Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema:
sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex de la Iglesia
(1993-2022)
Subversión de la ética periodística y mediática en el cine español:
sensacionalismo y TV Trash en la lmografía de Álex de la Iglesia (1993-2022)
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
| 311
July-December of 2024
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
How to cite this article:
Tello Díaz, L. (2024). Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex de la
Iglesia (1993-2022).
Doxa Comunicación
, 39, pp. 311-333.
https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n39a2087
Lucía Tello Díaz.
PhD in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). She is the coordinator
of the MA in Advanced Film Studies at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) and Lecturer in Audiovisual
Communication and teaches courses in scriptwriting for television and lms at the MA in Scriptwriting (UNIR). She is
Professor of Film History at the School of Cinematography and Audiovisual of the Community of Madrid (ECAM). She
collaborates in national and international television channels as an expert in cinematography and lmmaking. She is
a director and a scriptwriter of documentary and feature lm and has premiered her lm
Endless Cinema
(2019) at the
International Film Festival of Valladolid (SEMINCI), and at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival (2020). She is a
lm critic at
TodoEsCine
since 2006 and columnist on cinematography at the
El Hu Post
since 2016. She coordinates the
research group MediaArt: Communicational, Audiovisual and Artistical Narratives in the digital society and is author
and co-author of more than fty books, chapters and scholarly articles published in international high-impact journals
(JCR, SCOPUS y Arts & Humanities).
International University of La Rioja (UNIR), Spain
[email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-8343-0078
is content is published under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. International License CC BY-NC 4.0
Received: 29/09/2023 - Accepted: 22/11/2023 - Early access: 16/01/2024 - Published: 01/07/2024
Recibido: 29/09/2023 - Aceptado: 22/11/2023 - En edición: 16/01/2024 - Publicado: 01/07/2024
Abstract:
Álex de la Iglesia is one of the Spanish lmmakers whose lmography
has most forcefully portrayed the media universe, with a particular
taste for constructing a depiction of the profession of journalism with
a total absence of professional ethics. is study analyses the ethical
dimension of journalists and the media in Álex de la Iglesia's lms,
looking particularly at the way in which the director and screenwriter
approaches the media from its most grotesque, essentially televisual,
aspect, which he represents emphasizing its sleaziness and
sensationalism. rough the study of his ction lmography, made
Resumen:
Álex de la Iglesia es uno de los cineastas españoles que más contunden
-
temente ha retratado el universo mediático en su cine, con especial que
-
rencia por la construcción del retrato de la profesión periodística, pese
a su total ausencia de deontología profesional. En esta investigación se
analiza la dimensión ética de los medios y los reporteros del cine de Álex
de la Iglesia, al ahondar en el modo en que el director y guionista se
aproxima a los medios desde su vertiente más grotesca, esencialmente
televisiva, a la cual representa enfatizando la sordidez y el sensaciona
-
lismo. A través del estudio de su lmografía de cción, comprendida
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
312 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
1. Introduction
Cinema is one of the forms of cultural expression with the most prominent public resonance. Its ability to connect with
diverse audiences, along with its tremendous visual potency, has helped to outline representations of the world as we know
it (Martínez Luna, 2015: 5). Cinema ction, by employing intellectual and emotional resources, not only contributes to the
acquisition of knowledge, but also appeals to the expression of emotions (Rodríguez Mateos & Montero, 2005: 31). is calls
for a critical outlook and an understanding of the limits of visual portrayals (Ruiz Berrio in Guereña, 2007: 416), and of their
ability to inuence. e image that cinema projects of a certain group or profession is not only a reection of reality, but also
involves interpretation. Being a cultural instrument that “functions as a powerful mediator of the collective imagination when
building the cultural identity of a community” (Trenzado, 2000: 54), it is important to analyse how high-prole professional
groups are portrayed.
ere have been numerous studies of the portrayal of professions in lm, such as medicine (García Sánchez, 2021), politics
(Madriz-Sojo; Sáenz, 2018), lawyers and the judiciary (Galeano, 2017) and journalism (Tello Díaz, 2007, 2010, 2016) which give
an idea of their weight in society. Analysis of the cinematographic representation of journalism and the media is extensive,
with fundamental contributions from pioneers such as omas Zynda, who in 1979 published “
e Hollywood Version: Movie
Portrayals of the Press
”, and Howard Good with his book
Outcasts: e Image of Journalists in Contemporary Film
(1989).
Matthew Ehrlich’s
Journalism in the Movies
(2004) is also essential reading, as indeed is all his subsequent research.
However, all of them analyse English-speaking lmography of journalism-media, especially American, there being a total
absence of specic studies in Spanish cinema until 2011, which saw the publication of
e image and ethics of journalism in
Spanish cinema 1896-2010
(Tello Díaz, 2011) and later
e prole of journalists in Spanish cinema
(San José de la Rosa, 2018).
Journalism is shown in these studies to be a professional eld of interest to Spanish cinema, given the extensive lmography
dedicated to the portrayal and analysis of the profession.
e number of lm representations of the media world in Spanish cinema is considerable. Since cinema arrived in Spain in
1896, up to the end of 2010 over 800 lms have portrayed the world of journalism, 645 of which have incorporated the gure of
a journalist in their plots (Tello Díaz, 2016-A:29).
is interest is oered not only in Spanish cinema as cinematography in general, but in the oeuvre of directors and
screenwriters who approach journalistic reality with both depth and regularity. Such is the case with Álex de la Iglesia (Bilbao,
1963), a director who has portrayed some aspect of journalism in all his lms, especially in the ethical approach with which
between 1993 and 2022, a denition is sought of Álex de la Iglesia's idea
of journalists and communicators, as well as the characteristics and
ethical principles of the media characters created by this paradigmatic
director of Spanish cinema.
Keywords:
Álex de la Iglesia; journalism; cinema; journalistic ethics; trash TV.
hasta el momento entre 1993 y 2022, se deslinda en qué consiste la cons
-
trucción ccional del periodista y del comunicador cinematográco de
Álex de la Iglesia, así como se analizan las características y los principios
éticos que poseen los personajes mediáticos de este director paradigmá
-
tico del cine español.
Palabras clave:
Álex de la Iglesia; periodismo; cine; ética periodística; televisión basura.
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 313
he outlines the media environment. If, as Jiménez Marín and Elías Zambrano maintain, the mass media
act as mediating
institutions between reality and its environment (2012: 166), Álex de la Iglesia’s cinema also dissects journalistic and social
truth to contrast them on the screen. By means of a grotesque conguration, the director oers up his work to analyse ethics
in the media through cinema. Given that “lmic images are exceptional in facilitating the understanding of messages” (Ortí &
García, 2012: 71), this study delineates the ethical meaning of media portrayal in cinema.
