Examines how recent Mexican and Spanish films act as untroubling distractions from everyday routines.
Popular culture in the 1990s, especially cinema, can be considered a showcase for the accumulated hopes and fears of the twentieth century. From the promise of material goods to the profusion of despair, from devastating tragedy to exaggerated rapture, a dizzying array of images assaults the eye. Drawing on recent films from Mexico and Spain, Bored to Distraction navigates this visual terrain, from melodrama to horror, looking for what, if anything, might be excessive enough to rouse us from our comfortable everyday routines.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. At the Millennium: Boredom Theory and Middle-Class Desires
2. Jaime Humberto Hermosillo’s La tarea: Not Your Average Afterschool Special
3. How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Danzón and the Myth of Getting Away from It All
4. Amores perros: Throwing Politics to the Dogs
5. Still Just a Dress Rehearsal?: From Archibaldo de la Cruz to Penélope Cruz
6. The Demonic Side of Modernity: Waiting for Satan at the Movies
7. A Few Last Words: Waiting in the Anteroom of the Twenty-First Century
Notes
Works Cited
Index
About the author
Claudia Schaefer is Rush Rhees Chair, Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, and Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Rochester. She is the author of several books, including Bored to Distraction: Cinema of Excess in End-of-the-Century Mexico and Spain, also published by SUNY Press.
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