Abstract
Film studies has interrogated the erotic appeal of male stars chiefly through attention to bodily display, addressing onscreen men's availability for or resistance to a theorized gaze. Yet cinematic sexiness depends not only on display of the body, but on a range of performance signs, narrative manoeuvres, industrial activities and viewer tastes. Focusing on contemporary Spanish star Javier Bardem, this article explores the manufacture and circulation of male sex symbols in global cinema. Bardem’s performances illuminate the ways male sex appeal functions as site of viewer interest, tonal feature of film texts, and exploitable asset in film financing and promotion. Addressing Bardem’s roles since 2004’s The Sea Inside, the article investigates sexy male stars’ commercial and aesthetic functions in global mainstream, middlebrow and art cinemas. In particular, it argues that sexual charisma underwrites Bardem’s presentation even in films that remove his characters from the sexual economy.
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