67 Festival de Cine de San Sebastián. Nuevas miradas sobre la Guerra Civil

Pacificado, una producción brasileña dirigida por Paxton Winters (Texas, 1972) ha sido la triunfadora del 67 Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián: Concha de Oro a la mejor película, Concha de Plata al Mejor Actor y Premio del Jurado a la mejor fotografía, pulverizando las quinielas y desconcertando a buena parte de la prensa desplazada al festival, que ha acogido con frialdad la resolución de un jurado presidido por Neil Jordan. Este y otros films que han concursado en la Sección Oficial de la edición de 2019 de este festival, protagonizada por dos buenos films sobre la Guerra Civil española, así como otros de singular interés historiográfico que se han proyectado en otras secciones de él, son comentados en este artículo.

Tamed Monsters and Human Problems in Cinema’s Interview with the Vampire (1994)

What can the taming of the monster reveal about its construction and the potential and limits of change? Modernist, individualist qualities of Western culture and society have shaped the construction and deconstruction of the monster in popular culture in general and film in particular. The idea of an historically emergent human nature and its associated norms is key to the construction of the monster as transgressive. Less obvious but nonetheless apparent is the constraining role this Western construction of human nature continues to play in recent cinematic attempts to approach the monster more closely. These are explored through a consideration of vampire movies within the horror genre, with a focus on Interview with the Vampire (dir. Neil Jordan, 1994), as arguably both influential within and emblematic of a more general trend. The film dismantles the conventional monster figure of the vampire, humanising her by detailing her transposition from a natural, human setting to something otherworldly. Human (read as Western) qualities are reinforced and salvaged from the disturbing ambivalence of conventional monstrosity, as we observe the logic of ‘human’ adaptation to alien conditions. In this way, both the paradoxical model of freedom as conformity to nature and the naturalising reification of contingent social groupings are re-affirmed.

Introduction

This chapter focuses on The Company of Wolves, as a dark fantasy film about the horrors of the adult world and of adult sexuality glimpsed through the dreams of an adolescent girl. It analyses how The Company of Wolves amalgamates aspects of horror, the Female Gothic, fairy tales, werewolf films and coming-of-age parables. It also illustrates how The Company of Wolves is drenched in atmosphere and an eerily sensual malaise that boasts striking imagery immersed in fairy-tale motifs and startling Freudian symbolism. The chapter mentions Neil Jordan as the director of The Company of Wolves, his second film and his first foray into the realms of Gothic horror. It cites several short stories from Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber from 1979 as the basis for The Company of Wolves.

The Company of Wolves

Co-written by Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan and British novelist Angela Carter, and based on several short stories from Carter's collection The Bloody Chamber, The Company of Wolves (1984) is a provocative reinvention of the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. Unraveling a feverish metaphor for the blossoming of a young girl's sexuality and her subsequent loss of innocence, the film entwines symbolism and metaphor with striking visuals and grisly effects. Released in the early 1980s, a time which produced several classic werewolf films (including An American Werewolf in London and The Howling), The Company of Wolves sets itself apart from the pack with its overtly literary roots, feminist stance, and art-house leanings. The film's narrative takes the form of a puzzle box, unfolding as dreams within dreams, and stories within stories, which lead further into the dark woods of the protagonist's psyche, as she finds herself on the cusp of womanhood. The book explores all these aspects, as well as placing the film in the context of the careers of its creators and its position as an example of the “Female Gothic.”

Once Upon a Time

This chapter introduces Neil Jordan, who was born in Rosses Point, County Sligo on 25 February 1950, and studied English and History at University College Dublin. It talks about Jordan's first book, a collection of short stories titled Night in Tunisia in 1976, which feature many themes and ideas that Jordan would revisit throughout his career, including sexual relationships and notions of identity, and an experimental approach to perspective and narrative. The chapter also discusses Jordan's unique approach to storytelling that helped usher in a new kind of filmmaking in Ireland and radically changed perceptions of Irish culture for international audiences. It examines how Jordan's idiosyncratic approach to storytelling became more striking with each successive film. Finally, the chapter mentions The Company of Wolves as Jordan's second film and first foray into the realms of Gothic horror.

Beethoven and Byzantium: How does Film Music Help to Tell a Story?

What is the relationship that exists between film characters and film music and does this relationship affect the audience’s understanding of film narrative? In order to answer these questions, this article explores how the terms ‘diegetic’ and ‘non-diegetic’ have been defined, and summarises the alternative interpretations which have been proposed by musicologists to date. In addition, it considers a psychological survey conducted in 2013 by Matthew Spackman, Elizabeth Wakefield and Siu-Lan Tan, which tests how narrative is shaped by film music. Finally, this article focuses on the use of the Adagio (movement II), from Beethoven's piano sonata Op. 2 No. 3, in the film Byzantium to discuss how both its diegetic and its non-diegetic presentation of this sonata helps director Neil Jordan to articulate the complexity of the narrative that is unveiled as the film progresses.

O desprezo, a cólera e o riso: o filme The Butcher Boy de Neil Jordan sob uma perspectiva aristotélica

O artigo almeja relacionar a paixão da cólera ou raiva, segundo a conceituação de Aristóteles em Retórica das paixões, com o filme The Butcher Boy, dirigido por Neil Jordan, baseado no romance homônimo de Patrick McCabe. Seguindo a caracterização aristotélica da cólera despertada pelo desprezo, despeito e arrogância, consideramos que o que move o desejo de vingança da personagem do filme em questão é do primeiro tipo, sendo o último uma consequência intermediária no desenrolar da trama e assumido, em grande parte, pela ofensa sentida. Trata-se de uma relação não apenas descritiva e psicológica, ou mesmo, ilustrativa da paixão que acomete a personagem, mas de verificar em que medida a narrativa original adaptada para o filme, pode, efetivamente, ser considerada tributária das ideias aristotélicas.