This thesis provides a study of the subversive cinematographic practices in Spain during the period of political repression under Francoism (1939-1975). In foregrounding the non-conformist cinema...Show moreThis thesis provides a study of the subversive cinematographic practices in Spain during the period of political repression under Francoism (1939-1975). In foregrounding the non-conformist cinema of the time, it is my hope that this thesis contributes to the reconstruction of an immediate past in order to fight against the loss of memory, instigated by the dominant accounts of the history of that period, including that of the Spanish cinema. This thesis aims, then, to bring to light the repression that was encouraged by the state within the purview of film in order to hinder freedom of speech, and to revive a period of Spanish film history in which some films must be seen, I argue, as an instrument for social criticism. Against this background of repression I have, firstly, drawn attention on the institutional mechanisms and administrative procedures of censorship and propaganda – through which the state exercised control over the film making practices –, and the propaganda films made by directors who followed the principles of the regime, particularly focusing on the case of José Luis Sáenz de Heredia. Secondly, I have focused on two different lines of dissidence, i.e. internal and external, through the works of Falangist director José Antonio Nieves Conde, and the collaborative works of Luis García Berlanga and Juan Antonio Bardem, respectively.Show less
This thesis investigates the auteur cinema of Michel Gondry and describes how its special “tone” is connected to the branding of emotion. The broad work of cross-media auteur Michel Gondry contains...Show moreThis thesis investigates the auteur cinema of Michel Gondry and describes how its special “tone” is connected to the branding of emotion. The broad work of cross-media auteur Michel Gondry contains short and feature films. In order to stress the role of short films within Gondry’s oeuvre and to highlight the connecting motifs five short films and two feature films were analyzed from the point of view of an auteur theory in transition. In the chapter one of the thesis, Gondry’s work is discussed, respectively, against the backdrop of the classic auteur theory of the 1950s (Truffaut, Sarris), the discourses on the “death of the auteur” of the 1960s and ‘70s (Bazin, Foucault), and, finally, the revival of auteur theory from the 1980s and ‘90s onwards, with Andrew and Corrigan, who claim that the auteur is not dead, but has become a marketing tool. In the second chapter, I have then fleshed out the different motifs that establish Gondry as an auteur (in different senses of the word), stipulating the continuity between his short and feature length films. In the third and final chapter, I draw on the work of MacDowell and Shaviro to elaborate on how the “tone” or “sensibility” of Gondry’s movies set him up as the new “homo oeconomicus” (Shaviro), for whom emotions are resources to invest. It becomes clear how Gondry creates himself as seemingly romantic auteur and in so doing brands “his emotions” to gain return.Show less
