In 2005, Petra Pappová graduated in Spanish language/literature and Aesthetics from Con-stantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia. She spent the next 3 years as a PhD.
student at the Institute of Literary and Artistic Communication. Her field of research includes Spanish literature and film, the problems of feminism, intertextuality and translation. Her dissertation focused on the work of the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez Reverte in the context of postmodern literature and feminist reading. In 2008, she received her PhD. in Aesthetics from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia and is currently teaching courses on feminism in literature, interpretation and intertextuality.
Abstract
The fall of General Franco’s dictatorship and the subsequent opening of the country toward Europe in the 1980s evolved the atmosphere in society and art. The long awaited freedom and the absence of censorship caused a frenetic progress of art and de-tabooing of themes.
We are talking about the so called period of “movida” that pre-showed a new movement of art courses and themes. The article deals mainly with a film production and an intersection of universal themes in this area. We perceive in particular a conflict between the influence of media which open the gate to a globalized world and the micro-space of Spain, its spe-cific identity through the works of Pedro Almodovar, Bigas Luna and Gerard Herrer.
A distinguished feature of Spanish film production is an attempt to capture dif-ferences of cultures and individuals on the background of intimate stories. The social situation of the last three decades has more than ever put into opposition terms own-strange, which vibrate in all areas of Spanish art production. Art and its development are closely con-nected with the historical development of the country where it originates. The situation in Spain in the period of years 1936–1979 is specific in many ways. For instance, the Spanish film industry was marked by General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship and censorship.
In the years 1962-1969, José María García Escudero had control over the Spanish film industry. In 1963 he passed
the Censorship Code which remained valid until 1975. However, in this period cinematography was strongly supported by the state. Films which met require-ments and limitations following from the Censorship Code got a financial support and could be presented at international festivals. The conditions and situation of Spanish film producers at that time were very much similar to our (at that time Czechoslovakia) cultural context. Some filiations can also be seen in topics – fo-cus on national motifs, banal love stories narrated by heroines, problems of com-munication failure and intimate images of family.
The social politics of General Francisco Franco presented in its program meant a comeback of traditions and
Catholi-cism, and thus in conformity with the Catholic thinking a model of housewife, mother and perfect spouse was created.
If we compare the presented situation in the context with cultural and social de-velopment in Europe, in the perspective of spreading ideas of feminism, Spain is closing itself into nationalism, refuses the influence of western world and a couple of decades is mentally turning back.
The mentioned thematic movement of Spanish cinematography is clearly related to the given social politics and producers’ efort to avoid a topic which can be characterized as antinational or socially critical. Nevertheless, in many cases directors were able to employ pre-cisely these motives in intimate images of Spanish family¹.
Carlos Saura, who depicted the Span-ish reality through symbols, managed to free himself from the standard pattern of this period and thus he became signifi-cantly diferent. The metaphoric aspect and poetics of his work has been mis-understood in Spain until present; how-ever, in the 60s and 70s of the previous century he received an international ap-preciation. Although his work copies the traditional depiction of national and cul-tural peculiarities of the nation through the story of individual or smaller group, the inexactness of symbols and the pos-sibility of free interpretation of ofered images run up against problems with censorship².
On the other hand, precisely metaphors of the film language mark the movement of Spanish cinematography towards a wider audience searching for a language which would be universal and yet indi-vidual.
The fall of the dictatorship of General Franco and the consequent opening of the country towards Europe in the 80s liberated the atmosphere in society and art. The long time expected freedom and the absence of censorship caused a frenetic development of art and de-tabooing of themes. This period known as “movida” marked a new movement of artistic plans and themes.
A very distinguished person of this pe-riod was Pedro Almodovar. La movida (Spanish: movement), as it name says, represents a huge change, movement into a new direction. The Spanish society has new problems from which it was falsely protected by the inner central dictator-ship. The opening of borders, the migra-tion of people from villages to towns and the flow of opinions and thoughts from surrounding countries brought its advantages and disadvantages. Spain, which has always classified itself as one of the countries with the highest num-ber of people reporting themselves as catholic, precisely in this period, could feel a heavy decrease of influence of the church and its power. The reason of this is mainly an old-fashioned opinion about the question of sexual behaviour and the usage of contraception, which does not correspond with the theory of free love coming from the west.
In compliance with the possibility of free choice regarding sexual partners or decisions related to maternity, the posi-tion of woman changes, so she becomes freer and able to look for her employ-ment out of household.
Art becomes free of censorship, which lasted for some decades, and this results in a free depiction of political themes
criticizing Francoism, but also the con-temporary situation, and above all, na-kedness and eroticism are getting into the art, which also becomes an invariant of the artistic language. These aspects appear in all chosen films which we deal with in this paper.
The film Kika (1993) boasts with the abundance of colourfulness and indi-vidual depictions of opening Spain to universalism. Almodovar with a distance and his individual sarcasm points out the role of woman in society, who becomes even more “colourful”; goes beyond the stereotype of a catholic Spanish woman and comes closer to the universal model of a multicultural and postmodern wom-an.
