History of Spanish Cinema and Analysis of Alejandro Amenabars-The Others - Movie Review Example

 History of Spanish Cinema and Analysis of Alejandro Amenabar’s-The Others Introduction Film industry in Spain has existed since early nineteenth century and began with silent movies and moved on to active audio-visual cinema after the Civil Wars. According to records, the initial film festivals observe din Spain occurred in the period of 1895 and 1896, wherein the first foundation of a cinema culture was laid in the country. Directors active during these years were Eduardo Jimeno, Alexandre Promio and Fructuos Gelabert. While there are speculations regarding the first Spanish film, it can be safely said that the creation was a silent movie which garnered media and public attention enough to allow new directors to venture into successive film making projects (Stone, 2014, p.12). By the mid nineteenth century, Spain saw a free flow of silent movies in the society. From the Civil Wars in 1930s to 1960, Spanish movie makers mastered the craft of transferring its genius from silent to sound movies. Many critics preserve that fact that this was the best times of Spanish film making and refer to the period of time between 1914 and 1960, as the epic period of Spanish film making. The Early Years of Silent Movies Movies created between 1914 and 1960 established the Spanish genius of capturing reality of life through the lens and the ability of Spanish filmmakers to experiment and analyze different storylines possible in fiction. Prominent film makers or directors who made sincere contributions to Spanish film making during this time were Geral Bourgeois, Florian Rey, Ricardo de Banos and Jacinto Benavente. While these were pioneers of the silent age, consequent film makers were required to move out of the silent mode of film making owing to the destructive impact of the Civil Wars of the 1930s (Besas, 1985, p.140). There was no doubt that while only ten percent of silent movies were left after the destruction by Civil Wars, the country had to find a new way to entertain people who would not want to destroy creative sources of entertainment as cinema. Celluloid films made before 1936 were destroyed and reused as goods. It was also clear that political and civil forces wanted to use films to be the mode of spreading awareness about each movement. As a result, many movies dedicated to certain propaganda against the Franco rule were created in 1940s. After The Civil War While political propaganda and censorships were a major driving force in films with and without audio in the 1940s, film makers did not stick to the idea of serious societal issues and started experimenting with newer story lines and brought fictional twists to most of the political occurrences around them. Directors who were prominently appreciated during this era included Rafael Gil, Ignacio F. Iquino, Antonio Roman, Edgar Neville and Jose Luis Saenz de Heredia. By the 1950s, the scenario had changed as Spain had recovered from the political firing of Civil Wars and had a better governing system in place. For the first time, child artists were used in Ladislao Vajda’s 1955 film Marcelino pan y vino. Entertainment industry grew on the backs of theater and cinema during this period and thrived to be the one of the best in the world till the 1960s. Along with growth and diversification, the Spanish film industry experienced development of neorealism and black comedy. As a result, a plethora of film makers like Luis Garcia Berlangs, Marco Ferreri, Juan Antonio Bardem, Mauel Mur Oti and Jose Antonio Nieves Conde brought different forms of new age movies that had an underlying tone of criticism towards society and authority (Talens & Diez, 1998, p.132). It can be safely said that these film makers had realized the seeping anger and despair amongst people after the Civil War and although things were better by the 1950s, a lot more development was expected from the authorities.. Through their films, they tried to drive home the lesson and used neorealism which consisted of elements like melodrama, black comedy and thrillers (Talens & Diez, 1998, p.23). These movies gave the common man a voice and opinion that threatened to uproot political set-ups and bring in modernism in society. This direct approach had a positive impact on the Spanish society as newer generations picked up speed in trying to change the political set-up and remove excessive political censorship in different walks of life, expression of thoughts and speech and in the entertainment industry. Newer generations grew more aware of the wrong and selfish practices used by the upper classes in Spanish society, the lack of drive and potential in the working class and the poverty of the poor class. In short, people could relate to what was being shown to them and this led to heightened popularity of the cinema culture. A viewer could belong to any class of society and still would find his life depicted through a character in the movie that he is watching. The movies of this era were a great peek into Spain’s societal system at that point of tie and therefore, got many international film makers interested in Spanish topics of film making, so much so that they ventured into making and directing Spanish movies. The world also got to see accurate depictions of Spanish society through the works of excellent directors, who have thence left path-breaking