Alex de la Iglesia, initially championed by Pedro Almodovar, and at one time the enfant terrible of Spanish film, still makes film critics nervous. The director of some of the most important films of the Post-Franco era - Accion mutante, El dia de la bestia, Muertos de risa - receives here the first full length study of his work. Breaking away from the pious tradition of acclaiming art-house auteurs, The cinema of Alex de la Iglesia tackles a new sort of beast: the popular auteur, who brings the provocation of the avant-garde to popular genres such as horror and comedy. This book brings together Anglo-American film theory, an exploration of the legal and economic history of Spanish audio-visual culture, a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish cultural forms and traditions (esperpento, sainete costumbrista) with a detailed textual analysis of all of Alex de la Iglesia's seven feature films. -- .

A nation is nothing without the stories it tells about itself. In Spanish National Cinema, Núria Triana-Toribio studies some of the stories told through film, as well as the demands made on Spanish cinema to provide new stories to contribute to the formation of the nation. She also examines the changing national qualities of Spanish cinema, such as the 'Spanishness' of its filmmakers, while taking issue with studies of national cinemas that focus on 'important moments'.
Núria Triana-Toribio's insightful study examines the discourses of nationalism as they intersected or clashed with Spanish film production from its inception to the present. While the book addresses the discourses around filmmakers such as Almodóvar and Medem, whose work has achieved international recognition, Spanish National Cinema is particularly novel in its treatment of a whole range of popular cinema rarely touched on in studies of Spanish cinema. Using accounts of films, popular film magazines and documents not readily available to an English-speaking audience, as well as case studies focusing on the key issues of each epoch, this volume illuminates the complex and changing relationship between cinema and Spanish national identity.

Related link: www.mediastudiesarena.com

A nation is nothing without the stories it tells about itself. In Spanish National Cinema, Núria Triana-Toribio studies some of the stories told through film, as well as the demands made on Spanish cinema to provide new stories to contribute to the formation of the nation. She also examines the changing national qualities of Spanish cinema, such as the 'Spanishness' of its filmmakers, while taking issue with studies of national cinemas that focus on 'important moments'.
Núria Triana-Toribio's insightful study traces how film functioned as a national cultural industry under the Franco regime and since the coming of democracy in the 1970s. She also examines the increasing influence of Hollywood in the financing and character of contemporary Spanish films. While the book addresses the work of such 'high art' filmmakers as Almodóvar and Medem, whose work has achieved international recognition, Núria Triana-Toribio's main focus is on popular cinema which has been successful or significant in a national context. Using accounts of films, popular film magazines and documents not readily available to an English-speaking audience, as well as case studies focusing on the key issues of each epoch, this volume illuminates the complex and changing relationship between cinema and Spanish national identity.

Related link: www.mediastudiesarena.com

While studying the theory and contemporary impact of 'embodied' viewing, this book celebrates the emergence and development of Visual Studies as a major subject of research and teaching in the field of Hispanic Studies within the UK over the last thirty years. By exploring current routes of investigation, as well as analysing future pathways for study in the field, seven highly distinguished Spanish and Latin American scholars examine their own entry into Visual Studies, and discuss the major trends and changes which occurred in the field as matters of the visual gradually became embedded in higher-education curricula and research trajectories. Each scholar also lays out a current research project, or interest, concerning Spain or Latin America within the visual field. The projects variously explore different media - including film, sculpture, photography, dance, and performance art - spread across a wide array of geographical locales, including Mexico, Cuba, mainland Spain, and the Canary Islands. Offering a map of current and future research in the field, this book provides the first history of visual studies within UK Hispanism. It will be of lasting value to a wide range of scholars and advanced students of Spanish and Latin American cultural, visual, and film studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Bulletin of Spanish Studies.

While studying the theory and contemporary impact of 'embodied' viewing, this book celebrates the emergence and development of Visual Studies as a major subject of research and teaching in the field of Hispanic Studies within the UK over the last thirty years. By exploring current routes of investigation, as well as analysing future pathways for study in the field, seven highly distinguished Spanish and Latin American scholars examine their own entry into Visual Studies, and discuss the major trends and changes which occurred in the field as matters of the visual gradually became embedded in higher-education curricula and research trajectories. Each scholar also lays out a current research project, or interest, concerning Spain or Latin America within the visual field. The projects variously explore different media - including film, sculpture, photography, dance, and performance art - spread across a wide array of geographical locales, including Mexico, Cuba, mainland Spain, and the Canary Islands. Offering a map of current and future research in the field, this book provides the first history of visual studies within UK Hispanism. It will be of lasting value to a wide range of scholars and advanced students of Spanish and Latin American cultural, visual, and film studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Bulletin of Spanish Studies.

This collection of original essays focuses on the cross-currents and points of contact among Spain, Portugal and Latin America and their impact on the regions' film industries. This book focuses on the cross-currents and points of contact in film production among so-called Hispanic countries (Spain, Portugal and Latin America), and in particular the impact that co-production and supranational funding initiatives are having on both the film industries and the films of Latin America in the twenty-first century. Together with chapters that discuss and further develop transnational approaches to reading films in the Hispanic and Latin American context, the volume includes chapters that focus on funding initiatives, such as IBERMEDIA, that are aimed at Spain, Portugal and Latin America. An analysis of such initiatives facilitates a nuanced discussion of the range of meanings afforded to the term transnationalism: from the workings of those driven by economic imperatives, such as co-productions and 'Hispanic' film festivals, to the cultural, for example the invention of a marketable 'Latinamericaness' in Spain, or a 'Hispanic aesthetic' elsewhere. Stephanie Dennison is Reader in Brazilian Studies at the University of Leeds

The past four decades have seen the Spanish film industry rise from isolation in the 1970s to international recognition within European and World Cinema today. Exploring the cultural and political imperatives that governed this success, this book shows how Spanish film culture was deliberately and strategically shaped into its current form.

Alex de la Iglesia, initially championed by Pedro Almodovar, and at one time the enfant terrible of Spanish film, still makes film critics nervous. The director of some of the most important films of the Post-Franco era - Accion mutante, El dia de la bestia, Muertos de risa - receives here the first full length study of his work. Breaking away from the pious tradition of acclaiming art-house auteurs, The cinema of Alex de la Iglesia tackles a new sort of beast: the popular auteur, who brings the provocation of the avant-garde to popular genres such as horror and comedy. This book brings together Anglo-American film theory, an exploration of the legal and economic history of Spanish audio-visual culture, a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish cultural forms and traditions (esperpento, sainete costumbrista) with a detailed textual analysis of all of Alex de la Iglesia's seven feature films. -- .