This is the first collection in English to focus exclusively on the various forms of popular film produced in Spain and to acknowledge the variety, range and depth of Spanish cinema. Contributors from across Hispanic, media and cultural studies explore a range of genres, from the musicals of the 1930s and 1940s to contemporary horror movies, historical epics of the 1940s and 1950s and contemporary representations of the Spanish Civil War. The book includes reappraisals of key popular directors such as Luis Garcia Berlanga and Antonio Mercero as well as critical analyses of celebrated stars like Marisol. It provides innovative consideration of the promotion and reception of horror in the 1960s, recollections of cinema-going in Madrid, and reflections on successful recent works such as 'Abre los Ojos' and 'Solas'. The contributors offer a range of critical and methodological perspectives, opening up new ways of analysing Spanish popular film. -- .
1. Introduction: Film studies, Spanish cinema and questions of the popular - Antonio Lazaro Reboll and Andrew Willis 2. Dressing as foreigners: Historical and musical dramas of the early Franco period - Federico Bonaddio 3. From rags to riches: The ideology of stardom in folkloric musical comedy films of the late 1930s and 1940s - Eva Woods 4. Spectacular metaphors: The rhetoric of historical representation in Cifesa epics - Alberto Mira 5. Re-framing the past: Representations of the Spanish Civil War in Spanish popular cinema - David Archibald 6. 'Palaces of seeds': From an experience of local cinemas in post-war Madrid to a suggested approach to film audiences - Esther Gomez Sierra 7. Populism, the national-popular and the politics of Luis Garcia Berlanga - Steven Marsh 8. Marisol: The Spanish Cinderella - Peter Evans 9. Screening 'Chicho': The horror ventures of Narciso Ibanez Serrador - Antonio Lazaro Reboll 10. Re-appraising Antonio Mercero: Film authorship and intuicion popular - Philip Mitchell 11. Rated 'S': Softcore pornography and the Spanish transition to democracy, 1977-1982 - Daniel Kowalsky 12. Alejandro Amenabar's 'Abre los Ojos'/'Open Your Eyes' (1997) - Chris Perriam 13. 'Solas' and the unbearable condition of loneliness in the late 1990s - Candyce Leonard 14. From the margins to the mainstream: Trends in recent Spanish horror cinema - Andrew Willis -- .
