Page 69 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

What is most revealing about de la Iglesia's citation of cutting edge, technological innovation is
the reception these gestures have had within Spain. On the one hand, one senses a certain pride that
Spain has arrived, at least strongly on the European scene, as a vibrant, contemporary culture. John
Hopewell forecast this:
Thus the 'significant' cinematographic transition which has triumphed in Spain has been the

appearance, development and definitive hegemony of a cinema of a European liberal style.4

This pride in place is evident, for instance, in Juan Manuel de Prada's enthusiastic assessment of
the transformative power that Dia de la bestia has over Madrid: 'Seldom has Madrid been portrayed
in such a hallucinogenic manner metamorphosed into a city with laws at the margins of physics
and reason.'' At the same time, the ways in which de la Iglesia employs his 'innovations' are often
themselves parodic, so that what we may at first recognise as a nationalist gesture is also a critique
of the process. The use of blue screen in the aforementioned climatic scene of Dia de la bestia is a
prime example. The shot is so stark that the bizarre character José Mari appears suspended in mid-air
before being thrown off a building against nothing but a blue screen. Unlike the Schweppes/Modern
Times sequence which Compitello celebrates, the effect here is campy citation of well-known uses of
blue screen in Hollywood films. We recognise the special effect, but we also note an absurdity to the
bare-bones use of the artifice. Overall, the use of special effects, however, positions de la Iglesia well
for a young audience. In this regard his work resembles that of Alejandro Amenábar, director of Tesis
(Thesis, 1996) and Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes, 1997). Paul Julian Smith's concluding comments in
a recent review of Abre los ojos in Sight and Sound could apply equally well to de la Iglesia:

Nonetheless, Amenábar's virtuoso style and connection to the youth audience, both of which
are resented by the Spanish film establishment, make him a plausible model outside of Spain

for a European cinema that bridges the gap between arthouse and mainstream.6

HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES, NEW GENRES, PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
AND ANDRÉS VINCENTE GÓMEZ

Special effects or a virtuoso style, marks of high production values in film, do not come easily or
cheaply. Indeed, de la Iglesia is known for his genre experimentation - science fiction, horror, road
film, crime story - most often within a general rubric of black comedy that includes a considerable
dose of gratuitous violence. Like Almodóvar, de la Iglesia is not a product of a Spanish film school.
This puts him outside of the film establishment. But he is, in a sense, a product of Almodóvar. De la
Iglesia's first feature film Acción mutante was one of the first films Almodóvar produced through his
own production company El Deseo. About Acción mutante, José Arroyo writes:
*
[I]t pushed graphic representations of sex and violence to the point of comic dis-belief,
managing to be shocking and funny. Perhaps because Acción mutante seemed to think its every
infraction of good taste was hilarious, it gained a fervent following among adolescent boys.'

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