Across a broad spectrum of media, markets, and national contexts, self-reflexivity continues to be a favored narrative mode with wide ranging functions. In this book Amago argues that, in addition to making visible industry and production concerns within the film text, reflexive aesthetics have a cartographic function that serves to map the place of a film (geographic and cultural) within the global cinemascape, and thus to bring into sharper relief images of the national. Focusing on films in the contemporary Spanish context that in some way reflect back on themselves and the processes of their own production, that purposefully blur the distinction between reality and fiction, or that draw attention to the various modes of cinematic exhibition and reception, Amago proposes ways in which these movies can be employed to understand Spanish national cinemas today as imbedded within a dynamic global system.

Across a broad spectrum of media, markets, and national contexts, self-reflexivity continues to be a favored narrative mode with wide ranging functions. In this book Amago argues that, in addition to making visible industry and production concerns within the film text, reflexive aesthetics have a cartographic function that serves to map the place of a film (geographic and cultural) within the global cinemascape, and thus to bring into sharper relief images of the national. Focusing on films in the contemporary Spanish context that in some way reflect back on themselves and the processes of their own production, that purposefully blur the distinction between reality and fiction, or that draw attention to the various modes of cinematic exhibition and reception, Amago proposes ways in which these movies can be employed to understand Spanish national cinemas today as imbedded within a dynamic global system.

The acute processes of globalisation at the turn of the century have generated an increased interest in exploring the interactions between the so-called global cultural products or trends and their specific local manifestations. Even though cross-cultural connections are becoming more patent in filmic productions in the last decades, cinema per se has always been characterized by its hybrid, transnational, border-crossing nature. From its own inception, Spanish film production was soon tied to the Hollywood film industry for its subsistence, but other film traditions such as those in the Soviet Union, France, Germany and, in particular, Italy also determined either directly or indirectly the development of Spanish cinema. Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema reaches beyond the limits of the film text and analyses and contextualizes the impact of global film trends and genres on Spanish cinema in order to study how they helped articulate specific national challenges from the conflict between liberalism and tradition in the first decades of the 20th century to the management of the contemporary financial crisis. This collection provides the first comprehensive picture of the complex national and supranational forces that have shaped Spanish films, revealing the tensions and the intricate dialogue between cross-cultural aesthetic and narrative models on the one hand, and indigenous traditions on the other, as well as the political and historical contingencies these different expressions responded to.

A Companion to Spanish Cinema is a bold collection of newly commissioned essays written by top international scholars that thoroughly interrogates Spanish cinema from a variety of thematic, theoretical and historic perspectives. Presents an insightful and provocative collection of newly commissioned essays and original research by top international scholars from a variety of theoretical, disciplinary and geographical perspectives Offers a systematic historical, thematic, and theoretical approach to Spanish cinema, unique in the field Combines a thorough and insightful study of a wide spectrum of topics and issues with in-depth textual analysis of specific films Explores Spanish cinema’s cultural, artistic, industrial, theoretical and commercial contexts pre- and post-1975 and the notion of a “national” cinema Canonical directors and stars are examined alongside understudied directors, screenwriters, editors, and secondary actors Presents original research on image and sound; genre; non-fiction film; institutions, audiences and industry; and relations to other media, as well as a theoretically-driven section designed to stimulate innovative research

This volume is the first English-language collection exclusively dedicated to the study of genre in relation to Spanish cinema. Providing a variety of critical perspectives, the collection gives the reader a thorough account of the relationship between Spanish cinema and genre, drawing on case studies of several of the most remarkable Spanish films in recent years. The book analyses the significant changes in the aesthetics, production and reception of Spanish film from 1990 onwards. It brings together European and North American scholars to establish a critical dialogue on the topics under discussion, while providing multiple perspectives on the concepts of national cinemas and genre theory. In recent years film scholarship has attempted to negotiate the tension between the nationally specific and the internationally ubiquitous, discussing how globalisation has influenced film making and surrounding cultural practice. These broader social concerns have prompted scholars to emphasise a redefinition of national cinemas beyond strict national boundaries and to pay attention to the transnational character of any national site of film production and reception. This collection provides a thorough investigation of contemporary Spanish cinema within a transnational framework, by positing cinematic genres as the meeting spaces between a variety of diverse forces that necessarily operate within but also across territorial spaces. Paying close attention to the specifics of the Spanish cinematic and social panorama, the essays investigate the transnational economic, cultural and aesthetic forces at play in shaping Spanish film genres today.

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.

Filmspanism explores the geopolitics of knowledge involved in academic approaches to Spanish cinema. This companion rethinks the role of disciplinarity, institutionality, and nationality in the study of film by taking into account a rather specific set of contentious issues, intellectual traditions, discursive servitudes, and invested scholarship. To that end, the book explores the topics of art cinema, popular culture, film genre, and transnationalism, always with Spanish cinema as its concrete object of study. An insightful contribution to the study of Spanish cinema, this discussion will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in Hispanic Studies and Film Studies.