Course title: SPAIN IN CINEMA: GLOBAL AND LOCAL PERSPECTIVES

Transcription

1 Course title: SPAIN IN CINEMA: GLOBAL AND LOCAL PERSPECTIVES Language of instruction: English Professor: Sasa Markus Professor s contact and office hours: Mondays, 12-13h, spainincinema@gmail.com Course contact hours: 45 Recommended credit: 3 US credits-6 ECTS credits Course prerequisites: there are no prerequisites for this course Language requirements: None Course focus and approach: 1 This course examines both Spanish cinematography and foreign/transnational audiovisual productions related to Spanish culture. The transdisciplinary approach includes film studies, sociology, history, anthropology and art theory, while also applying cultural and cross-cultural studies and post-colonialist views Course description: The course approaches Spanish national cinema as well as transnational/foreign productions related, in a variety of ways, to Spanish culture. The goal is to show how both local and global films shape diverse visions of Spanish history, art and society while constructing inspiring dialogues with above mentioned areas of art/knowledge. Interactions between cinema and canonic works of Spanish culture (Don Quixote, Don Juan, the paintings of Picasso) are contrasted and the relationship between films and Spanish history (Civil War, Columbus s travels, Spanish transition) is examined. The diversity within Spanish society,

2 representations of the current economic crisis, effects of globalization on both local cinema and real life are studied through the works of young authors (Lacuesta, Vermut). All filmic examples are also used to analyze the concept of Spanish identity and stereotypes related to Hispanic culture. Learning objectives: - Distinguish between the variety of cinematographic perspectives on Spain, their local and transnational aspects, both present and past. - Interpret film in aesthetic, socio-political and historical contexts. Identify the elements which define cinema as an artistic expression Identify how cinematographic art interacts with other artistic and scientific areas in a transdisciplinary framework, using examples related to Spanish 2 cinema and culture - Analyse different aspects of Spanish national cinema and place it within the context of global cinematography. - Apply transcultural and transdisciplinary approaches to the topics related to Spain and its cinema. Course workload: The course workload includes lectures combined with the screening of films, class discussions, readings, field trips, submission of written essays and presentation of teamwork assignment. Teaching methodology: Each session will start with the theoretical introduction to the class subject. Selected excerpts from different films related to the class contents will be

3 shown. Sessions will finish with a class discussion, where students will be asked to compare presented examples and situate them in the wider context of knowledge. Brief readings, provided by the professor, will be used as a support for class discussion. The course will also include field trips. Assessment criteria: Students will hand in mid-term papers halfway through the course and term papers at the end of the course. Teamwork assignment will consist of students forming small groups which will choose a subject related to Spanish cinema and make a presentation about it during class. Participation in class discussion - related to films screened during class and brief readings provided by professor - will also be evaluated. Midterm exam: 30% Teamwork assignment: 20% Class participation and readings: 15% Final paper: 35% 3 Absence policy After the add/drop, all registrations are considered final and HESP Absence Policy begins to apply. For the academic year, such policy is as follows: Attending class is mandatory and will be monitored daily by professors. Missing classes will impact on the student s final grade as follows: Absences Up to two (2) absences Three (3) absences Four (4) absences Penalization No penalization 1 point subtracted from final grade (on a 10 point scale) 2 points subtracted from final grade (on a 10 point scale)

4 Five (5) absences or more The student receives an INCOMPLETE ( NO PRESENTAT ) for the course The PEHE/HESP attendance policy does not distinguish between justified or unjustified absences. The student is deemed responsible to manage his/her absences. Emergency situations (hospitalization, family emergency...) will be analyzed on a case by case basis by the Academic Director of the HESP. Classroom norms: - No food or drink is permitted in class - Students will be asked not to use their computers during the screenings of film examples - Students will be asked to respect classroom norms during on-site classes 4 Weekly schedule WEEK 1 Spanish Cinema: An Introduction Introduction to the course contents, approach and method. Cinema related to other arts, culture, history and society. Different approaches to the notion of national cinema. How national cinema relates to national culture? The questioning of national cinema and national culture in the global age. Diverse modes of transnationalization of Spanish culture and cinema. An eclectic identity of Spanish national cinema. Spanish national cinema in the context of other European cinemas. Spanish cinema and Hollywood. Case study: Muerte de un ciclista (Death of a Cyclist, Juan Antonio Bardem, Spain, 1955)