Sociologist Gilles Lipovetsky defines a modern woman as a third woman. In his book with the same title, which studies the position of woman from sociological, historical and political aspect, he deals with striking changes that have occurred in the last fifty years. The possibility of education, work employment, right to vote, sexual freedom, right to take deci-sions converted the contemporary wom-an into a “postmodern” womwom-an. It is im-possible to define her accurately, though.
Postmodern women have many faces but one common feature - the possibility of any choice.
“The third woman managed to recon-cile a woman of radical diferences with a woman who constantly begins” (Lipov-etsky, 2000, p. 15).
The character of Kika is personification of this kind of woman and, at the same time, she maintains the individuality of a nation to which she belongs. She is the owner of a beauty salon and in her, at
first sight, simple life she comes through failures and victories with a smile on her lips. The story of Kika is necessary to perceive from the opposite side of the mirror. Nothing is like it seems at first sight. The poetics of the film is clearly outlined from the first moment:
“Kika: Nice. Anna: Lower your head open your eyes... We took out one eye-lash so you can see the diference. Eye-lashes make the eyes look bigger make them expressive. You cannot compare a woman with shiny eyes with one with her eyes down. Even with an ugly one, with eyelashes she… shines. Let’s hear it for the eyelashes, girls!”³
Mockery of superficiality and refusal of perceiving the reality are the leitmotifs of the film. Almodovar is not just criticiz-ing the previous historical period, but he also realizes the negatives of openness and the flow of consumerism to Spain.
The manifestation of consumerism is a phenomenon of advertising which is sur-rounding us and becomes an omnipres-ent symbol of the postmodern period.
The media play an important role in cre-ating the view on society. Even though they work on the principle of simulacrum, the society takes their view on the world as a rule which is compulsory to keep.
Advertising, which has a strong power of persuasion, belongs among the biggest media phenomena. This definition does not cover the influence of advertising on the recipient, though. Advertising is not only a means of communication evoking shopping stimuli in a potential buyer, but it is mainly an efective item for spread-ing ideologies. Indubitably, it takes the role of cultural value bearer and brings ethic and aesthetic models. Advertising
not only sells products but it also forms a sociocultural identity of the subject.
That is why it is necessary to watch this phenomenon not just from the view of advertising aesthetics, which is closely related to work with the object, but also think about the consequences of work with the subject and the ethics of adver-tising.
Almodovar sets up a mirror to adver-tising. In the film Kika advertising and another television phenomenon – reality show – play very important role. They are presented by Andrea Scarred, a re-porter who builds her career by discov-ering the scandals. The very character of Andrea is an incarnation of controversy:
on one hand, a professional attitude to journalistic profession and on the other hand, the area of interest and the way of presentation or dressing. Her diction is pathetic, through which the director just accents his aim to make a parody from the genre of the investigative journalism present in the modern media.
“A woman shot herself because they denied her of a loan. A court member of Seville is accused of embezzlements.
Juana T. was a victim of sexual harass-ment. A famous politician kills his wife and then kills himself. They had an ar-gument about their daughter’s grades.
His neighbours said he was a great man.
A young girl-rapist committed suicide in prison out of shame because he had been raped in jail. Mogia was convicted for prostitution of mentally handicapped people. Five anarchists killed two people from Morocco and one from Dominica.
A porno gang was arrested today at the children’s care station, “Prosperity”. They were forcing six-year olds to film
Hard-core porn. The police is [sic] searching for the child killer X. Garthia also known as Portuguese.
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.
With you Ms. Andrea Scarred. Presenting you the ‘Worst of the day’.”4
Journalism based on discovering the biggest human decays leads in the film to total anesthetizing of reality, pushing the borders of stereotyped social behaviour and losing perception between good or bad. The climax scene is where Kika is raped by brother of her maid, who ran out of prison, and came for help to his sister. The director is connecting the motif of media, which create from raped and tragic events a hyperbolic mockery..
The raping is moved toward the border of comedy where the perception of real-ity is altered.
The story is based in a big city, which at first sight, gives anonymity, but in real-ity a private place in it is disappearing.
The monotony of housing estates char-acteristic by building blocks of flats is an unpopular sign of the modern period, an efort for the unification of ideas of optimal survival in life. Almodovar uses precisely this place for stressing a con-trast between monotony, colourlessness and the variety of people, who share this space. The explicitness of depiction and controversial themes, for which the di-rector became famous, are just a sophis-ticated game of hidden meanings and messages. Kika is available to a wider au-dience because its reception is facilitated by means of ambiguous depiction which creates some kind of universal language.
As it is clear from the Almodovar pro-duction, Spanish identity is always pres-ent in his work. Nevertheless, in the area
of artistic and aesthetic communication we can see a movement towards the uni-versalism not just in themes, but also in content.
The cinematography of the 90s was in-fluenced by thoughts of feminism, which entered Spain a couple of decades later than in the neighbouring countries. The reason of this was the social politics of General Francisco Franco which intro-duces in its program a comeback of tra-ditions and Catholicism, and it reserved a place at household for the woman.
