A nation is nothing without the stories it tells about itself. In Spanish National Cinema, Triana-Toribio studies some of the stories told through film, as well as the demands made on Spanish cinema to provide new stories to contribute to the formation of the nation. She also examines the changing national qualities of Spanish cinema, such as the Spanishness of its filmmakers, while taking issue with studies of national cinemas that focus on important moments.

This study examines the discourses of nationalism as they intersected or clashed with Spanish film production from its inception to the present. While the book addresses the discourses around filmmakers such as Almodovar and Medem, whose work has achieved international recognition, Spanish National Cinema is particularly novel in its treatment of a whole range of popular cinema rarely touched on in studies of Spanish cinema. Using accounts of films, popular film magazines and documents not readily available to an English-speaking audience, as well as case studies focusing on the key issues of...

Alex de la Iglesia, initially championed by Pedro Almodovar, and at one time the enfant terrible of Spanish film, is still making film critics nervous. The director of some of the most important films of the Post-Franco era -- "Accion mutante, El dia de la bestia, Muertos de risa" -- receives here the first full length study of his work. Breaking away from the pious tradition of acclaiming art-house auteurs, The cinema of Alex de la Iglesia tackles a new sort of beast: the popular auteur, who brings the provocation of the avant-garde to popular genres such as horror and comedy."

The past four decades have seen the Spanish film industry rise from isolation in the 1970s to international recognition within European and World Cinema today. Exploring the cultural and political imperatives that governed this success, this book shows how Spanish film culture was deliberately and strategically shaped into its current form.