The War That Won't Die: The Spanish Civil War in Cinema - Hardcover

David Archibald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719078083 ISBN 13: 9780719078088

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2012

Synopsis

The war that won't die charts the changing nature of cinematic depictions of the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, a significant number of artists, filmmakers and writers - from George Orwell and Pablo Picasso to Joris Ivens and Joan Miro - rallied to support the country's democratically-elected Republican government. The arts have played an important role in shaping popular understandings of the Spanish Civil War and this book examines the specific role cinema has played in this process. The book's focus is on fictional feature films produced within Spain and beyond its borders between the 1940s and the early years of the twenty-first century - including Hollywood blockbusters, East European films, the work of the avant garde in Paris and films produced under Franco's censorial dictatorship. The book will appeal to scholars and students of Film, Media and Hispanic Studies, but also to historians and, indeed, anyone interested in why the Spanish Civil War remains such a contested political topic.

About this title

Review:

Lucidly written and informed by a nuanced familiarity with the history of the Spanish Civil War, David Archibald's book is must reading for anyone interested in the relationship between cinema and this seminal historical event. Whether dealing with the Popular Front romanticism of Sam Wood's adaptation of For Whom the Bell Tolls; the surrealist-inflected anti-authoritarianism of Arrabal's Viva la Muerte, or the anti-Stalinist fervor of Loach's Land and Freedom, Archibald ably disentangles a number of the thorniest political and aesthetic controversies spawned by a conflict that remains more pertinent than ever. --Richard Porton

About the Author:

Dr David Archibald is Lecturer in Theatre Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0719078083
• ISBN 13: 9780719078088
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224