Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Contemporary focus, right up to date with material from 1980s and 90s. Wide-ranging analyses of major directors, themes, genres and issues, including historical film, genre cinema, women in film and autonomies.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• Introduction
• Reconstucting the Past: Historical Cinema in Post-Franco Spain
• Cultural Re-inscription: Popular Genre Film in Post-Franco Spain
• Gender and Sexuality in Post-Franco Cinema
• Recuperating Nationalist Identities: Film in the Autonomous Regions
• Conclusion
• Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The good news and the bad news about this book derive from Jordan's tenacious determination to glance at many, many movies in order to make broad observations about Spain. The analysis of each film consists of two or three sentences about its theme or themes --homosexuality, racism, xenophobia, drugs, youth, prostitution, and 30 other subjects (none indexed)--leading to important political or sociological conclusions. Not one category--historical, biopic, literary adaptation, rural, blood-and-gore, comedy, musical, horror, fantasy--is satisfying; a couple (youth culture, various forms of thrillers) are informative. Not one movie and only one director (Almodovar) are given the attention deserved. However, two fine chapters--"Gender and Sexuality in Post-Franco Cinema," a 50-age essay on female images, women filmmakers, mothers, matriarchs, "female subjectivity," lesbianism, and "power relations of patriarch and violence," and "Recuperating Nationalist Identities: Film in the Autonomous Regions," a consideration of Catalan and Basque cinema--mull over ideas that lead the reader to a better understanding of "individual and social identities, and the importance of concepts and images of regional and national identity/identities." Not "for general readers," as it claims, the book will be useful to advanced students and faculty. P. H. Stacy; emeritus, University of Hartford