Stars and Masculinities in Spanish Cinema: From Banderas to Bardem

In this ambitious and thought-provoking examination of the careers of ten prominent Spanish male actors of the 1980s and 1990s, Chris Perriam poses a highly original alternative to the conventional reading of contemporary Spanish film history, building his argument around the revaluation of the ideological weight of its star system and, as his title indicates, the reconstruction of masculinities. The plurality of masculinities to which the book's title refers ranges from old-fashioned cinematic physicality, emotional fragility, and sex appeal to expressions of atavistic male rivalries, all of which lead to the persistent tension between what are ultimately paradigms of straight and gay conceptions of masculinity.