelona School. Establishing a cinematic genealogy, the volume ultimately questions if Catalan cinema’s own push for self-expression may be interpreted as a connection to Catalonia’s current drive for independence.




Spanish cinema 1973–2010


Book 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 35 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 espíritu 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 (Almodóvar, José Garci, Carlos Saura) and younger generations of filmmakers (Cesc Gay, Amenábar, Bollaín) have harnessed cinematic language towards a commentary on the nation-state. The result is a bold new study of the ways in which film has created new prisms that have determined how Spain is positioned in the global marketplace.




Ecocinema Theory and Practice 2


Book Description

This second volume builds on the initial groundwork laid by Ecocinema Theory and Practice by examining the ways in which ecocritical cinema studies have matured and proliferated over the last decade, opening whole new areas of study and research. Featuring fourteen new essays organized into three sections around the themes of cinematic materialities, discourses, and communities, the volume explores a variety of topics within ecocinema studies from examining specific national and indigenous film contexts to discussing ecojustice, environmental production studies, film festivals, and political ecology. The breadth of the contributions exemplifies how ecocinema scholars worldwide have sought to overcome the historical legacy of binary thinking and intellectual norms and are working to champion new ecocritical, intersectional, decolonial, queer, feminist, Indigenous, vitalist, and other emergent theories and cinematic practices. The collection also demonstrates the unique ways that cinema studies scholarship is actively addressing environmental injustice and the climate crisis. This book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of ecocritical film and media studies, production studies, cultural studies, and environmental studies.




Sergi Belbel and Catalan Theatre


Book Description

A major contemporary playwright and director. By the late 1970s, internationally known performance groups such as Els Joglars, La Fura dels Baus or La Cubana had precipitated a decline in text-based Catalan theatre, reversed in the mid 1980s with the appearance of a younger generation of playwrights led by Sergi Belbel. Influenced by contemporary European rather than Spanish or Catalan drama, his work was very different from the realist idiom favoured by playwrights of the Franco generation. Butplaywriting is only one aspect of Belbel's work as a theatre practitioner. He also has a highly successful career as a director of Spanish, Catalan and foreign plays [a number of which he himself has translated], and, since 2006, he has held the position of Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Catalonia. This study examines these three key aspects of his career, as well as Ventura Pons's film adaptations of his plays. Finally, it considersthe reception of his plays in several countries, analysing his evolving relationship with critics at home and abroad. DAVID GEORGE is Professor of Hispanic Studies at Swansea University.




100 Years of Spanish Cinema


Book Description

100 Years of Spanish Cinema provides an in-depth look at themost important movements, films, and directors of twentieth-centurySpain from the silent era to the present day. A glossary of film terms provides definitions of essentialtechnical, aesthetic, and historical terms Features a visual portfolio illustrating key points of many ofthe films analyzed Includes a clear, concise timeline to help students quicklyplace films and genres in Spain’s political, economical, andhistorical contexts Discusses over 20 films including Amor Que Mata, Un ChienAndalou, Viridana, El Verdugo, El Crimen de Cuenca, and Pepi, Luci, Born




Catalonia Movie Walks


Book Description

300 Catalonia movie locations to visit. Enjoy a star-struck holiday in Catalonia in the footsteps of Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, Orson Welles, Robert de Niro, Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Pattinson and many more. Make your visit to Catalonia a film-star experience: Catalonia ́s famous beaches have been attracting film makers ever since the Golden Age of Hollywood. Visit the idyllic locations used for such mythical films as Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Suddenly Last Summer or Falstaff - Chimes at Midnight. You can also take a walk with the stars of the 21st century. Catalonia ́s spectacular cultural heritage and vast natural diversity have made it one of the best places in the world to combine holidays and cinema. Discover the locations for great movies like Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Perfume or films by Pedro Almodóvar. Your holidays in Catalonia are about to begin - lights, camera, action!




Contemporary Spanish cinema


Book Description

Contemporary focus, right up to date with material from 1980s and 90s. Wide-ranging analyses of major directors, themes, genres and issues, including historical film, genre cinema, women in film and autonomies.




Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema


Book Description

Emerging as one of the most exciting, fascinating, and special kinds of filmmaking in the world, Spanish cinema has been producing excellent directors, actors, and films for decades, including during the dark times of the Franco regime. With directors (Pedro Almodovar), actors and actresses (Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz), and films (Abre los ojos and Alatriste) amassing popularity, the outlook for Spanish cinema appears brighter than ever, and it is deservedly winning numerous fans abroad. --




The A to Z of Spanish Cinema


Book Description

Spanish cinema is emerging as one of the most exciting, fascinating, and special cinemas in the world. Not only are others viewing Spanish films, but they are adopting Spanish producers and Spanish actors as their own. While Spanish cinema has been maturing for a long time and has been producing excellent directors, actors, and films for decades-including during the dark times of the Franco regime-only now is it winning numerous fans not only at home but also abroad. And with directors like Pedro Almodóvar, actors and actresses like Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, and films such as Abre los ojos and Alatriste to build upon, the outlook for Spanish Cinema appears brighter than ever. The A to Z of Spanish Cinema provides a better understanding of the role Spanish cinema has played in film history through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on producers, directors, film companies, actors, and films.




Tracing the Borders of Spanish Horror Cinema and Television


Book Description

This critical anthology sets out to explore the boom that horror cinema and TV productions have experienced in Spain in the past two decades. It uses a range of critical and theoretical perspectives to examine a broad variety of films and filmmakers, such as works by Alejandro Amenábar, Álex de la Iglesia, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro, Juan Antonio Bayona, and Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The volume revolves around a set of fundamental questions: What are the causes for this new Spanish horror-mania? What cultural anxieties and desires, ideological motives and practical interests may be behind such boom? Is there anything specifically "Spanish" about the Spanish horror film and TV productions, any distinctive traits different from Hollywood and other European models that may be associated to the particular political, social, economic or cultural circumstances of contemporary Spain?