2. Method
e methodology of our research is essentially qualitative, based on a content analysis of the lmography under consideration.
In this regard, the complete universe of Álex de la Iglesia’s feature lm production is presented, encompassing his seventeen
ction lms, all of them released between 1993 and 2022:
Acción Mutante
(1993),
e Day of the Beast
(1995),
Perdita Durango
(1997),
Dying of Laughter
(1999),
Common Wealth
(2000),
Eight Hundred Bullets
(2002),
Ferpect Crime
(2004),
e Baby’s Room
(2006),
e Oxford Murders
(2008),
e Last Circus
(A
Sad Trumpet Ballad)
(2010),
As Luck Would Have It (
2011),
Witching and
Bitching
(2013),
My Big Night
(2015
), e Bar
(2017),
Perfect Strangers
(2017),
Veneciafrenia
(2021) and
Four’s a Crowd
(2022).
His television series, short lms and documentaries are excluded, despite many of them giving notable presence to the media.
Not only are journalists analysed as news communicators, but the ethics of the media universe as a whole have also been
considered, this includes television presenters and professionals from all elds of entertainment, even show business, not
exclusively informative. us, we seek to analyse the contemporary media environment in Álex de la Iglesia’s lms, including
communicators utilising new online technologies, present in the director’s latest lms.
To gauge the scope of his portrayal of the media, the lmic message is analysed on both narrative and visual levels, by examining
the resources used by the director to transmit his message in terms of audiovisual language. is approach emphasizes the
narrative scope, essentially with the content and tone of the dialogues, and also mentions the mise-en-scène (staging, acting,
situations). All of this will congure an atmosphere conducive to the design of media gures in Álex de la Iglesia’s lmography.
To take a deeper look into the ethical dimension, content analysis of the feature lms has been carried out in accordance with
the ethical principles stated in the study “Codes of journalistic deontology: a comparative analysis” by Porrio Barroso. ese
principles are applied to the genres of news and entertainment, both in conventional and online media, given that all of them
have a public dimension and are based on a code of best practices applicable to all aspects of the media (to inform, educate,
and entertain). ere are ten deontological keys that are based on this decalogue (Barroso, 2011: 168-169):
1. Truth, objectivity, accuracy.
2. Duty to maintain professional secrecy.
3. Safeguard freedom and independence, with dignity and integrity.
4. Duty to prevent slander, accusation, defamation, insults, and plagiarism.
5. Duty to rectify incorrect information.
6. Respect for people’s privacy.
314 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
7. Right to freedom of information and expression.
8. Prioritize service to the common good, social well-being, and public interest.
9. Do not commit any discrimination.
10. Use means that are fair, dignied, honest and reasonable.
Four antithetical principles are distinguished from these ethical elements, that is, negative qualities that every journalist and
reporter should avoid (Tello Díaz, 2011):
11. Manipulation of information.
12. Sensationalism.
13. Excesses when reporting crime and suicide.
14. Failure to separate private and professional life. Conicts of interest
ese four elements have also been taken into account when analysing media ethics in the lmography under consideration,
given their invariable presence in the lms studied.
3. Álex de la Iglesia’s cinema: media inuence
Álex de la Iglesia›s audiovisual background is not limited to ction in cinema but includes his television experience. He
began in the 80s as artistic director of the program
Detrás de Sirimiri
on ETB and then, in the nineties, he directed
Inocente,
Inocente
on national public television; he returned to television in the 21
st
century with
Film Lessons
(2005) on Canal Plus,
while directing lms and series such as
Pluto BRB
(La 2) or
30 Coins
(HBO). is television experience has been important to
his knowledge of the media universe, an environment that he systematically criticises in his productions and that has given
rise to a lmography marked by the absence of professional deontology in the media. us, the director oers a hugely critical
portrayal of journalism, through a lmography that is as personal as it is scathing.
3.1. Criticism of the media
Regardless of the subject matter dealt with in each lm, all seventeen feature lms that De la Iglesia directed between 1993 and
2022 featured journalism and/or the media as an essential element. In all of them, the media environment features or mediates
reality in order to modify it signicantly. Of the dierent media, television is the most frequent in his plots due to its hypnotic
power (García Ureña, 2017: 208), showing television that strives insidiously to oer “repetitive and eeting information that
fosters uncritical attitudes and eliminates any chance of interaction” (Fabbrocino, 2020: 161). Although television occasionally
becomes a vehicle of communication that favours the decoding of the object presented in the lm (Cerdán, 2004: 254), the truth
is that De la Iglesia shows it in all its crudeness: “television imposes its own perversions on other media. Firstly, fascination
with images. […] What is not visible and does not have an image is not televisable, therefore, it does not exist” (Ramonet,
2002:193). us, the director:
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 315
rises up against the emptiness of cathodic culture and the political instrumentalization of the small screen, activating strategies of
parodic distortion, which aim to reveal the medium’s mechanisms of manipulation and alienation of minds (Bracco, 2014: 407).
De la Iglesia’s style consists of mixing the intellectual and the popular (Fraile, 2014:112) and emphasises the role of television
as a catalyst for everything consumed by society. It is also true that, in the nineties, De la Iglesia criticised the television model
that marked the future of private television in Spain (Buse & Willis, 2007: 74), especially in
e Day of the Beast
, but he would
later nuance this criticism towards the whole spectrum of television. e director himself points out the radical importance
that the cathode tube device had in his formative years:
Television was the aperture through which we saw the universe during those years. A strange lens that converged things that were
impossible to unite. at is the root of this kind of eclecticism or mental confusion we have lived in since then (De la Iglesia in Angulo,
2012: 109).
e importance of the television set as a disruptive element, but also as something lethargy-inducing and analgesic,
is essential in Álex de la Iglesia’s lms. Not as regards its inuence as the fourth estate, but as an everyday instrument, a
household appliance, and even as a trivial topic for some of his dialogues (Vascónez, 2023: 131). His characters often live in
a violent, chaotic world from which they can escape through television, something that is apparent in social criticism of the
sensationalism of the medium itself (Pérez Franco, 2010: 51). us, De la Iglesia shows television:
intimately linked to violence, as one of the factors of the urban apocalypse set before our eyes, an instrument endowed with a
deforming force capable of alienating both reality and our minds. A symbol of the fascination of mass media culture and show
business, it absorbs all those who see it, it parasitises image bands and soundtracks: screens are omnipresent in homes, bars, and
shop windows. (Bracco, 2014: 406).
is has been so since his rst works, including the short lm
Mirindas Assassinas
(1991), in which a customer “becomes
mesmerised in front of a television in a bar, right next to the waiter’s corpse, hopping channels until he nds the broadcast of a
bullght” (García Ureña, 2017: 208). is excess, taken to the extreme in
Dying of Laughter
or
As Luck Would Have It
is dened
by a central feature of his cinema: the grotesque.
