“The ‘Ars vivendi’ of Laura Mañà’s Morir en San Hilario/To Die in San Hilario (2005)”

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Abstract

Over the past decade Spanish-Language Cinema has established itself beside Spanish and Latin American Cinema, and Morir en San Hilario is a good example of these new flexible collaborations rather than a strict transnational co-production. Billed as a comedy, the film could also be described as a variation on the road film, a circular journey to Utopia, a Spanish village/pueblo film, and a twenty-first-century ‘Ars moriendi’ developing the topos of ‘Homo viator’. This is not a frequent combination to be found on cinema screens and Laura Mañà’s gamble was to integrate these ingredients and create a fable to reflect on life and death. She does this through comedy, exaggerations, parody and a narrative style identified as magic realism. Her originality, however, overlaps with the lasting legacy of the fifteenth-century Castilian soldier-poet, Jorge Manrique (c.1440-1479) and his ‘Stanzas written upon the death of his father’, a landmark of Spanish Literature.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7-22
Number of pages15
JournalStudies in European Cinema
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2012

Keywords

  • Laura Mañà
  • Magical realism
  • Death
  • Jorge Manrique
  • Homo viator
  • Road films

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