La guerra de sexos en las comedias románticas de Howard Hawks: La fiera de mi niña (Brining Up Baby, 1938), Luna Nueva (His Girl Friday, 1940), La novia era él (I was a Male War Bride, 1949) y Su juego favorito (Man´s favorite Sport, 1964)

Howard Hawks, plantea el enfrentamiento entre los sexos en buena parte de su filmografía. Comedias románticas, western o cine de aventuras comparten esta guerra de sexos que se inicia con una antipatia mutua entre los protagonistas que va evolucionando a medida que la pareja se ve inmersa en sus aventuras para transformarse en amistad, atracción, y finalmente amor. Cuatro de sus comedias La fiera de mi niña (Brining Up Baby, 1938), Luna Nueva (His Girl Friday, 1940), La novia era él ( I Was a Male War Bride, 1949) y Su juego favorito (Man´s Favorite Sport, 1964) plantean la guerra de sexos a través de una inversión de roles sexuales; mujer-activo /varón-pasivo que finalmente revierte a modelos más tradicionales.

El Atragantamiento en el cine de Pedro Almodóvar. Análisis de Dolor y Gloria

El presente trabajo propone un análisis de varios fragmentos de Dolor y Gloria (Almodóvar, 2019) con la metodología del análisis textual a fin de deletrear lo referido al síntoma mayor del personaje: el atragantamiento. Este trabajo pretende dar cuenta del carácter regresivo del film y su relación con los numerosos flashbacks (en total, más de un 30% del metraje). El cuerpo del protagonista aparece convertido en síntoma, incapacitándole para amar y trabajar. A lo largo del análisis se estudia la conflictiva del protagonista para desear y sus esfuerzos para elaborar la muerte de la madre. Se traza una comparativa entre Bringing up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) y Dolor y Gloria a partir del análisis de la primera propuesto por González Requena donde explica la utilización de dos operadores textuales recurrentes en la filmografía almodovariana: el hueso y el tigre. El punto de llegada será el deletreo del primer deseo de Salvador Mallo, alter ego del director, Pedro Almodóvar. La principal aportación consiste en la identificación de cierto atragantamiento de lo femenino y lo materno en los personajes masculinos de la filmografía de Almodóvar; más concretamente, en el film Dolor y Gloria.

Chapter 23

To help Betsy Drake’s flagging career, Grant agreed to do a radio series with her. Mr and Mrs Blandings (1951) continued the comical adventures that began in Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), but the series was not well received. On screen, he took some risks in this period, playing an outspoken doctor in the politically charged People Will Talk (1952), and an ordinary family man in the gentle comedy Room for One More (1952). He also returned to the more familiar terrain of screwball comedy. Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business (1952), co-starring Ginger Rogers and Marilyn Monroe, allowed him some fine comic moments, but Dream Wife (1953), co-starring Deborah Kerr, seemed tired and old-fashioned. None of these films scored with audiences. Seeing the rising popularity of young method actors such as Marlon Brando, Grant began to wonder if his own debonair image was out of date, and if it was time for him to retire.

Chapter 22

When Cary Grant coaxed Betsy Drake to join him in Hollywood in 1948, he did everything he could to kickstart her career as a film star. He used his own leverage with the powerful gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons to win favourable coverage for Drake, and he agreed to co-star with Drake in her first film, Every Girl Should Be Married (1948). He turned down several other promising films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), to make this feeble comedy. His next film was Howard Hawks’ screwball comedy I Was a Male War Bride (1949). Filming began on location in Europe, but Grant developed hepatitis and nearly died. It was several months before he could complete filming in Hollywood. The film turned out to be a huge box-office success, but the grim political drama Crisis (1950), was a box-office disaster that marked the beginning of a downturn in his career fortunes. By this time, however, he had married Betsy Drake, in a ceremony arranged by Howard Hughes, and he was looking forward to his new life with her.

Chapter 13

In 1937, Cary Grant’s career as a freelance star began with three screwball comedies that established him as the master of this genre. Topper (1937), made by the independent producer Hal Roach, initiated this sharp upturn in his career. This stylish screwball comedy brought out a new playful, wry, ironic dimension in Grant’s performance style. Improvisation on the set was key to his new screen persona, and he was given even greater reign to improvise in his first Columbia film, Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937). Legend has it that he was uncomfortable working with McCarey, but McCarey helped him to mould the Cary Grant star persona, unique for combining debonair and slapstick qualities. He signed a contract with Columbia Pictures that gave him the power to choose which films he made, and control over both his publicity and his wardrobe, but it was a non-exclusive contract, allowing him to make his next film at RKO Pictures. In Bringing Up Baby (1938), director Howard Hawks encouraged a frenzied edge to his performance. This is perfectly exemplified in the famous scene in which Grant leaps in the air, shouting “I just went gay all of the sudden”—a line he improvised on the set and one that demonstrates the liberated, unconventional mores of screwball comedy. Bringing Up Baby had a mixed reception on first release in 1938, but in later years, through repeated revivals and screenings on television, it became one of his best known and most admired films.