3.2. e grotesque tone as an ethical position
Álex de la Iglesia›s cinema has a distorting tone which makes it especially attractive for social criticism. e director deliberately
manoeuvres with the script and the mise-en-scène (staging, acting, space, atmosphere) to oer the spectator a grotesque
experience. As the director himself states: “in the grotesque we nd that distance required to see ourselves as a whole, grossly
sketched so as to separate us from our background, clearly and distinctly” (Álex de la Iglesia, 2015:17). e media serve as
ampliers of excess and pathos, especially in the case of television:
Television is non-existent as a mirror of reality, it would be a kind of distorting mirror, a grotesque mirror that disgures truth. It
is when it does not directly refer to reality that it starts to get interesting. Sensationalism, tabloid journalism, or gossip, that is pure
television [...] Television in its purest form would generate a ctitious reality (De la Iglesia in Tello Díaz, 2016-B: 38).
316 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
is deforming mirror intentionally draws on the tradition of the grotesque, which leads him to include in his lms “multiple
echoes and traces that belong to the most traditional, most quintessentially Spanish universe” (Heredero, 1999, p.195). e
bizarre, therefore, is a tool that he uses to elaborate his particular criticism of the absence of ethics, which he seasons with
a “counterpoint between violence, triviality of language and dark humour.” (García Ureña, 2017: 203). e director states the
need to develop discourse through comedy, as a nemesis of seriousness used as a weapon of control:
Laughter detaches us from things and allows us to judge them from a distance. anks to laughter we can observe what happens
from an eccentric point of view, obtaining an overview that ‘serious reality’, immersed in the system, is unable to oer us. Laughter as
a method of knowledge, humour as a hermeneutical discipline (Álex de la Iglesia, 2015:17).
Although De la Iglesia usually criticises traditional media, in recent years he has extended that criticism to include social
networks (Vascónez, 2023: 125), for which he uses the same tone of excess displayed in the pro-lmic of all his movies. at
same tone is what he conveys to his characters, all of them characterised by rudeness and animosity. is trait is palpable in
journalists, reporters, or presenters, who aunt a striking lack of decorum. e director somehow congures “an unbalanced
and disorientating space, amplied by a frontier-land mentality and that manifests in the characters’ extreme behaviour”
(Mancebo & Sánchez, 2022: 143). e Basque author’s creations tend to be mists who confront the consumer society that
trivialises reality and represses its citizens, leading to authentic explosions of extreme violence (García Ureña, 2017: 203).
is converges in an “amoral narrative way of thinking”, in which neither protagonists nor antagonists display a minimum
of ethical behaviour to place viewers on the moral spectrum (Jiménez González, 2023: 54). is paradox between behaviour
and expectation (Borio, 2022: 135) is evident in the journalists, who nd themselves surrounded by ambiguity and violence
as “a hallmark of a profession in which everything is inextricable, and of characters whose recklessness makes them live
dangerously” (Tello Díaz, 2010: 12).
4. Results
Álex de la Iglesia shows the journalistic-media reality throughout his lmography. Although traditional media (press, television,
radio) do not appear in
Perfect Strangers
or
Four’s a Crowd,
their informative function is assumed by mobile devices, tablets or
even laptops. is means that all 17 of the ction lms he has made contain informative-journalistic elements and 15 of them
(88.23%) explicitly address news reporting.
Furthermore, media gures appear in 15 lms (88.23%): in leading roles in 4 movies (23.5%) and in supporting roles in another
4 (23.5%). Such gures have walk-on parts in another 7 lms (41.17%). e two remaining lms (11.76%) use the media
(television, newspaper pages, online press) directly to exemplify media activity.
Several news formats are combined in each lm, not employing a single medium for each lm. Numerous formats are
employed to reinforce the idea of overabundance in media coverage. However, television programs are the most frequent
format, appearing in 14 lms (82.35%), ahead of the press (periodicals, newspapers, headlines) and the Internet (streaming
news shows and news portals) present in 4 lms respectively (23.5 %). is data is signicant, since the use of the Internet as
a resource in De la Iglesia’s cinema did not arrive until 2011 with
As Luck Would Have It
but has achieved in only twelve years
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 317
the same representativeness as the traditional press, which has been appearing in his lmography since 1993. Radio is the
medium with the least representation, present in only one lm (5.88%).
Despite such frequency and variety of formats, it is the representation of media practices that is most complex in Álex de la
Iglesia’s lms, some titles displaying a notable absence of professional ethics. Hence, it is essential to analyse how journalistic
ethics are fullled in his lms and observe whether the practices of news professionals are represented at their best in light of
citizens’ right to be informed.
To this end, compliance with ethical codes is used as a measurement criterion, as it is one of the most eective self-regulation
tools used by the media, along with “press councils, style books, or the gure of the ombudsman” (Díaz-Campo & Chaparro-
Domínguez, 2019: 16). e codes are made up of a series of ethical criteria agreed upon by the profession as essential for the
exercise of its functions (Díaz-Campo, 2016), serving to guide professional actions. Only ve of the fourteen ethical principles
selected to analyse the ethics of journalism in Álex de la Iglesia’s lms are systematically repeated, acquiring true prominence
in his lms: “Truth, objectivity, accuracy” (17 lms, 100%); “Sensationalism and respect for privacy” (15 lms, 88.23%); “No
manipulation” (12 lms, 70.58%); “Information about crimes and suicides” (12 lms, 70.58%) and “Separate professional life
from personal life” (9 lms, 52.94%).
5. Discussion of results
e following is a detailed discussion of each ethical principle as shown in the lms in which they appear, in accordance with
the importance of each principle to media reality.
5.1. Truth, objectivity, accuracy
Truth is fundamental in the media. “Without the truth there is no information” (Brajnovic, 1979: 59) was stated decades ago
and, without a doubt, there is no journalism without truth. If the truth is behind every communication act, objectivity is, in
Desantes’ terms, the foundation on which correct decision-making is based (2004: 100). e news professional who does not
seek the truth, who allows themselves to be vitiated by subjectivity, is not performing his/her job correctly.
e Day of the Beast
(1995) is the paradigm of the setting out of media truth, criticising the “recourse to falsehood in mass
communication” and revealing “the resources utilised by the media to manipulate their audience” (Tello Díaz, 2013: 18).
is lm not only shows a medium that tends towards the most vacuous, violence-based spectacle (Moreiras, 2002: 276),
but also shows how trash television desensitises the audience, rendering them incapable of critical thinking (Rivero, 2015:
371). All this is conveyed through an esoteric programme called e Dark Zone, presented by Professor Cavan (Armando de
Razza), who teams up with a priest and professor of theology (Álex Angulo), to unravel on his programme the truth of the birth
of the antichrist. e pro-lmic is employed on the programme to highlight the lugubrious nature of the universe they are
entering, with props that include a fortune-teller’s hand, inside which an eye can be seen, the epitome of esoteric symbology
of observing the great beyond. is staging undoubtedly implies that e Dark Zone boldly seeks hidden truths.
