Barefoot in the Kitchen

Critic-turned-filmmaker Diego Galán tracks the representation of women in Spanish cinema in this lively overview that eschews interviews in favor of narration and clips from some 180 films (which all receive on-screen identification). Barefoot in the Kitchen opens with a look at the 1930s, when Spanish women enjoyed greater autonomy than women in most other Catholic countries (abortion was even legal in some regions). In the melodramas of the time, however, women who engaged in premarital sex or bore children out of wedlock tended to meet with unhappy ends—although they were able to assert their sexuality in comedies without suffering any ill effects. After Franco came to power, women took several steps back. In the 1950s, females could appear as heroic historical figures—sometimes alongside men, sometimes on their own—but in modern-day films, they could only work or attend college until they found a husband (particularly in Technicolor musicals). While women were expected to marry, men were free to resist the call of matrimony and even to denounce women altogether. As one well-dressed gentleman in La Violetera (1958) says, “Women who know a lot bore me. Beauty's the only intelligence I recognize in women.” Single women (not counting nuns) invariably were portrayed as either ridiculously comic or terribly tragic. By the 1970s, with Spain becoming a popular tourist destination, the censors loosened their grip, and bikinis soon gave way to nudity. After Franco's death and Spain's shift to democracy, directors such as Pedro Almodóvar arrived to give women their due. An informative documentary that will appeal to students of film, women's studies, and Spanish history, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)