South Atlantic Modern Language Association

Del escenario a la pantalla: La adaptación cinematográfica del teatro español by María Asunción
Gómez
Review by: Humberto López Cruz
South Atlantic Review, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Spring, 2003), pp. 140-142
Published by: South Atlantic Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3201732 .
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140 BookReviews
project Coleman has begun. To be certain,Coleman's book
pointsus in thatdirection.He challengesnovelistsand scholars
to take Hamlet's words to heart:"to be, or notto be, thatis the
question."Black male novelistsand the protagoniststo whom
theygive lifemustdecide whattheywill "be." As RalphEllison
demonstratedin his complexrelationshipswithfiguressuch as
RichardWrightand ErnestHemingway,blackmenmust,in real
and fictionalterms,determine theirrelationshipto Caliban:Is he
"ancestor"or "relative"?Whateverthe answer,Coleman has
accomplishedhis goal, which is to "change the way we think
about blackmale texts"(1).
B. Leak, University
Jeffrey ofNorthCarolina,Charlotte

Del escenarioa la pantalla:la adaptaci6ncinematogrtdfica

del teatro
By Maria Asunci6nG6mez. Chapel Hill: NorthCarolina
espafiol.
UP, 2000.232 pp. $32.50

The use of film as an effectiveinterdisciplinary tool has

becomemoreadept duringthelastdecades. It is no surprisethat
literaryapproachesoftenlook at films,notonlyas a comparative
meansofitsexpression,butas an axis on whichbothgenresmay
easilyinterrelate.In addition,it has becomeso commonto find
criticalapproachesto thefilmindustrythatitmayalso be found
as theexegesisofmanydoctoraldissertations. The Spanishcin-
ema does not constitutean exception;thereare severalworld
renownedSpanishdirector-producers thathave beenharvesting
awards at international ceremonies.However,whenitcomesto
filmsbased on literaryworks,an aura of skepticismseems to
cloud the popular image thatfilmsenjoywithinthe academic
world.
This is preciselyone ofthe main pointsthatMaria Asunci6n
G6mez projectsin herlatestpublication.Del escenario a la pantalla
deliversexactly was it has set to do. It is not onlythepresenta-
tionofSpanishplaysand how theywere adapted to theircorre-
spondingfilmversions,but a sound analysisbackedwithtech-
niques and theoriesthat certainlyenrichG6mez's text.The
authorhas selectedapproachesthatcan assistherin developing
herthesiswhileabettingthereaderin understanding theartistic
value and thesociologicalmeaningoftheworksstudied.

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 SouthAtlanticReview 141
The book, besides its introductionand conclusion,has five
chaptersin which several Spanish plays are examined before
addressingtheiradaptationintofilms.G6mez offersthe reader
an introduction on the subjectand explainshow, in Spain, the
theaterhas influencedthe filmindustrysince theoriginsof the
motionpictures.The authorclarifiesthatthe numberof plays
takentothescreenmakesitimpossibleforthescope ofherbook
to referencethemall. Nonetheless,afteran additionalexplana-
tionfroma formalperspectiveof theinterrelation betweenthe-
aterand cinemaand the implications,theoreticaland practical,
of themethodsemployedin thevariousplay's adaptations,the
reader is introducedto notable plays along with well-known
filmproductions.
The firsttwo plays and theirfilmcounterpartsare Garcia
Lorca's Blood Weddingand Sanchis Sinisterra'siAy, Carmela!
They show, to a certainextent,auto-conscientious characters
representing characterswithintheirown roles.The authoralso
bringsto thereader'sattentiontheautoparodyas well as a non-
referentiallanguage,a polysemousrepresentation withina rep-
resentation. It is clearthatG6mez knowsthebackgroundofthe
workspresented;at thesame time,she does nothesitatein allud-
ingto theeffect thatthecamerahas in certainpassages. It is also
importantto note that Carlos Saura was the directorof both
filmsalthough,as the author points out, the techniquesand
strategiesused in adaptingtheoriginalplaysto filmsare clearly
different.
The nexttwo plays have a social as well as a historicback-
ground.Carlos Arniches'comic drama,La sefiorita de Trevilez,
and AntonioBueroVallejo's play,Un sofiador para pueblo,find
un
theirway to thebig screenas CalleMayorand Esquilache, respec-
tively.The reader witnessesa social and a historicalintertext
thatmust be understoodin orderto assimilatethe plays and
films.As G6mez pointsout,in bothinstances,thesocio-histori-
cal approach determinesthe transformation of theatricalele-
mentsintofilmicapproximationswhichimplicatesa change in
thecriticaland ideologicalenunciatethatservedas thebasis for
thetwo dramas.G6mez succeedsin thisanalysisand thereader
benefitsfromthe author'sexperience;however,the readeralso
intuitsthat subsequentstudies are on its way since G6mez's

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142 BookReviews
knowledgeon thesubjectexceedsthepages ofthisfirstpublica-
tion.
It is significantthatG6mez leftforherlast analyticalchapter
thestudyoftheconstruction ofthefemalecharacter.To accom-
plish this,the chapterhas been divided intotwo sectionseach
havinga different set of play-films to discuss.The firstsection
addresses the women's role duringthe criticalperiod of the
SpanishCivilWar (1936-1939);thehistoricalbackgroundcannot
escape fromthe literaryworks or fromG6mez's analysis.For
thispurpose,theworkspresentedare Fern~nG6mez's Las bici-
cletassonparael veranoand, once again,SanchisSinisterra'siAy,
Carmela!The sexual differences, as projectedby thosein power,
determinetherepresentation givento thefemininerole in both
domesticand social affairs.The second sectionof the chapter
addressesthefemalecharacteras an objectofdesire.The works
analyzed here are Valle Incl~n's Divinas palabrasand Ruiz
Iriarte'sLa guerraempiezaen Cuba.In both,womenare spotlight-
ed in different angles,one exampleincludingFoucault'stheories
on transgressive acts used to deconstruct thefemalerolewithin
theploton boththeplay and thefilm;forthereader,theauthor
enrichesherthesiswiththisvarietyoftextualdeconstruction.
G6mez has carefullydocumenteda textthat should be of
greatinterest to thosewho studyfilmas a genre.Besidesthecrit-
ical studies,thisbook offers additionaltoolswhichshouldnotbe
underestimated; theappendices,forexample,containan invalu-
able source of data since theylist,chronologically, the various
adaptationsofSpanishplays.The listis further subdividedinto
two categoriesto indicatethe filmsproducedin Spain and the
ones abroad; in bothlists,thereaderfindstheyearofthefilmic
production,theplay's author,and thefilm'sdirector.It is obvi-
ous thatthistextis requiredreadingforanyonestudyingthesig-
nificantevolutionin Spain fromstageto screen.
HumbertoL6pez Cruz, University
ofCentralFlorida

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