5 Readings: Kinder, Marsha Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of National Identity in Spain. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp WEEK 2 Canonical Works of Spanish Literature in Films and TV series Quixote and Quixotism in Spain and around the globe: Don Quixote (Grigori Kozintsev, URRS, 1957); Don Quixote by Orson Welles (Orson Welles, Spain, Italy, USA, 1992); Lost in La Mancha (Keith Fulton and Louis Pope, UK and USA, 2002). Verbo (Verb, Eduardo Chapero-Jackson, Spain, 2011); The Newsroom, HBO, Don Juan and the stereotype of Latin lover : Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona (Woody Allen, US, Spain, 2008) Io, Don Giovanni (I, Don Giovanni, Carlos Saura, Spain, Italy, 2009), Don Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, USA, 2013) Historia de la meva mort, (The History of my Death, Albert Serra, Spain-Catalonia, 2013) Othering the Spanish identity through foreign myths and the Spanish response: Carmen (Carlos Saura, Spain, 1983) 5 Readings: Screen Seduction: Negotiating Theatricality in Don Juan Films. Wright, Sara Tales of Seduction: The Figure of Don Juan in Spanish Culture. London: I.B. Tauris. pp WEEK 3 Paintings, Painters and Spanish Cinema

6 Surrealism in cinema: Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog, France, Luis Buñuel, 1929); Spellbound (USA, Alfred Hitchcock, 1945); The Phantom of Liberty (Le fantôme de la liberté, Italy and France, Luis Buñuel, 1974) Readings: Surrealism and Hollywood. Richardson, Michael Surrealism and Cinema. New York: Berg. pp Spanish painters as cinematographic characters: Pablo Picasso: Le Mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso, Henry-George Clousot, France, 1956); Surviving Picasso (James Ivory, USA, 1996) Antonio López: El sol del membrillo (Quince Tree of the Sun, Víctor Erice, Spain, 1992) WEEK 4 6 Cinematographic Approaches to Spanish History Cinematographic approaches to Columbus s travels: eurocentrism and postcolonial views. 1492: Conquest of Paradise (Ridley Scott, Spain, France, 1992); Columbus Didn t Discover Us (Robbie Lepptzer, USA, 1992) También la lluvia (Even the Rain, Icíar Bollaín, Spain, Mexico, France, 2010) Readings: The Columbus Debate. Stam, Robert and Shohat, Ella Untinking Eurocentrism. Multiculturalism and the Media. New York: Routledge. pp Spanish Civil War: A chronology of inter-related representations: El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive, Víctor Érice, Spain, 1973); Pan s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, Spain, Mexico, 2006); Pa negre (Black Bread, Agustí Villaronga, Spain, 2010)

7 Readings: Pan s Labyrinth - Fear and Fairy Tale. Hubner, Laura Fear Itself: Reasoning the Unreasonable. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. pp WEEK 5 Subcultures Related to the Spanish Transition: Past and Present Perspectives La movida madrileña represented in early Almodóvar s films (Pepi, Luci Bom y otras chicas del montón - Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls on the Heap, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 1979) and the visions of the same movement in the most recent works of the same author (I m so Excited!, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2013; Julieta, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2016) 7 Readings: Pepi, Luci Bom y otras chicas del montón (Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls on the Heap) : Rhetoric and reference. Smith, Paul Julian Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar. London: Verso. pp The quinqui subculture of 1970ties and 1980ties and its recent revival: Deprisa, deprisa (Faster, Faster, Carlos Saura, Spain, 1981), Can Tunis (Paco Toledo y José Gonzáles Morandi, Spain, 2007), Criando ratas (Raising rats, Carlos Salado, Spain, 2014) WEEK 6 Contemporary Spanish Society, the Economic Crisis and Cinema Representations of the economic crisis across different genres:

