National Identities and Cinema: a critical recension of the book Directory of World Cinema: Spain

This critical review concerns the book Directory of World Cinema: Spain. This book is part of a series of volumes published in the Directory of World Cinema, by Intellect Books. The rst part consists of a critique of the lm "Biutiful", an interview with the director Jaime Rosales, followed by a re ection on the Spanish lm industry. This part is also composed of a chapter in which are discussed the aspects that the authors consider to de ne the Spanish culture, concluding with a re ection on the work of some Spanish lmmakers. In the second part are presented ten lm genres that characterize the Spanish cinema, and analyzed ten lms by each gender. This book would bene t from a nal re ection on the Spanish cinema, by recognizing and discussing the national character of the lms produced, very marked by the national spaces and by the political, cultural and social history lived. Many European cinematographies became known as belonging to a particular national culture, and some even developed a style or have become specialized in a particular genre. This seems to be the reality of Spanish cinema, were the genre classi ed in this book as author melodram is very present.