What Are Gender Roles In Spanish Films?

“We’ve only just awakened from our period of darkness, and we see the most interesting things” (Pitt). This quote from Pedro Almodovar perfectly sums up how directors felt after Franco died. During Franco’s regime, creativity was very suppressed. This is exemplified in the fact that Luis Garcia Berlanga “wrote three times as many screenplays in 25 years as the Franco Government allowed him to film” (Pitt). Franco did not completely cut off directors from making films, but it was definitely limited. Because of this, once he died, everyone was able to publically show their creativity as much as they wanted to which lead to an explosion of Spanish films.
These films, however, were not overly political as many expected. They were mostly satirical.
When she gets there, there are women everywhere. Women then take over the entire plot line and have roles of importance as opposed to just being overly sexualized background characters. This breaks away from the male gaze theory because although these women are prostitutes which are obviously sexual, they are not sexualized. Their personal lives are important as opposed to their sex lives. This does not mean their sexuality is completely ignored. One scene that sticks out is when Huma, Agrado, Rosa, and Daniella are casually discussing their sexual history. This is relevant because their conversation is simply that, conversation. It’s not meant to arouse the male viewer. These women are just having normal girl talk. Almodovar closes the film with a dedication that reads “To Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, Romy Schneider…To all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women, to all people who want to become mothers. To my mother” (Wisniewski). This dedication emphasizes how much Almodovar respects and appreciates women. This is shown throughout the film with how much focus is put on the stories of these women. To Almodovar, women are more than just eye candy for male viewers. They are characters that can add as much to the plot as men
This is first exemplified with the advertisement of young Huma fading into current elderly Huma acting. This lets the audience know that in the past, Huma was popular and on advertisements, but now, she has reached a sort of plateau and is stuck doing this same play. Another moment where this is demonstrated is when Manuela is traveling to Barcelona. In the past, she was running away from Lola because she was pregnant with Esteban, but now she is running to Lola to tell her of Esteban’s life and death. Lastly, this theme is shown when Esteban’s heart gets put into the older man. This is symbolic of how young independent Spain died when Franco took over. Spain during Franco’s regime is like the old man with the young heart. The heart of young Spain is still there; Franco has just caused Spain so much stress that it has aged