Burning Darkness

A Half Century of Spanish Cinema

Joan Ramon Resina, Andrés Lema-Hincapié

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN:
  9780791475041
  9780791475034
• eBook ISBN:
  9780791478059
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Film et vidéo

Encourages a deep reading of a selection of essential Spanish films.

From the origins of the New Spanish Cinema in the 1950s to the end of the last century, Burning Darkness features essays on a selection of essential films by Spain's most important directors, including Pedro Almodóvar, Luis Buñuel, Víctor Erice, Ventura Pons, and others. Contributors focus on current theoretical debates and issues of representation, politics, cultural identity, and aesthetics. Rather than historically surveying Spanish films, the book encourages a deep reading of these essential works and the ways they cast light on specific aspects of Spanish society and its recent history. Accessibly written, it will appeal not only to students and scholars but also to anyone interested in Spanish cinema.

Table of contents

• Burning Darkness
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Introduction
• 1. Rehearsing for Modernity in ¡Bienvenido, Mister Marshall!(Luis García Berlanga, 1952)
• 2. Existential Crossroads in Muerte de un ciclista( Juan Antonio Bardem, 1955)
• 3. Viridiana Coca-Cola(Luis Buñuel, 1961)
• 4. El espíritu de la colmena: Memory, Nostalgia, Trauma(Víctor Erice, 1973)
• 5. A Poetics of Splitting: Memory and Identity in La prima Angélica(Carlos Saura, 1974)
• 6. Ambiguous Disenchantment in El corazón del bosque(Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, 1979)
• 7. Los paraísos perdidos: Cinema of Return and Repetition(Basilio Martín Patino, 1985)
• 8. (M)Othering Strategies in El pájaro de la felicidad(Pilar Miró, 1993)
• 9. Abjection, Trauma, and the Material Image: La madre muerta( Juanma Bajo Ulloa, 1993)
• 10. The Catalan Body Politic as Aired in La teta i la lluna(Bigas Luna, 1994)
• 11. Genre and Screen Violence: Revisiting Tesis(Alejandro Amenábar, 1995)
• 12. Conceptualizing “the Impact”in Los amantes del Círculo Polar( Julio Medem, 1998)
• 13. Immortal/Undead: The Body and the Transmission of Tradition in Amic/Amat(Ventura Pons, 1998)
• 14. Imitation of Life: Transsexuality and Transtextuality in Todo sobre mi madre(Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
• 15. The Construction of the Cinematic Image: En construcción( José Luis Guerín, 2000)
• Works Cited
• Contributors
• Index