laws of Spanish movie making that proclaim equality, rawness, reality, neorealism, societal and political awareness. Amongst foreign collaborations, a great number of movies came from directors of Spanish, French, Italian and Swiss backgrounds. More and more people realize that collaborative efforts make huge business owing to the increased viewership due to audiences from both countries. In most of the collaborative foreign productions, Spanish technicians were used in large numbers. As a result of these creations, well known film makers like Orson Welles spent time in shooting Hollywood movies in locations in Spain, premiere amongst which is Chimes at Midnight (1966) and Mr. Arkadin (1955). This period from 1950s to 1970 brought international actors into the Spanish film industry who played different roles in Spanish and foreign collaborative movies and broadened the horizons of the average viewer’s cinema going experience. Such actors include well known names like Edmund Gwenn, Betsy Blair, Richard Basehart, Elena Varzi and many more. In all the parts in Spanish movies played by outside artistes, the dialogues were shot in English or other languages as preferred by the artist and later dubbed into Spanish. The example of Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal winning international accolades for his work in a Spanish film, put Spanish movies on the international platform. Modern Cinema and Democratic Age of Cinema In Spain After 1960 started, movie making followed a new rule of independent thinking and defied all censorship rules. Movies made after 1960s have been adeptly called the New Spanish Cinema as they had strong implications in the creative compilation of ideas and montages to bring out massive successful movie making abilities of directors. Prominent names from the period between 1960 and 1980 are Carlos Saura, Manuel Summers, Miguel Picazo, and many more (Besas, 1985, p.15). More and more Spanish movies got critical and international acclaim and became known as reliable forms of movie making. Many stories were later copied into other language movies and hauled Spanish movie making style by copying the same technicalities as used in the original Spanish movie. The period after Spain achieved democracy brought out the best in movie making as film makers were now confident and experimental in their approach. Some of the most prominent names in film making during this time include Alfredo Landa, Jaime Chavarri, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and many more stalwarts who brought in a new whiff of fresh breeze in Spanish film making. A prominent director in the field of dark humor and thriller is Alejandro Amenabar. His movies along with those created by other popular directors comprise 80 percent of film industry revenue in recent years. All these filmmakers believe in contemporary classics and like to depict real and fictional life using elements and montages that allow the audience to relate to real life. Studying any one movie created by any of these film makers will help us understand and identify the key differences that Spanish blockbusters have from those in Hollywood or elsewhere. A Movie That Thrilled All: The Others (2001) A notable film that made its mark in new age cinema in Spain was The Others by Alejandro Amenabar that was released in 2001 and starred Nicole Kidman in the lead. The story is that of a family of a mother and two daughters who live in a desolate house much away from the city. They are terrified when they have dreams of ghosts who seem to live in the house. Upon the arrival of three servants, series of odd occurrences convinces the lady Grace that ghosts do exist around them and that they live in a house that has a man, a woman, a boy and an old woman, who are revealed by Anne’s paintings. Anne is Grace’s daughter and both Anne and Nicholas are Grace’s children who suffer from a light sensitive disease which does not allow them to be exposed to sunlight. The servants try to help Grace understand the mysterious ghost voices that she and her children hear. While Grace rushes to get a priest to help save her house, she gets lost in a fog only to discover her dead husband Charles. The gardener and the nanny are seen doing unusual things which leave the viewer suspecting their moves. Charles is the husband that Grace lost in the war and while Grace is happy to meet him after all these years his entry into the house is devoid of any emotion or happiness, much to the astonishment of Grace, the children and the audience. The servants talk amongst themselves and clear the air by saying that Charles is unaware of the house that he is in. Charles stays for only a day and leaves soon after an incident in which Grace sees an old woman who looks exactly like her daughter Anne. Suspecting that the old lady is impersonating her daughter’s appearance, Grace attacks her trying to find her whereabouts (Jordan, 2012, p.141). Surprisingly, she finds that in reality she has hurt her own daughter, who immediately shuns meeting or interacting with her own mother. Anne reports the incident to Charles who is shocked and leaves immediately. Grace is unable to bear the pain of separation and tries to reconcile with the elderly servant only to be faced with further revelations like the living and dead staying together in the house. This aspect of the movie shows respect towards the dead and how men must