318 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Image 1. Stills from
e Day of the Beast
sobre crímenes y suicidios” (12 películas, 70.58%) y “No confundir vida profesional con
personal” (9 películas, 52.94%).
5. Discusión de resultados
A continuación, se propone la discusión pormenorizada de cada principio ético con
arreglo a las películas en las que destacan, según la importancia de cada principio para
con la realidad mediática.
5.1. Verdad, objetividad, exactitud
La verdad es fundamental en los medios de comunicación. “Sin la verdad no hay
información” (Brajnovic, 1979: 59) llegó a enunciarse hace décadas y, sin duda, no existe
periodismo sin verdad. Si la verdad está detrás de todo ejercicio comunicacional, la
obj
etividad es, en términos de Desantes, el basamento sobre el que se sostiene la correcta
toma de decisiones (2004: 100). El informador que no busca la verdad, sin dejarse viciar
por la subjetividad, no ejerce correctamente su profesión.
El día de la bestia
(1995) es el paradigma de la puesta en solfa de la verdad mediática, al
realizar una crítica al “recurso a la falsedad en la comunicación de masas” y poner de
manifiesto “los resortes de los que se valen los medios para manipular a la audiencia”
(Tello Díaz, 2013: 18). En esta película no solo se muestra un medio tendente a la más
vacua espectacularidad basada en la violencia (Moreiras, 2002: 276), sino que patentiza
cómo la televisión basura insensibiliza a la audiencia, lo que la incapacita para el
pensamiento crítico (Rivero, 2015: 371). Y todo ello lo vehicula mediante un programa
esotérico presentado por el profesor Cavan (Armando de Razza), quien se alía con un
sacerdote y catedrático en Teología (Álex Angulo), para desentrañar la verdad del
nacimiento del anticristo en su programa La Zona Oscura. En este programa, el profílmico
es utilizado para subrayar lo tétrico del universo en el que se adentran, con un atrezzo que
incluye una mano de cartomante, en cuyo interior se observa un ojo, epítome de la
simbología esotérica de observar más allá. Esa puesta en escena indica indudablemente
que La zona oscura busca con denuedo la verdad oculta.
Imagen 1. Fotogramas de El día de la bestia
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
Source: created by the author
Despite this, the entire plot highlights the lack of rigor in the quest for truth, when it does not directly highlight manipulation
and falsehood. As Cavan says: “Don’t you realize this is all just a farce for assholes? For assholes, who’re the ones who watch
my show and buy my book. at’s the truth”. Maintaining his contemptuous tone, Cavan insists: “is book is a piece of crap, a
fraud. Tell your wife.” e outburst comes during the Christmas Eve broadcast of a programme about evil. Although the head
of the channel celebrates his decision (“You’re a genius, Cavan, tonight we’ll swallow the rest of the networks whole. Everyone
singing Christmas carols while we’ve got the devil! We’ll have to repeat the show several days on the trot”), Cavan explains his
true intention. Shown in medium shot, Cavan states:
is is a warning to the ten million fucking assholes watching this show. e end of the world is tonight […] While you’re enjoying the
warmth of your home and happily dining while watching TV, outside, in the street, the reign of the antichrist is beginning.
e same search for truth is reected in
Eight Hundred Bullets
(2002)
.
When the lead’s (Carmen Maura) daughter-in-law buys
some land that was once a movie set, the actors mutiny. At that moment, De la Iglesia once again highlights the eect in the
pro-lmic: a television screen shows cartoons in which the sign “start screaming” appears, signposting the coming disaster.
A timely channel hop jumps suddenly to a news channel where a journalist, Georgina Cisquella, reports: “We’re getting news
from Almería that could very well be from a western, although this time the outcome could be dramatic.” Another journalist in
situ in Tabernas reports: “there’s a lot of confusion about what is really happening, but they have just conrmed that there have
been at least twenty serious injuries.” e pro-lmic in
Eight Hundred Bullets
focuses on the grotesque, showing an authentic
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 319
pitched battle, far more than a mere brawl. Its disproportion is resonant of a battleeld, and the journalist looks like a war
correspondent. Once again, the mise-en-scène highlights the grotesque in order to startle the viewer.
e truth is also boldly pursued in
e Oxford Murders
(2008), a lm that begins with a master class by Arthur Sheldon (John
Hurt), who asks a single question: “can we really know the truth? later arguing that “all the great thinkers of history have
searched for a single certainty, something that no one could deny, like two and two make four.” De la Iglesia continues with his
emphasis on truth: “ere is no truth outside the world of mathematics, there is no way to nd a single absolute certainty, no
irrefutable argument that helps us answer the questions of humanity”. As happened in
e Day of the Beast
, the director insists
on his particular opinion regarding the media: “Everything the newspapers say is a lie, didn’t you know that?” e protagonist
himself (Elijah Wood) admits dejectedly: “the truth is not mathematical, as I thought, it’s absurd, confusing, casual, disordered
and deeply unpleasant.”
Image 2. Stills from
e Oxford Murders
Imagen 2. Fotogramas de Los crímenes de Oxford
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
En
Las brujas de Zugarramundi
(2013) se muestran los medios como testimonio, como
mediadores y como recurso. Nada sucede que no sea recogido por un medio de
comunicación. En este caso, la aparatosa persecución por la Puerta del Sol es
retransmitida por un televisor ubicado en pleno pasillo de urgencias. Como en
800 balas
,
De la Iglesia despliega un profílmico hiperbolizado, con una persecución policial similar
a desplegada en la zona cero de un atentado terrorista.
Tras ello, uno de sus protagonistas (Hugo Silva), ante una noticia publicada en
Cosmopolitan,
señala: “Eso es mentira. Manejan las estadísticas como quieren”. Cuando
arriban a Zugarramurdi, la dueña de un bar (Terele Pávez) repone cintas en VHS del
programa ‘Noche de fiesta’ de José Luis Moreno. Cuando le cuestionan por la antigüedad
de la emisión
, ella explica: “da igual, estos no se enteran de nada. Ven lo que les pongas”,
en una corrosiva reflexión acerca de la mirada acrítica de los espectadores.
