A Cinema of Contradiction: Picazo's "La tía Tula" (1964) and the Nuevo Cine Español

Abstract

This article argues that the contradictions of the historical context of the apertura, and the industrial context of the government's promotion of art cinema, were encoded in the films of the Nuevo Cine Español, focusing on Miguel Picazo's "La tía Tula." Picazo adapts Unamuno's abstract tale to the particular circumstances of 1960s Spain and scrutinizes both Francoist gender ideology and his own equivocal experience of artistic freedom yet ideological restraint.