Actually, there are quite a few mostly mediocre crime stories dealing
with the bullfighting world, at least in French and somewhat popular
in 50's pulp and pocket books. Also a number of graphic novels.
Strictly for the aficionado. Worth mentioning is a film bio of the
great Manolete, starring Adrian Brody and Penelope Cruz, said Manolete
being the most tragic figure of the bullfighting world, a terribly
tormented figure, more at ease in the bullring than outside: a man in
love with dearh, stuck with a mistress in love with life and the man's
fortune. Bullfighting is usually ridiculed in many parts of the world,
based largely on caricatures in films. As noted in a piece on the
Manolete movie, "past American films like the 1915 “Carmen” or the
1941 “Blood and Sand” have featured matadors barely more complex than
those in cartoons like “Picador Porky”: the role is usually a
caricature of Spanish masculine bravery. To be fair, Spain itself has
long encouraged the image. Especially during Franco’s dictatorship,
the government routinely marketed the country abroad through a couple
of stock characters — the passionate flamenco dancer and the stoic
bullfighter — and distracted Spaniards from their society’s repression
and economic misery by promoting matadors and movie stars as cultural
heroes. (Even Pedro Almodóvar played with the archetype in his early
film “Matador.”) I happen to feel that many of Pedro Almodovar's films
are pretty noirish.
jpj
On Mar 4, 2009, at 6:59 PM, jacquesdebierue wrote:
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, jean-pierre jacquet
> <jacquet@...> wrote:
> >
> > I loved Toros & Torsos as well. And ditto for Dominguin.
> > jpj
>
> Hardboiled toros, LOL. And you guys have one guy who has restored my
> faith in the art: Sebastian Castella. Actually, the world of
> bullfighting should be prime for hardboiled stories. Kind of like
> boxing, but in a very different culture.
>
> Best,
>
> mrt
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:rara-avis-l-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:rara-avis-l-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 05 Mar 2009 EST