Gender Roles

In our last class we noted that there are very few female-character-driven films. In fact there are very few films that strive to portray the broad-spectrum of roles that both genders play in relationships. The writer/director who I find does the best job of presenting an interesting spectrum of relationships and gender roles is Pedro Almodóvar. This is good timing for our discussion of this because 9 of his films are being re-released into theaters over the fall. His films are serious yet comical, and always interesting. If you don’t mind the subtitles I highly recommend them. I also recommend his most recent release “Volver” which stars Penelope Cruz and is entirely centered around female characters and artfully balances dark comedy around serious and thought provoking situations. I mention these films because I have come to find that we often become so entranced in the mainstream films of our country that it is hard to pick up on the biases/ cultural influences in them. When I started watching Spanish films I became much more aware of not only what Hollywood was not accurately representing in movies, but also how different subjects and topics could be approached. ¡Viva Pedro!