Politics of Architecture in Contemporary Argentine Cinema

This book considers how architectural landmarks, imagined buildings and urban landscapes take part in the production of meaning in contemporary Argentine cinema. From the iconic Buenos Aires Obelisk to the Hilton International Hotel, the shopping center to the café and the Le Corbusier-designed Curutchet House to the gated community, architecture in these films evokes the political. Tracing architecture's expression through six films produced since the 1990sPizza birra faso, Mundo grúa, Nueve reinas, La niña santa, La antena and El hombre de al ladoAmanda Holmes studies how architecture in cinema elicits political memory, underscores marginalization and class discrepancies, creates nostalgia for neighborhoods and re-evaluates existing communities. Generously illustrated and carefully researched, the book offers an in-depth reading of key contemporary Argentine films and a fresh architectural approach to film analysis.

Demonstrates the impact of architecture on a specific cinematic movement Argues that buildings rendered in film can uniquely critique political environments and outcomes Illustrates how films analyzed can sharply point and critique the continued dominance of economic hierarchies in contemporary Argentina Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Amanda Holmes is Associate Professor of Latin American literature and film at McGill University, Canada. She is author of City Fictions: Language, Body and Spanish American Urban Space (2007) and co-editor of Cultures of the City: Mediating Identities in Urban Latin/o America (2010).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Pizza birra faso: Buildings of Hierarchy and Exclusion.- 3. Machinations of Urban Development and The Construction Industry an Mundo grúa.- 4. Properties of Glass in Nueve reinas.- 5. The Hotel Termas in La niña santa: Unstable Frames and Open Boundaries.- 6. Paper Architecture and Totalitarian Propaganda in La antena.- 7. The Architectural Promenade and the Cinematic Window in El hombre de al lado.- 8. Conclusion.