The Creative Cinematographic Process at the Service of National Identity: Pedro Almodóvar and the Promotion of Spanish Stereotypes

Abstract

Cultural expression and creativity contribute to shape national identity; movie experience reflects society. The way in which Pedro Almodóvar’s films facilitates a greater understanding of Spanish culture is the main thesis in this research. This study follows a double methodology: a descriptive documentary phase and an analysis of the filmmaker’s work. The latter includes two substages: a qualitative analysis based on a pattern dealing with different variables related to stereotype perception of Spain abroad; and a quantitative one, which highlights further procedures to approach the national culture. The insight provided by this research proves that Almodóvar actually spreads Spanish identity through his creative universe and empowers its stereotypes, yet by making them more modern: he points out the role of family, but he goes against the traditional model; he turns Madrid, Spain symbolic sight in the international standard about Spanish identity, into the kernel of his work; and he introduces some elements of Spanish popular culture like folklore, gastronomy, bullfighting or rural Spain.

The Challenges in Identification of Artists-Managers: Consequences for Creativity

“…Since identity is a very complex issue to analyse, researchers reveal many optics trying to describe the concept possibly accurately: personal identity (Mochalova, 2020;Thornton, 2011;Zambrell, 2016) versus group (Vincent & Kouchaki, 2014) or collective identity (David & Bar-Tal, 2009;Khazraee & Novak, 2018). Among group identities, there are researches about organizational identity (Erat et al, 2020), social identity (McNeill & Venter, 2019;Sethi et al, 2010), national identity (Grigoryan & Kotova, 2018;Saavedra Llamas & Grijalba de la Calle, 2020). Focusing on the area of an individual's activities, we may speak about professional identity (Kunrath et al, 2020;Zocche et al, 2018).…”

Artist, creator, manager, entrepreneur, leader: How society perceive these identities?

“…: personal identity (Zambrell, 2016) versus group identity (Vincent & Kouchaki, 2016), and collective identity, particularly, expressed in human resources identity, which is important for HRM development within the business management (Bilan et al, 2020). If we add the optics of a society or a nation, we can research a social identity (McNeill & Venter, 2019;Sethi et al, 2012), enterprise ecosystem identity (Okuneviciute Neverauskiene & Pranskeviciute, 2021), regional and local identity (Devkota et al, 2020;Kostiukevych et al, 2020) and national identity (Grigoryan & Kotova, 2018;Saavedra Llamas & Grijalba de la Calle, 2020). Adding the organization optics, we will get an organizational identity (Erat et al, 2020) or identity integration (Tendayi Viki & Williams, 2014).…”