Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodovar [Anglais] [Broché]

A thoughtful scholar and evident fan, Smith situates the nine feature films of Spanish director Almodovar within the shifting politics of post-Franco Spain, international debates about gender and sexuality, and the codes of Hollywood (particularly slasher films, melodramas and work by Douglas Sirk, Frank Tashlin and Alfred Hitchcock). Almodovar's films, he argues, seek "truth in travesty," partly by calling attention to cinematic artifice and representing gender and sexuality as stylized performance. Smith also contextualizes Almodovar's work, comparing its reception in Spain to that in other European countries and America--though a consideration of other Spanish-speaking markets might have been even more enlightening. He notes, for example, that Spanish audiences particularly appreciate the casting of straight actor Antonio Banderas in a gay role and of "genuine girl" Carmen Maura as a transsexual, communicating "a certain bracketing of gender identity" that might be missed elsewhere. Smith points out that Anglo-American critics consumed with the supposed misogyny of Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! missed the important theme of addiction. Although Smith's prose, informed by the psychoanalytic discourse of linguistics and feminist theory, occasionally threatens to deflate the delightful flamboyance of his subject, and some of his arguments beg for further development, his essays present a finely observed, compelling case for the seriousness and complexity of a cinema dedicated to evoking "the fragility of sexual difference."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The author (Spanish, Cambridge Univ.) looks at one of Spain's most important contemporary film directors, beginning with his first full-length feature and ending with High Heels (1991). There is no denying that these films have special impact and importance to contemporary film audiences because they combine controversial themes and striking cinematography. Because he looks at the production scripts, knows the significance of shooting locations, has a familiarity with Spanish culture, and is able to use Spanish-language sources, Smith offers many insights unavailable to readers limited to materials in English. The only other book in English on this director, Nuria Vidal's The Films of Pedro Almodovar (Instituto de la Cinematografia y las Artes Audiovisuales, Ministerio de Cultura, 1988), is not widely available. Consequently, Smith's work, though written for an academic audience, will be welcome in most serious film collections.
James E. Ross, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

A finely observed, compelling case for the seriousness and complexity of cinema dedicated to evoking 'the fragility of sexual difference. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

Dialogue is action for me. I've often said it and it seems like a joke but it's not: in Europe we make films about people because it's cheaper to put two people in a living room talking than to make a film full of special effects.--Pedro Almodovar

The international success of his latest feature, All About my Mother, has finally granted Pedro Almodovar the recognition he deserves, as the most artistically ambitious and commercially consistent film-maker in Europe. Frequently comic, always visually glorious, his films range from the screwball comedy Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to the classically austere Live Flesh. And, while questions of gender, nationality and sexuality are always Almodovar's concern, new subjects have been addressed in his more recent work: the corrosive effects of a deregulated media, the transition from dictatorship and, in All About my Mother, an uncompromising exploration of mourning. This new edition includes four additional chapters and new illustrations. The only study of its kind in English, it argues that beneath Almodovar's genius for comedy and visual pleasure lies a film-maker who deserves to be taken very seriously.

Paul Julian Smith is Professor of Spanish at Cambridge University. His previous books include The Moderns: Time, Space and Subjectivity in Contemporary Spanish Culture and, for Verso, Vision Machines: Cinema, Literature and Sexuality in Spain and Cuba, 1983-1993.