8 Magical Girl (Carlos Vermout, Spain, 2014). Murieron por encima de sus posibilidades (They Died Beyond their Means, Isaki Lacuesta, Spain, 2014). Ayer no termina nunca (Yesterday Never Ends, Isabel Coixet, Spain 2013), Crisis and the development of new modes of production: (Sobre la marxa. El inventor de la selva The Creator of the Jungle, Jordi Morató, Spain, 2014) Spanish crisis as seen from abroad: Victoria (Sebastian Schipper, Alemania, 2011) in relation to Carlos Saura s Deprisa, deprisa (Faster, Faster, Spain, 1981) WEEK 7 Immigrants, Emigrants or Ex-pats? A Question of Cinematographic Perspective Immigration and social diversity in Spanish cinema: Todo sobre mi madre (All About my Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 1999); Princesas (Princeses, Fernando León de Aranoa, Spain, 2005); La mujer sin piano (A Woman Without the Piano, Xavier Rebollo, Spain, 2009) 8 Spanish characters emigrate, now and then: Perdiendo el norte (Loosing the North, Nacho G. Velilla, Spain, 2015) versus Vente a Almania, Pepe (Come to Germany, Pepe, Pedro Lazaga, Spain, 1971). Documenting Spanish emigration: En tierra extraña (In a Strange Land, Iciar Bollain, Spain, 2014) Readings: Sánchez-Conejero, Cristina (Ed.) Spanishness in the Spanish Novel and Cinema of the 20th 21st Century. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp WEEK 8

9 Is Spain a Nation of Nations? The case of Catalan cinema Modes of cinematographic production in Catalonia: the trajectory of Isona Passola. Linguistic issues and Catalan cinema. Gaudi prizes for best Catalan productions. Catalan authors: local, national and transnational paradigm: the careers of José Luis Guerrin, Agusti Villaronga, Cesc Gay, Albert Serra, Isaki Lacuesta and others. WEEK 9 Transnational Subjects in Spanish Cinema 9 Film characters not contained by national borders: La leyenda del tiempo (The Legend of the Time, Isaki Lacuesta, Spain, 2005); km (Carlos Marques- Macet, Spain, 2014) Spanish authors or global artists? The careers and works of of Isabel Coixet, Juan Antonio Bayona, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Amenabar Readings: Oliete, Aldea, Elena; Oria, Beatriz; Tarancon, Juan A. (Eds.) Global Genres, Local Films. The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema. Now York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. xvii xxiv. WEEK 10 Spain as a Film Location for Foreign Productions

10 Borrowing the Spanish landscape: Almería desert as a film site for westerns: For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, Italy, 1965); 800 balas (800 Bullets, Alex de la Iglesia, Spain, 2002) Readings: Learning from Almería. Campbell, Neil The Rizomatic West: Representing the American West in Transnational, Global, Mechanical Age. Lincoln: University of Nebraska. pp Spain as seen through distant cultural lenses: The limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch, USA, 2009); Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (You Only Live Once, Zoya Akhtar, India, 2011) WEEK Session 1 Presentation of group projects Session 2 Field trip Last revision: June 2018 Required readings: Learning from Almería. Campbell, Neil The Rizomatic West: Representing the American West in Transnational, Global, Mecanical Age. Lincoln: University of Nebraska. pp

