Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema

Book excerpt: Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema focuses on the careers of ten Spanish film actors, including Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem, and Eduardo Noriega. Chris Perriam traces their development as stars in the Spanish context and builds on recent, exciting work on Spanish film and culture bycombining close study of performance in specific scenes with the theoretical paradigms of Star Studies and research into masculinities. Full use of popular and intellectual press coverage of these actors grounds the approach in the certain specifics of Spanish audience responses and productioncontexts in the period covered - more or less from Almodovar's Labyrinth of Passion to the latest premieres. Scenes from thirty key films are covered in detail, and the full range of each star's Spanish career is studied by briefer reference to some seventy films or more. Spanish cinema is among themost exciting and distinctive cinemas in Europe and this new study is a key contribution to the growing fields of Spanish Cultural and Film Studies.