Despite this fact, in the 60s thoughts of woman identity were formed, which thanks to Simone de Beauvoir’s ideas (1908 – 1986)5 found their respond even in Spain and were gradually reflect-ed in literature and cinematography.
Thoughts of Simone de Beauvoir reso-nate already in the 60s mainly in the area of Spanish literature. The problem of the position of woman in society, her my-thology, question of maternity – themes also developed by Virginia Woolf, Simo-ne de Beauvoir, Doris Lessing and later also Margueritte Duras and Anais Nino – determine the direction of Spanish lit-erature that becomes an inspiration for many directors.
The 80s bring a striking change and a relaxation in depicting women charac-ters and picturization of controversial themes. The stereotype of submissive young woman gradually vanishes and is replaced by a young female rebel who refuses to subordinate to the social dic-tate.
A strong representative in the area of literature at the end of the 80s is Al-mudena Grandes (1960) who was a pioneer in developing erotic novel and
attracted many film producers. Director Bigas Luna (1946) in 1990 filmed his novel Lulu (Las edades de Lulú, 1989) in which he captures the puritan back-ground of Spanish middle class and in-terfering influence of the western way of life on an adolescent heroine. Through the story situated in Madrid in the pe-riod of postfrancoism, we get acquainted with Lulu and perceive the surrounding world through her perspective. The lan-guage itself is very open which is reflect-ed also in its film version.
Taboo themes of pornography, sado-masochism, voyeurism, and open sexu-ality, which author develops in the novel, are mainly the metaphor of the censor-ship of previous period, which is also re-flected in this area. In order not to let this idea stay in the background, Bigas Luna had to change some parts of artwork.
The director preferred a chronological narration of the story as opposed to the novel which begins from the culminating point of life of the young woman in di-vorce proceedings. Lulu, retrospectively, is in her memories trying to find an an-swer to her incomprehensible sexual ad-diction during the years spent, at first sight, in an ideal family full of fake and suppressed emotions.
The incipit of the film is a detailed dis-play of powdered genitals of a newborn girl. This motif is also present later in the relationship of Lulu and Pablo who perceives her as a toy that he can do any-thing with. Without her awareness he invites her brother to join them in their sexual games. The next day Lulu decides to leave Pablo:
“Lulu: I feel insecure.
Pablo: Insecure? How?
Lulu: Because I’m not the same for you anymore. I don’t want to be a child. Don’t you see? If I had said no, you’d have gone to bed with Cristina.
Pablo: Does it matter?
Lulu: A lot.
Pablo: Do you want to wreck it all?
Lulu: Listen, I’m leaving. Why can’t you understand? I’m only sure about ...not wanting to be a child any more.“6
Loneliness and freedom bring Lulu to uncertainty which is presented in even more bizarre sexual experiences. Many until then unknown new things surpass-ing the imagination of society about a young married woman with a child bring her to a never ending circle from which she cannot step out. Only the collision with reality forces her to awake.
Controversy of the story and adapta-tion of the theme itself classify the film as an erotic motion picture, but at the same time it foreshadowed the openness of the Spanish film production to depic-tion of new themes.
In 1995 director Gerardo Herrero was inspired by other Grandes’s novels Male-na is the Male-name of tango (MaleMale-na es un nombre de tango, 1994). In many aspects the subject of both stories is the same; it is diferent only in a degree of explicit-ness. The director is much clearer in de-picting the place which becomes a form-making aspect of the story. The heroine Malena lives in the country and town which predetermine a certain type of behaviour. The criticism of closeness of Spanish country, which refuses any kind of otherness from everyday stereotypes, is emphasized mainly in the opposition with urban area, symbol of globalization,
ofering freedom and anonymity. The main motif of the story is family treasure - a precious emerald - which grandfa-ther leaves to his twelve-year-old grand-daughter Malena. He orders her not to tell anyone about it because one day it will save her life. Malena has a twin sis-ter Reina who personifies an ideal image of woman of the post-war period. She is calm, behaved, humble, patient, and submissive. In contrast with her, Malena disposes with confidence, rudeness and braveness. She lives an intensive life, learns on own mistakes, but she does not regret her decisions. Knowing own personality and accepting own sexual-ity creates an image of a real woman full of contradictions and emotions. Malena does not fit any stereotype; she is indi-vidual but also universal. Relationships with men and her sister, who personifies an ideal woman and mother, gradually become tenser. Rebelliousness of Malena ceases when she realizes that her biggest rebelliousness will not be refusal of life but braveness to live and not to lose one-self.
Both adaptations of the novels of Al-mudena Grandes use motives of body, physical sufering and discovering bor-ders of sexuality, delight and pain. De-spite the controversy of the themes and their picturization in both films is pres-ent an intellectual view of reality full of irony and sarcasm.
The film production of Julio Medem is characterized by a totally diferent poet-ics. He belongs among few directors who are able to depict contemporary society
The film production of Julio Medem is characterized by a totally diferent poet-ics. He belongs among few directors who are able to depict contemporary society