En
Perfectos desconocidos
(2017), aunque esta cinta carece de medios de comunicación
per se
, las funciones que normalmente asumen estos en su cine (léase informar, alertar,
mantener al tanto de una situación o hacer avanzar la trama) la sustituye por la
omnipresente figura de los móviles, cuyo acceso a internet y la masificación que suponen
sus redes sociales cumplen con creces esta funcionalidad. Aparte de la superabundancia
de mensajes compartidos por los protagonistas, el ambiente asfixiante y caótico en que
deviene la reunión (de nuevo, un profílmico desmesurado en cuanto a grotesco y
claustrofóbico, así como marcado por unas interpretaciones desmedidas en gravedad), es
reseñable que
Perfectos desconocido
s incida en la idea de verdad como algo oculto e
inaprehensible. La verdad en el cine de Álex de la Iglesia, en definitiva, se presenta como
constructo, como ficción, y ello no solo en la intimidad de las relaciones personales, sino
en el mundo mediático.
5.2. Sensacionalismo mediático
La tendencia a lo sensacional resulta una perversión del concepto de verdad. En los
medios, todo lo espectacular es reivindicado como fenómeno informativo, no por su
cualidad intrínseca, sino por su capacidad visual. Esta realidad muestra su primera gran
p
uesta en escena en
Muertos de risa
(1999), en la que la todos los elementos se orientan
hacia el shock del espectador, incluido un plano cenital y su espectacular premisa, a saber,
morir y matar en directo:
“Vamos a salir por esa puerta y vamos a grabar el
mejor
programa de Nochevieja de todos los tiempos. Vamos a matarlos de risa”.
En esta película se
inicia una tendencia frecuente en el cine de Álex de la Iglesia
consistente en mostrar imágenes macabras frente al público y que este las considere
ficción. En un intento por mostrar lo narcotizada que está la sociedad, el director lleva al
extremo el esperpento con auténticos crímenes tomados como parte del simulacro
Source: created by the author
In
Witching and Bitching
(2013) the media are shown as testimony, as mediators and as a resource. Nothing happens that is
not covered by a media outlet. e spectacular chase through the Puerta del Sol in Madrid is broadcast on a television set in a
corridor in the emergency ward. As in
Eight Hundred Bullets
, De la Iglesia deploys a hyperbolised pro-lmic, with a car chase
akin to that at ground zero of a terrorist attack.
After that, one of its protagonists (Hugo Silva), in response to a news article published in
Cosmopolitan,
says: “at’s a lie. ey
twist statistics to suit themselves.” When they arrive in Zugarramundi, the owner of a bar (Terele Pávez) plays VHS tapes of the
entertainment show ‘Noche de esta’ by José Luis Moreno. When they ask her how old the tape is, she explains: “it doesn’t
matter, they don’t take anything in. ey watch whatever you put in front of them”, in a corrosive reection on the uncritical
gaze of the spectators.
In
Perfect Strangers
(2017), although this lm does not portray any media
per se
, the functions that the media normally perform
in his lms (to inform, warn, keep abreast of a situation or move the plot forward) are replaced by the omnipresent gure
of mobile phones, whose access to the internet and the massication that social networks represent more than full this
functionality. Apart from the overabundance of messages shared by the protagonists, the suocating, chaotic atmosphere
in which the encounter takes place (once again, an overwhelming pro-lmic, excessive in terms of being grotesque and
claustrophobic, whilst also being marked by overly serious performances by the cast), it is notable that
Perfect Strangers
320 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
stresses the idea of truth as something hidden and dicult to pin down. e truth in Álex de la Iglesia’s cinema, in short, is
presented as a construct, as ction, not only in the intimacy of personal relationships, but in the media world.
5 .2. Media sensationalism
e tendency towards the sensational is a perversion of the concept of truth. e media claims everything spectacular as
a news phenomenon, not because of its intrinsic interest, but because of its visual quality. is reality shows its rst major
staging in
Dying of Laughter
(1999), in which all the elements are deployed to shock the viewer, including a bird’s-eye shot, and
its spectacular premise, namely, real-time death and killing:
“We’re going to walk out that door and we’re going to record the
best New Year’s Eve show ever. “We’re going to kill them with laughter.”
e movie marks the
beginning of a frequent trend in Álex de la Iglesia’s cinema, consisting of showing the audience macabre
images, and for the viewers to think of them as ction. In an attempt to show how narcotised society is, the director takes the
grotesque to the extreme with real crimes taken as part of media subterfuge. Grotesque laughter, televised death and aberrant
angles reinforce this reality from the pro-lmic point of view. In this case, Bruno (Santiago Segura) and Nino (Great Wyoming)
shoot each other in front of hundreds of people, who cannot stop laughing as they take it to be part of the show.
Image 3. Still from
Dying of Laughter
mediático. Las risas grotescas, la muerte televisada y las angulaciones aberrantes
refuerzan desde el profílmico esta realidad. En este caso, Bruno (Santiago Segura) y Nino
(el Gran Wyoming) se disparan el uno al otro ante centenares de personas, quienes no
cesan de reír al tomarlo como parte del espectáculo.
Imagen 3. Fotograma de Muertos de risa
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
También en
Muertos de risa
, el director incorpora el concepto de fama, punto que más
tarde desarrollará a lo largo de su filmografía. Los personajes de De la Iglesia pugnan por
huir de la mediocridad: “Mira a esta gente, son gente normal, sus vidas son grises,
aburridas. Y nosotros, aunque cueste reconocerlo, somos iguales que ellos, no somos
diferentes. No va a venir un hada madrina a darnos una oportunidad”. A través de
innumerables fragmentos reales de televisión (“Directísimo” de José María Íñigo; el
golpe de estado de Tejero; el motín en Carabanchel; las Olimpiadas de Barcelona 92) se
configuran una serie de imágenes sensacionales que remarcan la necesidad de
espectacularidad en las vidas de la gente corriente.
Esta tendencia se continúa en
Crimen ferpecto
(2004), en la que son los enlaces
matrimoniales la realidad televisada. En ella, Rafael (Willy Toledo) reflexiona ante su
futura familia política respecto a la situación planteada:
Ͳ
Pobre hombre.
Ͳ
Pobre hombre ¿por qué?
Ͳ
No sé, llegar así, con las cámaras…
Ͳ
A mi hija le encanta este programa. Y a mí también.
Ͳ
Sí, sí; si seguro que está muy bien. Pero es que casarse así, de repente, sin tiempo
para pensar las cosas.