understand the significance of co-existing with ghosts of the dead (Bruce, 2007, p.21). Grace is faced with more revelations when all the curtains of the house vanish and her children are left exposed to sunlight that causes them to scream. While the children scamper out in the sun to find their father they come across the graves of the three servants in the garden. Simultaneously, when Grace visits the servants’ quarters she finds the photos of the three servants in the book of the dead. It is at this juncture that Grace and her children realize that the three servants were ghosts, who themselves follow the children to enter the house and her held at shotgun by Grace. The story of the servants’ death 50 years ago shakes the family and the children who seek refuge in the room upstairs are found by the old woman and while Grace enters the room upstairs they find the old woman in conversation with Victor’s dead parents through a séance. The audience learns from this conversation that Grace and her children are ghosts themselves and were killed by Grace. Angered by such a revelation, Grace starts to shake the séance table and rips the paper apart. The audience is then shown the reality in which only the table is seen to shake vigorously and the papers are torn apart (Bruce, 2007, p.32). When Grace is done she huddles with her children in a corner and all three tremble in fear. The starkness of reality hits them when in her memory the scenes of their death clear up. She had smothered her children using a pillow and shot herself when she realized she had killed her own children. However, she wakes up to find her children laughing and playing and feels that they are granted a second chance to life. The family realizes that the people they have been seeing are real living people who they can see only sometimes. The overall impact of the revelation is astounding on the audience and the real living people of the house, who are unable to get the ghosts of Grace and her children out of the house and leave. After a series of horrific trills, the film closes thus on a somber note wherein a person is seen closing the gates of the building and hanging a “For Sale” sign on it. Critical Analysis of The Movie Compelling, innovative and technically mellifluent, The Others is a cinematic creation that goes down in the history of movie making due to its unique storyline and screenplay. From lighting to narration, from camera angles to sound quality, he movie scored brownie points in every aspect and successfully won 8 Giya Awards. When we analyze the film we see that Alejandro has used a thoroughly drafted idea and turned it upside down to give the audience a psychological thriller (Talens & Diez, 1998, p.34) that will stay in our memory for long. As it is, Alejandro was working on thrillers and sci-fi before this movie and was making a great impact on his audiences. However, when The Others released in 2001, it brought the best in direction, screenplay, technology and performance from the team and gave everybody a reason to applaud them all. The Others was his third full length film. He repeated his act by 2004 with a fourth film that won 14 Goya Awards. Alejandro also went on to make the most expensive film in Spanish history in 2008 owing to the trust he had won from producers and the Spanish audience, through his work. About The Director: Alejandro Amenabar Alejandro’s example proves that addressing key issues like death, euthanasia, abortion and important aspects of individual living and presenting it to the audience through cinematic expression is very much alive in Spanish film industry and is a reflection of the movie making genius of Spanish directors. Born with Chilean and Spanish ancestry and known to be one of the LGBT directors of the Spanish movie industry, Alejandro’s vision does justice to the creative genius of the land which uses local or well known concepts of life to develop compelling dramas that enthrall an audience that seeks to find answers to these questions in real life. As a result, people are more than happy to enjoy the high class works of such promising directors and do not worry about trying new directors. It is to be noted that there are a handful of lGBT directors in Spain’s movie industry and there number has increased down history after democracy was attained. Conclusion: The history of film industry in Spain has always shown that promise, appreciation and deeply researched montages mark the wholesome entertainment that the industry has provided audiences over the years. Today, when one looks at the works of Alejandro Amenabar and other successful directors, it can be safely said that the future of film industry in Spain is in safe and strong hands, which will lead younger generations in coming up with more creative movies in years to come. References Besas, P. (1985). Behind the Spanish lens: Spanish cinema under fascism and democracy. Arden Press Inc.: Madrid Bruce, S. (2007). Sympathy For the Dead:(G) hosts, Hostilities and Mediums in Alejandro Amenabar's The Others and Postmortem Photography. Discourse,27(2), 21-40. Jordan, B. (2012). Alexandro Amenabar and Contemporary Spanish Horror. European Nightmares: Horror Cinema in Europe Since 1945, 141. Stone, R. (2014). Spanish cinema. Routledge: London Talens, J., & Díez, S. Z. (Eds.). (1998). Modes of representation in Spanish cinema (Vol. 16). U of Minnesota Press: Minnesota Read More