Performance and Spanish film

Description

Performance and Spanish film is the first book to provide a detailed study of screen acting in Spanish film. With fifteen original essays by leading scholars of Spanish film, the book casts light on the manifold meanings, methods and influences of Spanish screen performance, from the silent era to the present day. In doing so, the book provides bold new readings of the work of significant Spanish actors and filmmakers, from Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Alfredo Landa, to Pedro Almodóvar, Carlos Saura and Alejandro Amenábar. The fine-grained study of acting in each chapter also provides a means of exploring broader questions surrounding Spanish film practices, culture and society. Performance and Spanish film will be essential reading for both students and scholars of Spanish film alike, as well as to those more broadly interested in the history of screen acting. 'For enthusiasts of Spanish cinema and anyone bewitched by screen acting, this is a dream book. The editors bring together some of the most exciting and imaginative experts on Spanish Cinema writing in English today, as well as presenting a substantial and brilliant introduction to the topic. Each chapter has its own compelling revelations, whether by way of fine-grained analysis or wide new conceptual framings, whether on single named actors, particular films, modes of training, or successive new ways of making films.' Chris Perriam, Professor of Hispanic Studies, the University of Manchester Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: approaching performance in Spanish film About this book References 1 Acting for the camera in Spanish film magazines of the 1920s and 1930s The panorama of cinema magazines Stars and cameras: becoming and policing Acting: magic versus science Fotogenia Exploitation is horribly delightful Notes References 2 Performance and gesture as crisis in La aldea maldita/The Cursed Village (Florián Rey, 1930) Silent gesture in La aldea maldita (1930) Gesture and crisis Notes References 3 Exaggeration and nation: the politics of performance in the Spanish sophisticated comedy of the 1940s Introduction Exaggerated performance styles: supporting actors and romantic leads Media criticisms Conclusion Notes References 4 The voice of comedy: Gracita Morales Women and comedy Funny women, funny voices Gracita Morales and Spanish comic traditions ‘La chacha del cine español’ Performing femininity Notes References 5 The sounds of José Luis López Vázquez: vocal performance, gesture and technology in Spanish film Polyphony and populism: vocal performance and post-synch sound Disciplining the voice: vocalising ‘against type’ In synch: direct sound and vocal performance Notes References 6 The influence of Argentinian acting schools in Spain from the 1980s Notes References 7 Askance, athwart, aside: the queer plays of actors, auteurs and machines Overacting in Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Fifth Floor Neighbour Retracting acting: a theoretical bender Underacting in The Holy Girl Notes References 8 The future of nostalgia: revindicating Spanish actors and acting in and through Cine de barrio Towards a genealogy of Cine de barrio Actors and audiences, then and now Conclusion Notes References 9 Performing the nation: mannerism and mourning in Spanish heritage cinema ImpersoNation Haunting and mourning Conclusion Notes References 10 Performing sex in Spanish erotic films of the 1980s Notes References 11 Becoming Mario: performance and persona adaptation in Mario Casas’s career Casas the leaner Casas the rock Bridging the gap: Casas’s persona and the two Marios Notes References 12 Performing fatness: oversized male bodies in recent Spanish cinema Santiago Segura and the Torrente saga Javier Bardem in Los lunes al sol Antonio de la Torre in Gordos/Fat People Conclusion Notes References 13 Disabling Bardem’s body: the performance of disability and illness Notes References 14 Body doubles: the performance of Basqueness by Carmelo Gómez and Silvia Munt Notes References 15 Los amantes pasajeros/I’m So Excited! (2013): ‘performing’ la crisis Back to the 1980s: a drawing room farce in the air Politics and posturing Conclusion Notes References Index