Spanish Films - appreciating cinema

On Friday, I attended at Modern Language Film Day at Birmingham University. We had one talk together and then split off into our languages to do some focused lectures on individual films. I chose to do the Spanish workshops so we discussed Almodovar (Volver) and El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) 

The first talk addressed how cinema became an art form. W. D. Griffiths (1875-1948), an early film producer, has had been called "the father of film technique" and "the man who invented Hollywood”. He was special because recognised modern filming techniques that had radicalised the industry and he was able to use them for effect. The close-up was a very modern and although we often see close-up shots on the television, in this era it was unheard of. Griffiths had many complaints, saying that seeing ‘floating heads’ is impractical because you don’t see such a thing in real life or in the theatre. It is true, when looking at people; it is rare to be close enough to only see their face, therefore it was shocking and uncomfortable for viewers, but also had a large impact. Griffiths also developed scene editing, and began to flip between scenes. This was also controversial, and critics said that the viewers were unable to follow these scene changes. Many films in those times had one continuous set, like in theatres, therefore radical scene changes were unnecessary, but with this development films were able to become more sophisticated and complicated. This shows that, to a certain extent, viewers need to be able to ‘learn’ and become accustomed to watch a film because films are presented very differently to real life. 

Volver (Almodóvar)

Pedro Almodóvar is a very infamous Spanish director, who has been internationally recognised throughout his career.  Almodóvar tends to explore very controversial topics including homosexuality, transgenderism and the role of women in society.

Volver means ‘return’ or ‘come back’ in English, which highlights a prevalent theme of remembering the past. The main song by Carlos Gardel in the 30s contains the lyrics:

Volver

con la frente marchita

las nieves del tiempo

platearon mi sien. […]

Tengo miedo del encuentro

con el pasado que vuelve

a enfrentarse con mi vida.

Tengo miedo de las noches

que pobladas de recuerdos

encadenen mi soñar.

Return

with my forehead all wrinkled,

My temples turned silver

by time’s falling snow

I am frightened of the meeting

With the past that is returning

to confront my life.

I am frightened of the night times

When my dreams are linked and fleeting

And old memories come to stay.

This song shows that although the protagonist, acted by Penelope Cruz, wants the past and her memories to return, she is scared of the past, therefore she has a very complicated relationship with the past. 

The film also addresses the theme of familial secrets, as it has a history of incest and murders. For example, a wife murders her husband for cheating, and there are no legal consequences of her actions. This shows injustice as although she is able to create a justice, she does commit a more serious crime than he does, and she does not pay the price for her misdoings. The role of women here is crucial as they are then able to support each other without men.

Laberinto del Fauno (Guillermo del Toro)

Pan’s Labyrinth was released in 2006, but was set in 1944 which was five years after the Spanish civil war, when Franco was in power. 

This film tells the story of two worlds, the first is Spanish history of the aftermath of the civil war and of the dictatorship, and the other is a fantastical world. In the first scene, we see a distressed young girl and then the camera zooms into one of her eyes, where we are transported into this mythical world. On first appearance, it can appear that this world lies within here; however, an alternative interpretation is that the girl is the point of contact between the worlds.

The girl was accused of making up this world, and her parents banned her from reading story books because they believed that they made her too creative and accepting of magical stories. The lecturer told us that story books used to be for adults, and they used to be much more scary and graphic, only more recently were they toned down and aimed at children. Therefore, this whole second world could be seen as an ‘olden day’ story book.

The father (Videl) is a crucial part of the story because he is a franquist and therefore conveys the idea of the military. One of Franco’s key slogans was that Spain was ‘una, grande y libre’ (united, grand and free). However, this was a lie because in the film we can see that it is divided, due to the hiding ‘maquis’ (republicans), it is weak and repressed by the dictatorship. Another saying of this time was that Franco aimed for ‘eternal Spain’ and for continuity. Vidal was looking for immortality in the film, however, his daughter sacrificed her life to save someone else, and by doing this, she became immortal in the mythical world. 

 

From looking at these two films in particular, we can conclude that watching films is a fantastic way to appreciate culture and to learn a language. But we need to learn how to watch them actively, so that we are able to see the hidden details and controversial themes that turn cinema into an art form.