The Films of Carlos Saura

D’Lugo, Marvin

doi:10.1515/9780691223957

Cited by 44 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Out of that inquiry the young child begins to discover her own strength and defiance to break away from the emotional and even physical entrapment signified by the family. 49 The scenes of play, and the playspace, show the potentially liberating role of play. Indeed, the play scenes in these two films from Spain help to embody for the cinematic spectator the oppression experienced under the regime and, in the later film, the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis on children.…”

Section: Play As a Creative Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Orphans at play in Cría cuervos (1976) and Estiu 1993 (2017): Reconsidering the playspace

Beaney¹

2020

Forum for Modern Language Studies

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This article seeks to explore the presentation of play in two child-centred Spanish films. Carlos Saura’s Cría cuervos (1976) and Carla Simón’s Estiu 1993 (2017) demonstrate that playful interactions offer cinematic child protagonists a plethora of ways to speak in the narratives. A reconsideration of the child orphan character in Spanish cinema will allow us to move away from limited understandings of the filmic child of much Civil-War themed cinema as a mute witness or cipher of victimhood. This essay will use a tripartite approach, with the transition to democracy as a lens, examining the beginning of the transition in the 1970s as seen in Cría. The consequences of the transition that are apparent in 1990s cinematic childhoods in Estiu will then also be explored. Through a comparative analysis, I demonstrate that the protagonists frequently turn to play to make sense of the dramatic social and political changes that envelop their world. Both Saura and Simón remind audiences that children were indeed present for, and affected by, the historical events of the Franco regime (in Cría cuervos) and the AIDS crisis of 1980s and 1990s Spain (in Estiu 1993).

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Section: Play As a Creative Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…D'Lugo goes as far as to state that 'the motif of death clearly obsesses Ana'. 67 These are instances of the girls attempting to assert control over their surroundings as a progressive claiming of agency. For example, the use of over-the-shoulder camera shots underscores the child's subjectivity.…”

Section: Magical Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%