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“I am Vicente”, “I am Vera” –About Sex and Sexuality, Body and Gender, History and Politics in Pedro Almodóvar's Film The Skin I Live in (2011) / Yair Koren-Maimon
This paper seeks to investigate the significance of the link between Sex and Sexuality, body and gender, History and Politics, in the film The Skin I live in (Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2011). I argue that with the character of Vincente/Vera, Almodovar creates a hybrid identity that simultaneously is - and - is not - signified by the body and thus uncovers its ambiguous, unstable and performative structure. Almodovar expresses his criticism on what is conceives as the “normal” sex and gender based on bodily physical and behavioral representations. He illustrates his approach in the film through narrative that sheds an "ironic light" on the false and invalid common gender and sexual perceptions, but also emphasizes their different implications on individuals.
Through this discussion, I also offer that the film represents not only a sexual and gender utopia, based on the wish to create an egalitarian society by undermining the heteronormative conceptions associated with the signifiers of "body". It also symbolizes the wish that is connected to the socio-political context in which Almodovar created this film, among other films of his: It is the post-Frankist national and political utopia he holds, that strives to confront Spain with its dark fascist past in order to lead it to the safe haven of enlightened and liberal democracy.
Blood in the Water: Sports and Nationalism in Children of Glory (Hungary, 2006) / Yuval Rubovitch
The article examines the Hungarian film Children of Glory (Krisztina Goda, 2006), which portrays two historical events that took place in 1956: The first was the Hungarian popular revolt against the pro-Soviet Regime following the Soviet military oppression and the restitution of the communist rule. The second event, that in the film happens parallel to the political turmoil in Hungary, was a sport match between the Hungarian and Soviet national Water-Polo teams in the pool of the Olympic Summer Games in Melbourne, which escalated and turned into a political battle. The article focuses on the use of specific narration and images by the Hungarian filmmakers in order to create an identification of the audience with the Hungarian protagonists, and to see them as Hungarian national role models.
"In those days and in our times": The veiled representation of the immigration experience in The Life of Emil Zola (1937) / Yuval Rivlin
Despite being an industry based on a large number of immigrants, Hollywood in the 1930s gave only a little filmic attention to the actual individual stories of immigration to the U.S. However, some films dealt thoroughly with the experience of those already immigrated, with their assimilation into society or their fears of social alienation. One prominent Hollywood film that confronted this theme was The Life of Emil Zola (1937).
The article explores this historical drama as a film allegedly rewriting the biography of the famous French writer, but in fact suggests an inquiry into the different dilemmas occurs when those who immigrated before meet those who just arrive.
With an emphasis on the different cinematic decision, among them: plot; casting decisions and symbolic iconography, and a careful attention to the European background of the writers, actors, producers and director the 19th century story of the "Dreyfus affair" is regarded in the article as powerful allegory about the moral responsibility of the filmmakers to their new comers colleagues. With the context of the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, the homeland of the film's producers, The Life of Emil Zola becomes a contemporary critical text calling for social solidarity and against populistic nationalism.