(Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema ed. by Duncan Wheeler, Fernando Canet (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema ed. by Duncan Wheeler, Fernando Canet Dennis West Wheeler, Duncan, and Fernando Canet, eds. (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Bristol: Intellect, 2014. Pp. 486. ISBN 978-1-78320-406-9. In December 2011, the Movies: Contemporary Spanish Cinema International Conference took place in New York City with the backing of the Department of Audiovisual Communication, Documentation and History of Art of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Subsequently, participants were invited to contribute chapters exploring the principal themes and debates of the conference for inclusion in this collection which seeks, according to the editors, “to provide a self-reflective and interventionist form of academic criticism which combines aesthetic appraisal with a (re)consideration of the creative, commercial and critical imperatives that inform and underpin the viewing and reviewing of contemporary Spanish films” (4). The authors of the thirty chapters that compose (Re)viewing Creative, Critical and Commercial Practices in Contemporary Spanish Cinema are both well-known figures, such as Alberto Elena, as well as emerging scholars and practitioners; and most hail from Spanish and Anglo-American critical circles. The national cinema of Spain has traditionally been studied in relation to chronological divisions which reflect major sociohistorical events; and editors Wheeler and Canet appropriately follow this tendency in designating contemporary Spanish cinema as that produced from 1992—the year of the Expo in Seville, the Barcelona Olympics, and other emblematic events—until the present. This wide-ranging and well organized volume opens windows onto virtually all sectors of contemporary Spanish cinema by featuring traditional critical approaches, such as genre criticism or the textual analysis of individual films, as well as studies of industrial/commercial practices including production, distribution, exhibition, and promotion. Certain traditional critical notions, such as auteurship and stardom, are fruitfully redefined in relation to Spanish [End Page 617] cinema’s current situation in a transnational age. The tone of these pieces tends towards dialogue and debate; and, taken together, they argue persuasively for the inclusion of Spanish cinema, the third most important in Europe, amongst the forefront of global canons. As the following sampling suggests, this collection excels at presenting readable, well researched, up-to-date, and stimulating studies of diverse and timely topics explored via a wide spectrum of critical methodologies. Enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar is productively studied as an auteur in a dialectical relationship with the United States, such as the influence of American culture (e.g., underground, camp, classic melodrama) on his aesthetic approaches as well as his impact on the US public and critics. Miguel Martí’s Sexykiller: Morirás por ella is examined in terms of genre criticism and revealed to be a self-reflexive, hybrid distortion of the horror film. A close and provocative feminist reading of Isabel Coixet’s cinematic adaptation of Philip Roth’s The Dying Animal draws on Laura Mulvey’s influential theory of the gaze to argue convincingly that Coixet and transnational actress Penélope Cruz’s authorial imprints provide a deconstruction of the specularization of the female body. In the last two decades, Spain has progressed rapidly in terms of the social acceptance of homosexuality; and selected fiction features, such as Cachorro and Fuera de carta, are examined in relation to their rejection of gay stereotypes and their exploration of the new ethos of gay culture. The thought of philosopher Alain Badiou (Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil) informs a compelling study of the controversial politics of memory, memorialization, and victimhood (i.e., victims of the Franco dictatorship) in contemporary documentaries such as Rejas en la memoria. Most books on Spanish cinema limit themselves to the terrain of film criticism or film history or else given commercial/industrial issues; this volume is unusual in that it includes studies of commercial practices and even sets up literal dialogues amongst critics and producers in an effort to remind us that cinema is both art and industry/commerce. Indeed, one of the most informative and stimulating chapters is the wide-ranging round table in which the influential producer and advocate for art cinema Luis Miñarro dialogues with critic Fernando...