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More About This Title A Companion to Pedro Almodóvar
English
Edited by leading authorities on the subject, and bringing together a stellar cast of contributors, this detailed appraisal of Pedro Almodóvar’s unique cinematic art examines the themes, style, and aesthetics of his oeuvre and locates it in the context of the profound cultural transformations in Spain since the 1970s.
- Brings together a stellar cast of contributors from across the globe including recognized and established specialists as well as talented younger scholars
- Features contributions by Spanish film historians, where studies of Almodóvar’s work have been underrepresented in the academic literature
- Deploys new approaches to the analysis of film authorship by exploring contextual issues such as Almodóvar’s transnational appeal and the political dimensions of his works
- Traces the director’s fruitful collaborations in the areas of art and design, fashion and music
English
Marvin D'Lugo is Professor of Spanish and Adjunct Professor of Screen Studies at Clark University, Massachusetts where he teaches courses on Spanish and Latin-American cinema. He has published a number of books including Pedro Almodóvar (2006) in the University of Illinois Press’ Contemporary Film Directors series.
Kathleen M. Vernon is Associate Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is author and editor of numerous studies on Spanish cinema and culture including Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar (1995).
English
Notes on Contributors viii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: The Skin He Lives In 1
Marvin D’Lugo and Kathleen M. Vernon
Part I Bio-Filmography 19
1 Almodóvar’s Self-Fashioning: The Economics and Aesthetics of Deconstructive Autobiography 21
Paul Julian Smith
2 Creative Beginnings in Almodóvar’s Work 39
Francisco A. Zurian
3 Almodóvar and Hitchcock: A Sorcerer’s Apprenticeship 59
Dona Kercher
4 A Life, Imagined and Otherwise: The Limits and Uses of Autobiography in Almodóvar’s Films 88
Alberto Mira
Part II Spanish Contexts 105
5 El Deseo’s “Itinerary”: Almodóvar and the Spanish Film Industry 107
Marina Díaz López
6 Almodóvar and Spanish Patterns of Film Reception 129
Josetxo Cerdán and Miguel Fernández Labayen
7 Memory, Politics, and the Post-Transition in Almodóvar’s Cinema 153
Juan Carlos Ibáñez
8 The Ethics of Oblivion: Personal, National, and Cultural Memories in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar 176
Adrián Pérez Melgosa
Part III At the Limits of Gender 201
9 Our Rapists, Ourselves: Women and the Staging of Rape in the Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar 203
Leora Lev
10 Paternity and Pathogens: Mourning Men and the Crises of Masculinity in Todo Sobre Mi Madre and Hable Con Ella 225
Dean Allbritton
11 Domesticating Violence in the Films of Pedro Almodóvar 244
Noelia Saenz
12 La piel que habito: A Story of Imposed Gender and the Struggle for Identity 262
Francisco A. Zurian
Part IV Re-readings 279
13 Re-envoicements and Reverberations in Almodóvar’s Macro-Melodrama 281
Marsha Kinder
14 The Flower of His Secret: Carne trémula and the Mise en Scène of Desire 304
Celestino Deleyto
15 Scratching the Past on the Surface of the Skin: Embodied Intersubjectivity, Prosthetic Memory, and Witnessing in Almodóvar’s La mala educación 322
Julián Daniel Gutiérrez-Albilla
16 Almodóvar’s Stolen Images 345
Javier Herrera
Part V Global Almodóvar 365
17 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: From Madrid (1988) to New York (2010) 367
Isolina Ballesteros
18 Almodóvar’s Global Musical Marketplace 387
Kathleen M. Vernon
19 Almodóvar and Latin America: The Making of a Transnational Aesthetic in Volver 412
Marvin D’Lugo
20 Is there a French Almodóvar? 432
Jean-Claude Seguin
21 Almodóvar in Asia: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and LGBT Film Culture 453
E. K. Tan
Part VI Art and Commerce 469
22 To the Health of the Author: Art Direction in Los abrazos rotos 471
John D. Sanderson
23 Making Spain Fashionable: Fashion and Design in Pedro Almodóvar’s Cinema 495
Gerard Dapena
24 Almodóvar, Cyberfandom, and Participatory Culture 524
Vicente Rodríguez Ortega
Index 551
English
“Well researched and clearly organized, the volume boasts a helpful scholarly apparatus. Almodovar scholars will want to keep this companion handy, and all advanced students of film will appreciate it. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.” (Choice, 1 December 2013)
“Marvin D'Lugo and Kathleen M. Vernon give us the ideal companion to Pedro Almodovar's films. Established and emerging writers offer a rainbow of insights for fans as well as academics.”
Jerry W. Carlson, Professor of Film Studies, The City College & Graduate Center CUNY
“Rarely has a contemporary film artist been treated to the kind of broad, rich discussion of their work that can be found in A Companion to Pedro Almodóvar.”
Richard Peña, Professor of Film Studies, Columbia University