El propio Rafael será víctima del programa de enlaces al final de la cinta. El presentador
es explícito respecto a sus intenciones: “Rafael, tómate tu tiempo; pero no demasiado,
seis millones de personas nos están viendo en estos momentos y no queremos que
cambien de canal”. Todo ello enfatizado por un profílmico asfixiante, en el que decenas
Source: created by the author
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 321
Also in
Dying of Laughter
, the director incorporates the concept of fame, an issue that he has gone on to develop throughout
his lmography. De la Iglesia’s characters strive to escape mediocrity: “Look at these people, they’re just ordinary punters,
their lives are grey, boring. And we, though it’s tough to admit, are just the same as them, we’re no dierent. ere’s no fairy
godmother who’s going to come and give us a chance.” rough countless real television fragments (“Directísimo” by José
María Íñigo; the 1981 Tejero coup; the riot in Carabanchel prison; the Barcelona 92 Olympics) a series of sensational images
are shown that highlight the need for spectacularity in the lives of ordinary people.
is trend continues in
Ferpect
Crime
(2004), in which marriages are the televised reality. Rafael (Willy Toledo) reects on the
situation to his future in-laws:
–
Poor man.
–
Poor man, why?
–
I don’t know, arriving like this, with the cameras...
–
My daughter loves this program. And so do I.
–
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m sure it’s very good. But getting married like that, suddenly, without time to think things through.
Rafael himself will be a victim of the marriage program at the end of the lm. e presenter is explicit about his intentions:
“Rafael, take your time; but not too much, six million people are watching us right now and we don’t want them to change
channels.” All of this is emphasized by a suocating mise-en-scène, in which dozens of monitors follow Rafa’s actions and
the image, distorted by lenses that deform the faces of his ancée and the presenter, seem to subsume Rafael in an existential
chaos.
Likewise, another of the most relevant aspects of the movie is the signalling of the media as creators of stereotypes, whose
spectacularity and beauty mark the future of less attractive people. us, Rafa will argue to his future wife that hating her
is inevitable because of the consumer society: “It’s this world we’re stuck in that makes me hate you: people, magazines,
television […] we’re brought up this way, whether we like it or not”.
Image 4. Stills from
Ferpect Crime
de monitores siguen el accionar de Rafa y la imagen, desvirtuada por unas lentes que
deforman los rostros de su prometida y del presentador, parecen subsumir a Rafael en un
caos vital.
Asimismo, otro de los aspectos más relevantes de este título es la señalización de los
medios como creadores de estereotipos, los cuales marcan con su espectacularidad y
belleza el devenir de las personas menos agraciadas. Así Rafa argüirá ante su futura mujer
que odiarla es inevitable por culpa de la sociedad de consumo: “Es este mundo en el que
vivimos el que me hace odiarte: la gente, las revistas, la televisión […] estamos educados
así, nos guste o no”.
Imagen 4. Fotogramas de Crimen
ferpecto
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
No obstante, si una película marca un antes y un después en términos de sensacionalismo
es
La chispa de la vida
(2011). Roberto (José Mota), publicista en paro, cae en una zanja
en la que una barra de hierro le atraviesa el cráneo. El profílmico en este título es el más
explícito de todos, al mostrar la soledad del hombre anclado a la vida por una barra de
hierro que le atraviesa la cabeza, mientras todos observan cómo se apaga. Esta lenta
agonía, sorprendentemente, pretende rentabilizarla la propia víctima
: “Mira la atención
que estoy generando, podemos convertir este accidente en el negocio de nuestra vida”.
Tales son sus ansias de cosechar dinero, que incluso contrata a un representante (Fernando
Tejero) que gestione su aparición en los medios: “Esta es una gran oportunidad” le dirá a
su mujer Luisa (Salma Hayek), ante lo que ella responde: “No puedes convertir esto en
una feria”. Cuando el médico que atiende a Roberto indique que puede morir en segundos,
su representante inquirirá: “Ya y… No le haría dañ
o hacer una entrevista para televisión
¿no?”. A pesar de todo, Roberto no se inmuta, al revés, agradece la fama y anima a un
guardajurado a mover un biombo para que la prensa le vea mejor. “Voy a ser una estrella
de la televisión”, le dice, a lo que el guardajurado apostilla: “Le diré, amigo Roberto, que
ha elegido una dura manera de ganarse la vida”.
Quizá la frase que resume mejor el sensacionalismo al que la sociedad parece abocada es:
“Estás enganchado a la tele y no la puedes apagar. ¿Por qué? Porque hay un tipo que se
muere en directo y quieres verlo. Porque eres un morboso”. Esta idea queda refor
zada
con otro guardajurado, quien ofrece a un cámara de televisión cualquier otro vídeo con
tal de ser famoso: “Si les interesa, también tengo una paliza a un pobre grabada con el
móvil”. Finalmente, Álvaro Aguirre (Juanjo Puigcorbé), director del canal An
tena 5, líder
de audiencia por su programa ‘Rumore, rumore’, es capaz de ofrecer dos millones de
euros al representante de la víctima si le garantiza la emisión de su muerte en directo. El
directivo llega a exhortarle a Luisa: “entiendo su dolor; pero tien
e usted que comprender
que la desgracia de su marido ha trascendido el ámbito estrictamente familiar. Y nuestra
obligación moral, la suya y la mía, es darle a la gente lo que quiere”. Solo una periodista,
Pilar Álvarez (Carolina Bang), será capaz de ofrecer respeto en lugar de sensacionalismo
al ayudar a la familia cuando los demás solo desean beneficiarse del luctuoso suceso.
Source: created by the author
However, if there is one lm which marks a before and after in terms of sensationalism, it is
As Luck Would Have It
(2011).
Roberto (José Mota), an unemployed publicist, falls into a ditch where an iron bar goes through his head. e pro-lmic
in this lm is the most explicit of all, showing the loneliness of a man moored to life by an iron bar through his head, while
everyone watches him fading away. Surprisingly, the victim strives to make a prot from his slow agony: “Look at the attention
I’m getting, we can turn this accident into the deal of our lives.” His desire to make money is such that he even hires an agent
322 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
(Fernando Tejero) to manage his media appearances: “is is a golden opportunity,” he tells his wife Luisa (Salma Hayek), to
which she responds: “You can’t turn this into a circus.” When the doctor treating Roberto indicates that he could pass away
in seconds, his agent asks: “Right, but... It wouldn’t hurt to do a tv interview, would it?” Despite everything, Roberto does not
inch, on the contrary, he is grateful for the fame, encouraging a security guard to move a screen so that the press can see him
better. “I’m going to be a tv star,” he tells him, to which the guard adds: “I tell you something, my friend, you’ve chosen a hard
way to make a living.”
