From Silver Screen to Spanish Stage

Stuart Green

Description

This is the first book-length English-language study of a group of five artists closely linked with the Spanish avant-garde in the 1920s and 1930s, now known as the 'Other' Generation of 27. In the same way that their contemporaries of the celebrated Generation of 27 (which included Federico Garcia Lorca) attempted a revolution of the arts through poetry inspired by European modernism, the 'Other' Generation of 27 attempted to renovate Spanish humour, first in prose, and then in the theatre and cinema. This book demonstrates how these humorists drew on the humour of Chaplin, Keaton, Lubitsch and the Marx Brothers for their stage comedy, and how they stretched the limits of the stage at the time by incorporating cinematic techniques, such as flashback, voice-overs and montage, in their search for new dramatic forms.
Introduction Was there ever a(n Other) Generation of 1927? The humour of the vanguardia The humorists and cinema Viewing theatre through the prism of cinema Chapter One. From Madrid to Hollywood and back again: crushed by the reels of industry Design for Living Matinee Idols Bringing Up Baby Trouble in Paradise You Can't Take It with You The Awful Truth Chapter Two. Transitions from stage to screen Introduction Theatre and cinema: a comparative framework La vida en un hilo Mi adorado Juan The remediation of cinema in Spanish theatre during the post-war decades Chapter Three. The remediation of cinema in the theatre of the humorists of the Madrid vanguardia: innovation and compromise The incipient mediatization of theatre in Spain Pre-War previews Jardiel: fighting film with film Further mediatization of theatre in Spain Tono, Neville, Lopez Rubio and Mihura: cinematic traces Intertextual references and parallels Cinematic stagings Conclusion Chapter Four. Make 'em laugh Humour on the Spanish stage in the early twentieth century Comedian comedy Romantic comedy Conclusion. Remediation and mediatization in Spain: then and now Why then? What now?

Sujets

• Traditions
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Customs
• Spain
• Spain (groupe)

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780708323441
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 14 Mo

Extrait

Iberian and Latin American Studies

From Silver Screen to Spanish Stage

Series Editors Professor David George (Swansea University) Professor Paul Garner (University of Leeds)

Editorial Board David Frier (University of Leeds) Lisa Shaw (University of Liverpool) Gareth Walters (Swansea University) Rob Stone (Swansea University) David Gies (University of Virginia) Catherine Davies (University of Nottingham) Richard Cleminson (University of Leeds)

IBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

From Silver Screen to Spanish Stage

The Humorists of the Madrid vanguardia and Hollywood Film

STUART GREEN

© Stuart Green, 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff, CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk British Library CIP A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978–0–7083–2343–4 e-ISBN 978–0–7083–2344–1 The right of Stuart Green to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset by Columns Design XML Limited, Reading Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

Contents

Series Editors’ Foreword Acknowledgements Permissions Notes on style

Abbreviations

Introduction: Was there ever a(n Other) Generation of 1927? Chapter 1: From Madrid to Hollywood and Back Again: Crushed by the Reels of Industry Chapter 2: Transitions from Screen to Stage Chapter 3: The Remediation of Cinema in the Theatre of the Humorists of the Madridvanguardia: Innovation and Compromise Chapter 4: Make ‘em Laugh: The Humorists and Hollywood Comedy Conclusion: Remediation and Mediatization in Spain: Then and Now

Notes References Index

vii ix xi xiii xv 1

19 59

105

143

167 173 195 211

Series

Editors’

Foreword

Over recent decades the traditional ‘languages and literatures’ model in Spanish departments in universities in the United Kingdom has been superceded by a contextual, interdisciplinary and ‘area studies’ approach to the study of the culture, history, society and politics of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds – categories that extend far beyond the confines of the Iberian Peninsula, not only in Latin America but also to Spanish-speaking and Lusophone Africa. In response to these dynamic trends in research priorities and curriculum development, this series is designed to present both disci- plinary and interdisciplinary research within the general field of Iberian and Latin American Studies, particularly studies that explore all aspects of cultural production (inter alia literature, film, music, dance, sport) in Spanish, Portuguese, Basque, Catalan, Galician and indigenous languages of Latin America. The series also aims to publish research in the History and Politics of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds, at the level of both the region and the nation-state, as well as on Cultural Studies that explore the shifting terrains of gender, sexual, racial and postcolonial identities in those same regions.

Acknowledgements

The doctoral thesis on which this book is based was funded by a three-year grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now Council). I gratefully acknowledge this support, so important for the completion of the PhD project and my career since then. I am also grateful to the University of Leeds for the funding it provided towards a research trip to Madrid to enable me to gather further information for this book. As a postgraduate student at the University of Sheffield, and as lecturer in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin Ameri- can Studies at the University of Leeds, I have received stimulating ideas and helpful advice from many people over the past nine years. My greatest thanks must go to Dr Robin Warner, for his supervision and encouragement throughout my MA and PhD. Professors David George and Phil Swanson were most understanding examiners and have continued to provide excellent help and advice. I am also indebted to Professor Phillip Deacon, Dr Anja Louis, Dr Louise Johnson, Dr Teresa Fuentes Peris and other Hispanists in South and West Yorkshire for their support and guidance. For their academic assistance on my research trips I would like to thank the staff of the Biblioteca Nacional Española, the Biblioteca de Teatro Contemporáneo de la Fundación Juan March and the Centro de Documentación Teatral. For their friendship, and their generous hospitality on the afore- mentioned research trips, I am sincerely grateful to Harvey Holtom, Maggi Riach, Sebastián and Ella, Juan de la Calle and Sonia Ruiz, and Carmen García. For her help in obtaining video recordings and magazine clippings, I would like to thank Beatriz Soto. Throughout my academic career, I have been supported by friends and family in the UK. Of the former, too many to list here, I would like to give special thanks to Jon Ellis, for his willingness always to lend a sympathetic ear and for his good humour. My greatest thanks and all