Live flesh

“Penelope Cruz enters history!” In 2007, this headline was splashed across a Spanish daily newspaper the day after the Oscar nominations were announced, when Cruz was nominated for best actress in Almodovar’s Volver. Only a year later the title could have been the same - “Javier Bardem enters history!” This classic case of false optimism garnished with a dose of national pride often serves as consolation to Spanish filmmakers and media. In order to “enter history”, Spanish actors have to become famous in Hollywood. That proves that the “American dream” is still the biggest fantasy of Spanish filmmakers, as well as most other Europeans who share the same wet dream. Thanks to the likes of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, this dream became reality. The “American dream” from the era of new production strategies, is one reason why Woody Allen decided to make his new film in Barcelona, starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Film programmes enjoys screening Spanish films. The latest program of Spanish films functions as a sort of a colorful mélange consisting of previously shown films. However, they were not chosen because their directors belong to the same generation, movement or school or use the same style. They also differ in genre and stretch from bizarre melodrama (The Lucky Star), to extravagant celluloid fantasies (The Lovers of the Arctic Circle) and intelligent thrillers that recycle or deconstruct Hollywood models such as the outstanding Box 507 and Amenabar’s Thesis, which is what the American film “8 mm” would have been had it not been directed by Schumacher.

If anything connects these films it is a fascination with bodies; the live flesh from Almodovar’s Live Flesh, in which the body belongs to the virile Liberto Rabal and the invalid chair to Javier Bardem. So it is not surprising that the director of this film uses a scene of giving birth on a bus to illustrate what Spain was once and what it is now. This new age gave birth to the new bad guys like Alberto Serra, Rafo Cortes and Marco Recha. We will save them for some new program of Spanish films. (Dragan Rubeša)