Perhaps the phrase that best summarises the sensationalism which society seems destined for is: “You’re hooked on TV,
and you can’t turn it o. Why? Because there’s a guy dying live, and you want to see it. Because you’re morbid.” is idea is
reinforced by another security guard, who oers a television cameraman another video in the hope of becoming famous:
“If you’re interested, I also have a recording on my mobile of a poor guy getting a kicking.” Finally, Álvaro Aguirre (Juanjo
Puigcorbé), director of the Antena 5 TV channel, which leads the ratings with their programme ‘Rumore, rumore’, is able to
oer two million euros to the victim’s agent if he can guarantee the live broadcast of his death. e TV executive even exhorts
Luisa: “I understand your pain; but you have to understand that your husband’s misfortune has transcended the strictly family
sphere. And our moral obligation, yours and mine, is to give the people what they want.” Only one journalist, Pilar Álvarez
(Carolina Bang), is able to oer respect instead of sensationalism by helping the family when others only want to prot from
the tragic event.
Finally, in
Four’s a Crowd
(2022) signicant technological progress is once again observed regarding the media. e Internet
acts as the omnipotent axis of live news, the lm accepts the social networks have assumed the function that other media
previously fullled in the lms (television and press). us, when the protagonist (Alberto Sanjuán) suers an altercation,
an exaggerated and grotesque scue at a petrol station, the culprit of the event (Ernesto Alterio) uploads the video to his
Instagram stories, getting countless views in a matter of minutes:
–
It’s amazing how much people get o on seeing this kind of stu. It’s got three thousand views in just ve minutes.
–
Have you uploaded it to the Internet?
–
Nope... It’s on stories
.
But people share.
–
But with what right?
–
It was me that recorded it.
–
But it’s me who’s getting hit!
A twist to media sensationalism transferred to the new social networks.
5.3. Information about crimes and suicides
Media praxis implies social responsibility (Hutchins, 1947), which suggests a quest for the common good without harming
or being detrimental to society, by internalising “community values to turn them into practical criteria in their professional
conduct, as if they were working as guardians of morality” (Suárez Villegas, 2013: 311). Such pulchritude implies respect and
diligence when informing the public, especially in highly sensitive cases, such as news about deaths, crimes, or suicides. In the
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 323
case of Álex de la Iglesia, coverage of this type of events is a constant. In fact, excepting
Four’s a Crowd
(2022), all of his lms
feature the death of one or more characters, including the leading roles, which paves the way for a media response to any event.
His rst lm, Acción
Mutante
(1993), begins with the program ‘Sucesos’ on the JQK Television channel, as a true declaration
of intentions. In it, the bizarre presenter (Jaime Blanch) is reporting on the violent death of a man, while pointing out that it
may be due to the terrorist gang “Mutant Action”, whose members he describes as “a gang of disabled people with the lowest
coecient in the entire world”. ey also share images of a shooting involving the terrorists on the programme “Fitness with
Susana”, where the set is grotesque, full of beaten bodies and blood-smeared walls. Behind him, in a cacophonous mix of news,
the presenter of ‘Social Echoes’ reports on the imminent wedding of the heiress of a well-known tycoon. e media is involved
in almost all of Acción
Mutante
, while reporting on the terrorists’ crimes, especially concerning the young heiress they kidnap.
Image 5. Stills from Acción
Mutante
Imagen 5. Fotogramas de Acción mutante
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
En
Perdita Durango
(1997), la presencia de los medios de comunicación es
imperturbable. Cuando sobreviene la muerte del protagonista (Javier Bardem), son
numerosos los cámaras, fotógrafos y reporteros que se entremezclan con la policía para
dar testimonio de lo sucedido. Incluso el padre de la joven secuestrada ve
La chica de la
tele
mientras ejercita sus músculos con su
Ab Shaper
(un producto de teletienda).
Finalmente, la expresión de Perdita (Rosie Pérez) ante la tragedia contrasta con la imagen
enajenada de centenares de asistentes a un local en Las Vegas, quienes observan por las
pantallas a la ganadora del gran premio del casino.
En
La comunidad
(2000), se evidencia la imbricación de los medios y la muerte. En ella,
un hombre fallece al ver la televisión, una elección de guion de por sí elocuente. Cuando
la policía accede al domicilio, repleto de basura por doquier (de nuevo, una intervención
en e
l profílmico para reincidir en el concepto de ‘telebasura’) encuentran su cadáver
frente al televisor: “aquí está nuestro amigo, viendo la televisión”. Esto se subraya
mediante una edición de
EL PAÍS
, en la que se recoge la noticia: “Muere
un anciano
mientras veía la televisión”, al tiempo que remarca que el aparato “se encontraba
encendido” cuando la policía halló su cuerpo. En ese espacio, de nuevo De la Iglesia
remarca una atmósfera enfermiza, con un cadáver frente a un televisor encendido, todo
ello rodeado por inmundicia y hedor. A continuación, un periódico informa de la macabra
pugna entre los vecinos por conseguir el botín: “Un grupo de vecinos se mata entre sí por
un dinero que no existe”. Este uso de la prensa y de la televisión “pr
oporciona al
espectador indicios narrativos que le permiten anticipar la acción por venir y aclara la
verdadera naturaleza de los individuos” (Bracco, 2012: 407
-
408).
Esto sucede en otro momento culminante, cuando la protagonista (Carmen Maura) le
propone un ‘golpe de suerte’ a su marido, mientras en televisión emiten un anuncio: “La
droga más fuerte no es la velocidad, es el dinero”, un artefacto narrativo
-
visual para
anticipar los acontecimientos y definir la pulsión de la protagonista.
Source: created by the author
e presence of the media is imperturbable in
Perdita Durango
(1997). When the death of the protagonist (Javier Bardem)
occurs, there are numerous cameramen, photographers and reporters who mix with the police to bear witness to what
happened. Even the kidnapped young woman’s father watches
e Girl on TV
while exercising his muscles with his Ab Shaper
(a teleshopping product). Finally, Perdita’s (Rosie Pérez) expression when faced with the tragedy contrasts with the alienated
image of hundreds of attendees at a venue in Las Vegas, who watch the winner of the casino’s grand prize on the screens.
In
Common Wealth
(2000), the intertwining of the media and death is evident. A man dies while watching television, an
eloquent script choice in itself. When the police enter the house, with rubbish everywhere (again, an intervention in the
pro-lmic to repeat the concept of ‘trash television’) they nd his body in front of the television: “here’s our pal, watching
television.” is is underlined by an edition of the newspaper
EL PAÍS
, which includes the headline: “An elderly man dies
while watching television,” while noting that the device “was on” when the police found his body. De la Iglesia here again
highlights an insalubrious atmosphere, with a corpse in front of a turned-on television, all surrounded by lth and stench.
324 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Next, a newspaper reports the macabre struggle between neighbours to get the loot: “A group of neighbours kill each other
for money that does not exist.” is use of the press and television “provides the viewer with narrative clues that allow him to
anticipate the action to come and makes the true nature of the individuals clear” (Bracco, 2012: 407-408).
is happens in another climactic moment, when the protagonist (Carmen Maura) speaks to her husband of a ‘stroke of
luck’, while an advertisement is broadcast on television: “e strongest drug isn’t speed, it’s money”, a narrative-visual device
intended to anticipate events and dene what drives the character.
