Screen Seminars at Glasgow

‌Speaker: Prof Ann Davies, University of Stirling
Date/Time: 20 Nov 2013, 5-7pm
Venue: Room 408, Gilmorehill Centre, University of Glasgow
Title: Starscapes: The Spaces and Places of Penélope Cruz

This paper is grounded in two linked theories derived from cultural geography. The first comes from Mitch Rose’s theorization of landscape as a ‘dream of presence’, a desire for association and belonging invoked by landscape, space and place. The second come from John Wylie’s reintroduction of the subject into the landscape, with an emphasis on the subject who interacts with the landscape in what Wylie calls ‘landscape writing: the manifest expression of the subject’s call to care for the landscape with which s/he interacts. Cinema is one of the ways in which this experience is mediated: we as subjects participate in the interaction between onscreen characters and the spaces they occupy, creating a triangular structure, although this does not necessarily entail a simple identification with the characters. When an onscreen character is played by a star, however, a further dimension emerges, as not only does the question of a particular characterization of a role come into play but also the star persona that exists prior to and outside of – but nonetheless imbricated in – the performance. This persona may have been informed by previous interactions with cinematic space.
 
This paper will explore these tensions by focusing on the star persona of the Spanish actress Penélope Cruz. The star persona of Cruz becomes a form of landscape writing.
Cruz’s films suggest a problematic subjectivity in both urban and rural spaces, an interplay between being both subject and object of desire. In rural spaces, however, subjectivity is more prominent for Cruz’s characters, primarily in terms of desire but also in an ability to solve problems. In urban spaces Cruz is more prominent as an object of desire; and included in this is her roles as exotic other in Hollywood cinema. This combination coincides with Rob Stone’s description of Cruz as a post-feminist Spanish star, if by post-feminist we mean an oscillation between both an assumption and an assertion of female subjectivity on the one hand and the retention of more traditional notions of the feminine on the other. This paper will consider how Cruz’s oscillation between these positions traces itself across space and place, and how in turn the use of space and place informs us of Cruz’s star persona.
 
Prof Ann Davies is Chair of Spanish Studies at the University of Stirling. She is the author of various books and articles on contemporary Spanish cinema. Her most recent publication is Spanish Spaces: Landscape. Space and Place in Contemporary Spanish Culture (Liverpool UP, 2012). She is editor of Spain on Screen: Developments in Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). So is also co-author or co-editor of books and articles on Carmen in European and American cinema, and masculinities in European and American cinema. Her book on Penélope Cruz for the BFI Stars series will be published in 2014.