Catalan Cinema: The Barcelona Film School and the New Avant-Garde (Toronto Iberic)

Catalan Cinema offers a theoretical reading of the most relevant cinematic productions to emerge from Catalonia in the last twenty years. The essays in this collection examine cinema in relation to the Escola de Barcelona (The Barcelona School), a group of cinema directors that drew inspiration from British pop-art, Free Cinema, and the Nouvelle Vague to create works that defied and challenged the Franco dictatorship. Highlighting the aesthetic, social, and political elements of Catalan cinematography, contributors to this volume explore what young directors have in common with works created by more notable directors such as Joaquim Jordà, Jacinto Esteva, Jordi Grau, and Pere Portabella. Catalan Cinema focuses on the importance of modern production and its connection with the avant-garde and underground cinema from the Barcelona School. Establishing a cinematic genealogy, the volume ultimately questions if Catalan cinema’s own push for self-expression may be interpreted as a connection to Catalonia’s current drive for independence. Cover Half-Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: The Mavericks and the Barcelona School 1 Future Seeds: Some Considerations on the Cinema around Barcelona 92 Part Two: The Jordà Legacy 2 The Hunter and the Monkeys: Jacinto Esteva, Joaquim Jordà, and the Legacy of the Barcelona School 3 Jordà’s Last Trilogy: Situationist Turn and Subject Transformation 4 The Militant Cinema of Joaquim Jordà: The Essay Film as Form Part Three: The Portabella Nexus 5 Economies of Sound: Labouring Europe in Pere Portabella and Carles Santos 6 Pere Portabella’s Radical Theatricality: A Political Gaze over Two Transitions 7 Traversing the Real with the Reel: Infrapolitical Spectrality in Pere Portabella’s Vampir.Cuadecuc and Albert Serra’s Història de la meva mort Part Four: The New (Post) Avant-Garde 8 Beyond Melancholy: The Post-Avant-Garde Cinema of José Luis Guerín 9 On the Threshold of the Diegetic World: Optical and Haptic Visuality in Elisa K 10 Watching Novels and Reading Films: Deleuzian Affects in Catalan Cinema Part Five: Minimalism and Beyond 11 Formal Disruption, Minutiae, and Absence in the Films of Jaime Rosales 12 Identity Kit: Where to Meet Isaki Lacuesta Contributors Index Series List Catalan Cinema (In)Visible Traditions offers a theoretical reading of the most relevant cinematic productions to have emerged from Catalonia in the last twenty years. The essays in this collection examine cinema in relation to the Escola de Barcelona (The Barcelona School), a group of cinema directors that drew inspiration from British pop-art, Free Cinema, and the Nouvelle Vague to create works that defied and challenged the Franco dictatorship. Highlighting the aesthetic, social, and political elements of Catalan cinematography, contributors to this volume explore what young directors have in common with works created by more notable directors such as Joaquim Jord, Jacinto Esteva, Jordi Grau, and Pere Portabella. Catalan Cinema focuses on the importance of modern production and its connection with the avant-garde and underground cinema from the Barcelona School. Establishing a cinematic genealogy, the volume ultimately questions if Catalan cinemas own push for self-expression may be interpreted as a connection to Catalonias current drive for independence.