Moving Verses: Poetry on Screen in Argentine Cinema(24 Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures)

From Wild Tales to Zama, Argentine cinema has produced some of the most visually striking and critically lauded films of the 2000s. Argentina also boasts some of the most exciting contemporary poetry in the Spanish language. What happens when its film and poetry meet on screen? Moving Verses studies the relationship between poetry and cinema in Argentina. Although both the “poetics of cinema” and literary adaptation have become established areas of film scholarship in recent years, the diverse modes of exchange between poetry and cinema have received little critical attention. The book analyses how film and poetry transform each another, and how these two expressive media behave when placed into dialogue. Going beyond theories of adaptation, and engaging critically with concepts around intermediality and interdisciplinarity, Moving Verses offers tools and methods for studying both experimental and mainstream film from Latin America and beyond. The corpus includes some of Argentina’s most exciting and radical contemporary directors (Raúl Perrone, Gustavo Fontán) as well as established modern masters (María Luisa Bemberg, Eliseo Subiela), and seldom studied experimental projects (Narcisa Hirsch, Claudio Caldini). The critical approach draws on recent works on intermediality and “impure” cinema to sketch and assess the many and varied ways in which directors “read” poetry on screen.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Thanks and Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One Experimental Cinema as Poetic Cinema. The “Grupo Goethe” and the Films of Hirsch and Caldin Chapter Two Eliseo Subiela’s Dark Sides of the Heart: Poetry and Performance in “Old Argentine Cinema.” Chapter Three Regarding the Lives of Poets. On Biopics and Poetic Documentaries Chapter Four Poetry-Value-Film in the Cinema of Raúl Perrone Chapter Five Eyes Already Open: Gustavo Fontán’s El limonero real and La deuda Chapter Six The Poet as Screenwriter: Landscape and Protagonism in Papu Curotto’s Esteros Conclusion Intermediality and the Screening of Difference Filmography Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Benjamin Bollig is a Professor of Spanish American Literature at the University of Oxford.

Review :
‘Moving Verses: Poetry on Screen in Argentine Cinema breaks new ground in a relatively little-studied interdiscipline sitting at the nexus of poetry and film. It sheds significant light on the many pathways by which the two genres of practice intersect, with particular attention paid to what poetry affords to film.’ Rebecca Kosick, University of Bristol ‘This is a thoroughly researched and original work, which presents detailed and persuasive studies of films that have not previously received sufficient attention from scholars. Through its rigorous focus on encounters between poetry and film, Bollig’s book makes a significant contribution to debates on intermediality and experimental cinema both in Latin America and elsewhere.’ Paul Merchant, University of Bristol ‘Moving Verses is a thoughtful reflection on the interplay between film and poetry... an excellent read for anyone interested in Argentine cinema and poetry, experimental cinema, and more broadly, in the question of intermediality as it applies to film.’ Eduardo Ledesma, Bulletin of Spanish Studies ‘Moving Verses is an excellent and original contribution to the study of cinema and the Argentine poetry of the last fifty years that also offers hermeneutic and methodological tools to those interested in exploring issues of intermediality in Latin America and beyond.’ Ignacio Aguiló, Hispanic Research Journal ‘A highlight is Bollig’s discussion of Santiago Loza’s Rosa Patria on the heterodox life and work of Néstor Perlongher, who fiercely resisted identitary and gender/genre categorization… Bollig’s overarching argument, as well as his careful close readings of films, makes for a compelling and much-needed contribution to the field of intermedial studies.’ Erin Graff Zivin, Modern Language Review