11 Pan s Labyrinth - Fear and Fairy Tale. Hubner, Laura Fear Itself: Reasoning the Unreasonable. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. pp Pepi, Luci Bom y otras chicas del montón (Pepi, Luci, Bom and the Other Girls on the Heap) : Rhetoric and reference. Smith, Paul Julian Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar. London: Verso. pp The Columbus Debate. Stam, Robert and Shohat, Ella Untinking Eurocentrism. Multiculturalism and the Media. New York: Routledge. pp Oliete, Aldea, Elena; Oria, Beatriz; Tarancon, Juan A. (Eds.) Global Genres, Local Films. The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema. Now York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. pp. xvii xxiv. Redefining Transnational Cinemas: A Transdiciplinary Perspective. Villazana, 11 Libia Contemporary Hispanic Cinema. Interrogating the Transnational in Spanish and Latin American Film. Woodbridge: Tamesis, pp Sánchez-Conejero, Cristina (Ed.) Spanishness in the Spanish Novel and Cinema of the 20th 21st Century. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp Screen Seduction: Negotiating Theatricality in Don Juan Films. Wright, Sara Tales of Seduction: The Figure of Don Juan in Spanish Culture. London: I.B. Tauris. pp Surrealism and Hollywood. Richardson, Michael Surrealism and Cinema. New York: Berg. pp Recommended bibliography:

12 Camino, Mercedes M War, wounds and women: The Spanish Civil War in Victor Erice's El espritu de la colmena and David Trueba's Soldados de Salamina. International Journal of Iberian Studies, 20 (2), pp Chan-Fai, Cheung; Tze-Wan, Kwan; Kwok-Ying, Lau (eds.) Identity and Alterity. Phenomenology and Cultural Traditions. Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen & Neumann. Dennison, Stephanie (ed.) Contemporary Hispanic Cinema. Interrogating the Transnational in Spanish and Latin American Film. Woodbridge: Tamesis Davies, Ann; Perriam Chris Carmen: from silent films to MTV. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi. Davies, Ann (Ed.) Spain on Screen. Developments in Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Houndmils: Palgrave Macmillan. Ezra, Elizabeth; Rowden, Terry Transnational Cinema: The Film Reader. New York: Routledge. 12 Faulkner, Sally Literary Adaptations in Spanish Cinema. London: Tamesis. Ibarz, Mercè A film and its histories. Six decades of Land Whitout bread in Tierra sin Pan. Luis Buñuel y los nuevos caminos de las vanguardias. Valencia: IVAM. Jordan, Barry, Allinson, Mark Spanish Cinema: A Student s Guide. UK: Hodder Arnold. Kinder, Marsha Blood Cinema: The Reconstruction of Nacional Identity in Spain. Berkeley: University of California Press. Markus, Sasa La poética de Pedro Almodóvar. Barcelona: Littera. Mira, Alberto Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. Muller, Adam (ed.) Concepts of Culture: Art, Politics, and Society. Calgary: University of Calgary Press Nichols, Bill Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

13 Pavlovic, Tatjana Despotic Bodies and Transgressive: Spanish Culture from Francisco Franco to Jesus Franco. New York: State University of New York Press. Perriam, Christopher Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema: from Banderas to Bardem. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Richardson, Michael Surrealism and Cinema. New York: Berg. Renov, Michael The Subject of Documentary. Minnesota: Minnesota University Press. Lema-Hincapié, Andrés Burning Darkness: A Half Century of Spanish Cinema. New York: State University. Stam, Robert Reflexivity in Film and Literature: From Don Quixote to Jean- Luc Godard. New York: Columbia University Press. Valis, Noël; Asín Cueto, Elena Teaching Representations of the Spanish Civil War. Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, 31 (3), pp Whittaker, Tom 'Mobile soundscapes in the quinqui film'. In VV.AA. 13 Singing Signs: Screening Songs in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. Whittaker, Tom The Films of Elías Querejeta: A Producer of Landscapes. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Wells-Lassagne, Shannon; Hudelet, Ariane (eds.) Screening Text: Critical Perspectives on Film Adaptation. London: MacFarland Wright, Sara Tales of Seduction: The Figure of Don Juan in Spanish Culture. London: I.B. Tauris.