Write two essays by choosing one question from groups B   AND    C. Each essay has to have a…

Write two essays by choosing one question from groups B   AND    C. Each essay has to have a minimum of two pages each, preferably longer, Times New Roman/12, 22 lines per page. Please, do not include the language of the question/prompt in your answer. 

Group B

1.   The Spirit of the Beehive and Pan’s Labyrinth are allegories for Fascist Spain. The primary meaning (literal level) of the film suggests a doubleness of intention, that is, a secondary meaning (allegorical mode), which makes the films much more interesting and richer. The allegorical aspects serve political and social purposes: both films present the affective and the sociopolitical climate of a past lived under fascism. The Spanish Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship constitute the framework for the interpretation of the film. Examine the allegorical dimensions of the two films.

2.   The Sprit of the Beehive does not follow a traditional filmic structure (linear narrative that focuses on character through a sequence of actions).  In reality, it emphasizes a series of fundamental images, images with a strong and rich symbolic value (drawings, pictures, monsters, beehive, once upon a time, window in the shape of a beehive, train, water-well, mushroom) to reinforce symbolically the ideological and political message of the filmic narrative. Imagine for a second that you do not know that the spatial referent for the story is located in the immediate post-civil war years of Spain. How would explain this movie to a friend?

3.   In both Pan’s Labyrinth and The Spirit of the Beehive, the two female protagonists are able to construct their personal space in which they inscribe their own stories. Show how each character is able to accomplish her goal; in both films the main protagonists challenge and undermine authority and have a complex relationship with monsters that allows them to construct an alternative reality that suggests that there is hope after the Civil War and its aftermath. If you believe that the films do not convey this positive view at the end, please address those issues accordingly.

4.   There are many interactions between historical and fantastic narratives in

Pan’s Labyrinth and The Spirit of the Beehive. There are also many tensions between the two levels. Furthermore, both films place children at the center of the action and in difficult situations, which involve the breakdown of the family. The breakdown endows the children with agency in the resolution of the crisis in which they find themselves. Taking into account the previous statements, show how the children (Ofelia and Ana) move from lack of power to power and from crisis to agency, which eventually leads to a tragic or a triumphant ending for the film. The decision regarding the ending of the film (triumphant or tragic) is a personal decision.

Group C

1.  Examine Viridiana’s evolution from a repressed, pure and chaste nun who is about to profess to a woman who wakes up to sexual feelings at the end of Viridiana.  Keep in mind that her emotional, sexual and ideological development occurs within a Spanish context where the spirit and flesh overlap.

2. Viridiana’s obsession with saints, the spiritual and the goodness of human nature leads her to attempt to heal/save through charity a group of beggars. Ironically, the actions of the beggars reveal the response of the real world to Viridiana’s religious idealism and her trust in human nature.  Please, elaborate by focusing on the actions of the beggars, which completely subvert Viridiana’s idealism and ability to effect change.

Mary Ann Doane’s states that the femme fatale “never really is what she seems to be. She harbors a threat which is not entirely legible, predictable, or manageable and that she personifies a secret, something which must be aggressively revealed, unmasked, discovered.” The femme fatale’s femininity always masks a hidden danger; she has the capacity to manipulate others to achieve her desired goals. In Death of a Cyclist, Maria José is this femme fatale who through manipulation and her sexuality is capable of destroying and silencing others. In reality, she seems only interested in maintaining her class privileges and status, through her actions. Please, comment on the previous statements. Also, examine also how her role as a femme fatale may be construed as the personification of the Franco regime.