1. W4 – Genre and Industry Alejandro Amenábar and Tesis (1996) Industry and state: changes and developments Looking at Tesis in context Amenábar: a new type of (genre) auteur

2. 1. Changes in the institutional context 1980s: key facts: 1982: Landslide victory of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in the general elections. Pilar Miró (esteemed filmmaker and PSOE member) is appointed Directora General de la Cinematografía, and director of the Instituto de Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), the state office for the production and promotion of Spanish Cinema. Miró also in charge of Fondo de Protección de la Cinematografía : state aid to film production. December 1983: new ‘Ley Miró’: 50% of total film production costs to be paid in advance to producers/directors from the Fondo de Protección. Promotion of a quality cinema: - reflect the changes in the New Spain after Franco: - ‘educate’ the audience - represent a new Spain and a new Spanish cinema in international markets & film festivals The so-called cine polivalente or ‘multi-function’ cinema.

3. Los santos inocentes (Mario Camus, 1984) An example of the quality literary adaptations encouraged by Miró’s film policy, as based on a novel by respected novelist Miguel Delibes. Award to Best Actor shared by Francisco Rabal & Alfredo Landa at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival

4. 1990s: Changes in state funding policy and success of young Spanish cinema 1994: Carmen Alborch (new socialist Minister of Culture) dismantles Miró law and passes new film law: producers can apply only for 15% of base costs to be covered by state funding - further subsidies awarded in proportion to box-office takings The ICAA gives out subsidies to new and young filmmakers Firsts and second films First and second films by young directors raise the profile of Spanish cinema in the box-office: Alex de la Iglesia ( Acción mutante, El día de la bestia) Juanma Bajo Ulloa ( Alas de mariposa, La madre muerta ) Icíar Bollaín ( Hola, ¿ estás sola?) Julio Medem ( Vacas, La ardilla roja)

5. 1990s: Changes in state funding policy and success of young Spanish cinema Firsts and second films Established directors work with a new generation of actors including Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Ariadna Gil, Maribel Verdú and others: an emerging national star-system. Films closer to genre patterns and with a stronger iconography: romantic comedies, family melodramas, thrillers. Jamón Jamón (1992) launches the careers of Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz

6. 2. Tesis: a critique and a symptom of postmodern culture a) New popularity of tv reality shows in the 1990s. Mediatised experience: the image as simulacrum, a substitute for real experience. b) a de-historicised present; pressure to leave behind the political legacy of the past and adopt new ‘modern’ signs of identity, as corresponds to a established democracy. c) the individual as subject of consumption - reality as spectacle, from which the subject is detached. ( extracted from C. Moreiras Menor, “Spectacle, trauma and violence in contemporary Spain” (2000)), 135-136. In further reading section.

7. Violence in everyday settings

8. The spectator’s gaze: cinema voyeurism

9. Gender dynamics

10. 3. Alejandro Amenábar: a postmodern auteur ? The Sea Inside (2004) (2009) Follows up a social-problem film with an epic historical drama: is Amenábar the ultimate “auteur of commerce”? (borrowing from Timothy Corrigan, cited by Maule p.135) 5 films to date: Tesis (1996) Abre los ojos (1997) The Others (2001-English) Mar adentro (2004) Agora (2009 –English) Regression (2015 – English)

11. 3. Alejandro Amenábar: a postmodern auteur ? Links with tradition: intertextual references to the New Spanish Cinema of the 1970s; philosophical preoccupation with the themes of death and transcendence in all his films Ana Torrent, star of Tesis and former poster child of the 1970s New Spanish Cinema ( El espíritu de la colmena, Cría cuervos ). The Others (2001) a combination of genre filmmaking and quality cinema