Description
Book SynopsisThis engaging book explores some of the most significant films to emerge from Latin America since 2000, an extraordinary period of international recognition for the region''s cinema. Each chapter assesses an individual film, with some contributors considering the reasons for the unprecedented commercial and critical successes of movies such as City of God, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y tu mamá también, and Nine Queens, while others examine why equally important films failed to break out on the international circuit.Written by leading specialists, the chapters not only offer textual analysis, but also trace the films'' social context and production conditions, as well as critical national and transnational issues. Their well-rounded analyses provide a rich picture of the state of contemporary filmmaking in a range of Latin American countries. Nuanced and thought-provoking, the readings in this book will provide invaluable interpretations for students and scholars of Latin American film.Cont
Trade ReviewRecommended. * CHOICE *
With an eye to the national and international contexts of production and reception of contemporary Latin American cinema, essays in this exciting collection focus on international blockbusters as well as introduce readers to lesser known films. A welcome and valuable addition to the growing scholarship on the cinemas of the region. -- Andrea Noble, Durham University
The great merit of this book is to acknowledge current Latin American cinema's international success as an aesthetic achievement, as well as a commercial one. Through in-depth case studies, it contributes a fascinating new chapter to world cinema history. -- Lúcia Nagib, University of Reading
Again and again, these essays strip away the masks to reveal Latin American cinema as it really is: specific and local, national and historical, not a homogeneous product lately discovered by the United States and Europe as a marketable commodity. A valuable compendium for anyone who wants to know what's up with cinema in Latin America today. -- B. Ruby Rich, University of California, Santa Cruz; author of Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Latin Amercan Cinema Today: A Qualified Success Story Chapter 1: Los diarios de motocicleta as Pan-American Travelogue Chapter 2: "So What's Mexico Really Like?": Framing the Local, Negotiating the Global in Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también Chapter 3: Cidade de Deus: Challenges to Hollywood, Steps to The Constant Gardener Chapter 4: Playing Hollywood at Its Own Game? Bielinski's Nueve reinas Chapter 5: Afro-Brazilian Identity, Malandragem and Homosexuality in Madame Satã Chapter 6: Family Romance and Pathetic Rhetoric in Marcelo Piñeyro's Kamchatka Chapter 7: Soapsuds and Histrionics: Media, History, and Nation in Bolívar soy yo Chapter 8: Killing Time in Cuba: Juan Carlos Tabío's Lista de espera Chapter 9: The Power of Looking: Politics and the Gaze in Salvador Carrasco's La Otra Conquista Chapter 10: Peruvian Cinema and the Struggle for International Recognition: Case Study on El Destino no tiene favoritos
