Clark To Host Expert on Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

GoLocalWorcester Features Team

The films of Pedro Almodovar have infused world cinema, but what do they tell us about Latin America?

From his 1980s films (“Matador,” “Law of Desire,” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”) to his recent films (“The Skin I Live In” and “I’m So Excited”) Pedro Almodóvar has infused world cinema with a transgressive, camp vision that has deep, moving and occasionally tragic insights.

What does this post-Franco Spanish director have to say specifically to Latin America and how has he been received there? One of the foremost scholars in Hispanic cultural studies will be at Clark University to discuss this very question.

Smith will lecture on “Almodóvar In/And Latin America” on Monday, October 28th, at 5pm, at the Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons, on the Clark University campus.

Paul Julian Smith

Paul Julian Smith is one of the foremost scholars in Hispanic cultural studies, particularly known for his work on Spanish and Mexican film. A professor at Cambridge University from 1991-2010, he was elected to the British Academy in 2008 and was appointed Distinguished Professor at the CUNY Graduate School in 2010.

Smith's many books include “Writing in the Margin” (Oxford, 1988), “The Moderns: Time, Space, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Spanish Culture” (Oxford, 2000), “Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar” (Verso, 1994 and 2000), “Contemporary Spanish Culture: TV, Fashion, Art, and Film” (Polity, 2003), Spanish Visual Culture: Cinema, Television, Internet (Manchester, 2007), and Spanish Practices: Literature, Cinema, Television (Oxford: Legenda, 2012).

This lecture was organized by the Henry J. Leir Chair in Foreign Languages and Cultures.

For more information, call 508-793-7234.