Chapter 15

In 1938 and 1939, Cary Grant enjoyed a close, romantic relationship with the actress Phyllis Brooks. They travelled together through Europe in the summer of 1939 and they very nearly married on their return to the USA. Brooks’ mother, however, disliked Grant, and this proved fatal to their relationship. Professionally, Grant continued to branch out as an actor, making the tough aviation drama Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Howard Hawks directed Grant alongside co-stars Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth, both of whom found the director difficult to work with. Grant branched out further by making the melodramatic “woman’s film” In Name Only (1939) with co-star Carole Lombard. These films were well received by critics and the public, but his next film, His Girl Friday (1940), was a much more significant hit. In this quintessential screwball comedy, director Howard Hawks encouraged Grant and co-star Rosalind Russell to adlib lines, speaking over one another to build a frenzied comic atmosphere. Although critical reviews were mixed in 1940, the film’s reputation has grown over the years, and His Girl Friday now stands among his very best films.

¡Vigilad el cielo (y la tierra)! Cosas de este y del otro mundo

Quali e quante “Cose” hanno affollato la letteratura di fantascienza e il cinema di fantascienza, cominciando dal racconto lungo Who Goes There? di John W. Campbell e il primo film, La Cosa da un altro mondo, da esso ricavato da Christian Nyby e Howard Hawks rifatto poi da John Carpenter con il semplice titolo La Cosa? E come si arriva al quadro storico-politico dell’Italia degli anni Settanta passa attraverso il filtro della fantascienza? Perché ad esempio proprio l’Italia segnata dal potere mafioso (“Cosa Nostra”) e dal terrorismo diventa lo spazio funzionale privilegiato del «paradigma della Cosa», ossia del lacaniano «misterioso oggetto alieno non morto che cade dall’universo, un oggetto non umano ma tuttavia vivente e persino in grado di avere, spesso, una propria volontà maligna» (Žižek)? Il fantasma incombente di queste oscure, talvolta concomitanti “Cose” italiane, durature, insidiose, si manifesta in film come Perché si uccide un magistrato di Damiani, in cui il protagonista, giornalista e cineasta d’inchiesta si chiama appunto “Solaris”, come il romanzo di Lem. Si manifesta in Todo modo di Elio Petri, in Identificazione di una donna di Antonioni, infine in La Cosa di Nanni Moretti e Buongiorno, notte di Marco Bellocchio, dell’impossibilità allora come oggi di intercettare la verità fattuale, oggetto non identificato per eccellenza.

La influencia de la fotografía americana del siglo XIX en el imaginario cinematográfico del western clásico. El caso de Río Rojo de Howard Hawks (1948)

Este artículo realiza un análisis historiográfico comparativo entre el trabajo de tres fotógrafos estadounidenses del siglo XIX: Charles D. Kirkland (1857-1926), Dan Dutro (1848-1918) o L. A. Huffman (1879-1931) cuyas fotografías sobre el Oeste americano, siguiendo la hipótesis apuntada por Roger Tailleur, sirvieron no sólo como documentación, sino que también influyeron en la construcción estética del filme Red River de Howard Hawks (1948). Para ello se ha consultado material inédito, como es el caso de las fotografías de Dan Dutro, digitalizadas especialmente para esta investigación, y se ha estudiado en profundidad la relación entre fotografía y western llegando a conclusiones que prueban la influencia en el filme de los tres fotógrafos anteriores y de otros, como Erwin E. Smith (1886-1947).

Bands of Brothers 1941–1948

Several jazz films made just before, after, or during World War II draw or suggest parallels between jazz bands and military units. Some jazz bands benefit from a strong sense of mutual support and commitment to the greater good, as in Blues in the Night. Bands in others movies are challenged by wartime problems: sabotage, mutiny within the ranks, and personality clashes among the leadership (in films involving, respectively, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey). Two films by director Howard Hawks are examined, Ball of Fire and its remake A Song Is Born, focusing on the latter’s (mis)use of critic Winthrop Sargeant’s analytical work Jazz: Hot and Hybrid. Other films are also discussed.