Abstract
This paper analyses how food is represented in cinema, using as its main examples Spanish films from 1970 to the current day. It will focus on how food and eating become semiotic objects and how these semiotic objects are used as a cinematographic tool. To undertake this analysis it is important to differentiate between three food-related aspects: (1) The act of eating, (2) Places for eating, and (3) food itself. The methodological approach in the paper is based on the study of the functions that these distinct food-related aspects have in movies and as indicators of national identity. These functions span a large range of narrative, aesthetic, ideological, metaphorical or symbolic, structural or referential dimensions. They contribute to the development of characters as well as framing other stories and critical representations. They also criticize habits, social groups, ideologies, and gender roles, etc.
Acknowledgements
This research had not been possible without the help and collaboration of the project “Media literacy skills in a digital environment. Diagnosis in three social areas: Education, University & Mass media professionals” of the University of Valladolid (Spain).
References
Adorno, Theodor W. 1997 [1970]. Aesthetic theory, Robert Hullot-Kentor (trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Search in Google Scholar
Akin, Fatih (dir.). 2009. Soul kitchen [Motion Picture]. Germany: Dorje Film and Pyramide.Search in Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro (dir.). 1984. ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto [Motion Picture]? Spain: Tesauro.Search in Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro (dir.). 1988. Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios [Motion Picture]. Spain: El Deseo.Search in Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro (dir.). 2002. Hable con ella [Motion Picture]. Spain: El Deseo.Search in Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro (dir.). 2006. Volver [Motion Picture]. Spain: El Deseo.Search in Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro (dir.). 2009a. Los abrazos rotos [Motion Picture]. Spain: El Deseo.Search in Google Scholar
Almodóvar, Pedro (dir.). 2009b. La concejala antropófaga [Motion Picture]. Spain: El Deseo.Search in Google Scholar
Bajo Ulloa, Juanma (dir.). 1998. Airbag [Motion Picture]. Spain: Asegarce Zinema.Search in Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. 1993 [1941]. Rabelais and his world, Hélène Iswolsky (trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies. London: Paladin.Search in Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1985. The grain of the voice: Interviews 1962–1980. London: Jonathan Cape.Search in Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1997. Toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption. In C. Counihan & P. Van Esteric (eds.), Food and culture: A reader, 20–27. New York & London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Biancardi, Lorenzo. 2011. Il sapore di un film: Cinema, sensi e gusto. Siena: Protagon Editori.Search in Google Scholar
Bower, Anne L. 2004. Watching food: The production of food, film and values. In Anne L. Bower (ed.), Essays on food and film, 6–13. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Bracco, Diane. 2012. La concejala antropófaga, Pedro Almodóvar (2009). Sexo, política y canibalismo: La puesta en escena del cuerpo grotesco. Fotocinema 5. 94–111.10.24310/Fotocinema.2012.v0i5.5898Search in Google Scholar
Buñuel, Luis (dir.). 1961. Viridiana [Motion Picture]. Spain: Films 59 and UNINCI.Search in Google Scholar
Buñuel, Luis (dir.). 1974. Le fantôme de la liberté [Motion Picture]. France: Euro International.Search in Google Scholar
Buñuel, Luis & Salvador Dalí (dir.). 1929. Un chien andalou [Motion Picture]. France: Luis Buñuel.Search in Google Scholar
Camus, Mario (dir.). 1984. Los santos inocentes [Motion Picture]. Spain: Ganesh.Search in Google Scholar
Caparrós Lera, José María. 2007. Historia del cine español. Madrid: T&B Editores.Search in Google Scholar
Coixet, Isabel (dir.). 2009. Map of the sounds of Tokyo [Motion Picture]. Spain: Mediapro and Versátil.Search in Google Scholar
Corbacho, José (dir.). 2005. Tapas [Motion Picture]. Spain: Tusitala and Castelao. http://www.madrimasd.org/blogs/imagen_cine_comunicacion_audiovisual/2010/05/30/125849 (accessed 13 December 2013).Search in Google Scholar
Jorge, Marcos (dir.). 2007. Estômago [Motion Picture]. Brazil: Zencrane Filmes.Search in Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1969. The raw and the cooked. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1972. The savage mind. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Search in Google Scholar
Luna, Bigas (dir.). 1992. Jamón, jamón [Motion Picture]. Spain: Lolafilms and Sogepaq.Search in Google Scholar
Metz, Christian. 1966. La grande syntagmatique du film narratif. Communications 8. 120–124.10.3406/comm.1966.1119Search in Google Scholar
Núnez Domínguez, T. 2010. Mujeres directoras de cine: Un reto, una esperanza? Pixel-Bit 37. 121–133.Search in Google Scholar
Nyrnes, A. 2006. Lighting from the side: Rhetoric and artistic research (Sensuous knowledge 3). Bergen: Bergen Academy of the Arts.Search in Google Scholar
Pinillos, David (dir.). 2010. Bon appétit [Motion Picture]. Spain: Morena Films.Search in Google Scholar
Rosales, Jaime (dir.). 2007. La soledad [Motion Picture]. Spain: Fredesval Films and Wanda Visión.Search in Google Scholar
Zambrano, Benito (dir.). 1999. Solas [Motion Picture]. Spain: Maestranza Films.Search in Google Scholar
©2016 by De Gruyter Mouton