Image 6. Stills from
Common Wealth
Imagen 6. Fotogramas de La comunidad
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
El hecho de que Carmen Maura toque la pantalla del televisor guarda concomitancias con
800 balas
(2002), en la que Terele Pávez limpia la suya. En ella, el ensimismamiento ante
la sucesión de imágenes que ofrecen los medios aparece de forma inexcusable. Además
del pormenorizado seguimiento del levantamiento de los actores de Tabernas, con la
persecuc
ión, destrucción y muerte hiperbólica que esto supone, se hace hincapié en la
propia programación, al mostrar la oferta televisiva de forma constante.
Imagen 7. Fotogramas de 800 balas
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
Este recurso se recuperará en
Balada triste de trompeta
(2010). En ella, se pueden
observar diversos titulares de periódicos como
Diario de Burgos
(“¡La guerra ha
concluido!”), y de la prensa internacional: “Berlin et Rome poussent France a entrer dans
Madrid
1
”. “À la frontière des Pyrénees L’Armee Catalane et cependant le flot des refugiés
diminue. Les combats continuent devant Figueras qu’ecrase le bombardement”
2
.
Adicionalmente, el director bilbaíno incluye fragmentos del NODO como testimonio
visual del fin de la guerra civil y del nuevo estado de cosas.
Este recurso evolucionará hacia imágenes televisivas, adaptado el universo informativo
al avance audiovisual del momento. En el pasillo de un hospital (espacio profílmico que
ya empleó en
Los crímenes de Oxford
y que volverá a emplear en
Las brujas de
1
“Berlín y Roma empujan a Francia a entrar en Madrid”.
2
“En la frontera de los Pirineos el Ejército catalán y, aun así, el flujo de refugiados va disminuyendo. Los
combates continúan frente a Figueres, que es aplastada por los bombardeos”.
Source: created by the author
e fact that Carmen Maura touches the television screen has similarities with
Eight Hundred Bullets
(2002), in which Terele
Pávez cleans hers. e self-absorption reected on her face as she sees the succession of images oered by the media appears
undeniable. In addition to following in great detail the uprising of the actors in Tabernas, with all the persecution, destruction
and hyperbolic death that this entails, emphasis is placed on the programming itself, by constantly showing what the tv is
oering.
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 325
Image 7. Stills from
Eight Hundred Bullets
Imagen 6. Fotogramas de La comunidad
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
El hecho de que Carmen Maura toque la pantalla del televisor guarda concomitancias con
800 balas
(2002), en la que Terele Pávez limpia la suya. En ella, el ensimismamiento ante
la sucesión de imágenes que ofrecen los medios aparece de forma inexcusable. Además
del pormenorizado seguimiento del levantamiento de los actores de Tabernas, con la
persecuc
ión, destrucción y muerte hiperbólica que esto supone, se hace hincapié en la
propia programación, al mostrar la oferta televisiva de forma constante.
Imagen 7. Fotogramas de 800 balas
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
Este recurso se recuperará en
Balada triste de trompeta
(2010). En ella, se pueden
observar diversos titulares de periódicos como
Diario de Burgos
(“¡La guerra ha
concluido!”), y de la prensa internacional: “Berlin et Rome poussent France a entrer dans
Madrid
1
”. “À la frontière des Pyrénees L’Armee Catalane et cependant le flot des refugiés
diminue. Les combats continuent devant Figueras qu’ecrase le bombardement”
2
.
Adicionalmente, el director bilbaíno incluye fragmentos del NODO como testimonio
visual del fin de la guerra civil y del nuevo estado de cosas.
Este recurso evolucionará hacia imágenes televisivas, adaptado el universo informativo
al avance audiovisual del momento. En el pasillo de un hospital (espacio profílmico que
ya empleó en
Los crímenes de Oxford
y que volverá a emplear en
Las brujas de
1
“Berlín y Roma empujan a Francia a entrar en Madrid”.
2
“En la frontera de los Pirineos el Ejército catalán y, aun así, el flujo de refugiados va disminuyendo. Los
combates continúan frente a Figueres, que es aplastada por los bombardeos”.
Source: created by the author
is resource is turned to again in
e Last Circus
(2010). Here one sees several headlines from newspapers such as
Diario de
Burgos
(“e war is over!”), and from the international press: “Berlin et Rome poussent France a entrer dans Madrid
1
.” “À la
frontière des Pyrénees L’Armee Catalane et cependant le ot des refugiés diminue. Les combats continuent devant Figueras
qu’ecrase le bombardement”
2
. Moreover, the Basque director includes fragments of NODO news reels as visual testimony of
the end of the civil war and the new state of things.
is resource evolves towards television images, adapting the news universe to the audiovisual progress of the time. In
a hospital corridor (a pro-lmic space that he already used in
e Oxford Murders
and will turn to again in
Witching and
Bitching
), a television set reports on the beginning of the trial of a criminal, while some dialogues relate the crimes of society:
“As if we didn’t have enough with El Lute, now a loony dressed as a clown has the entire country in check. Javier Granados,
baptized by the press as the ‘Sad Clown’, managed to escape from the police with the help of circus workers. He is accused of
at least three murders.” e death of Carrero Blanco is another of the events that the lm points to through the broadcast of a
fragment of NODO, which illustrates the director’s inclination to portray death through the media.
1
“Berlin and Rome push France to enter Madrid.”
2
“e Catalan Army on the Pyrenees border, and yet, the ow of refugees is decreasing. Fighting goes on near Figueres, which is being levelled by the bombing.”
326 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Image 8. Stills from
Witching and Bitching
Zugarramurdi
), un televisor informa del comienzo del juicio a un criminal, mientras
algunos diálogos rinden cuenta de los crímenes de la sociedad: “Por si no tuviéramos
suficiente con El Lute, ahora un loco vestido de payaso tiene en jaque a todo el país.
Javier Grana
dos, bautizado por la prensa como el ‘Payaso triste’ consiguió huir de la
policía con la ayuda de los trabajadores del circo. Se le imputan, al menos, tres
asesinatos”. La muerte de Carrero Blanco es otro de los sucesos que señala la película
mediante la emisión de un fragmento de NODO, lo que ilustra la inclinación del director
a retratar la muerte a través de los medios.
Imagen 7. Fotogramas de Las brujas de Zugarramurdi
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
Por último, en
Veneciafrenia
(2021) se observa nuevamente la mediación de la televisión
para hacer avanzar la trama. Convertidos en auténtica avanzadilla de la realidad, los
medios y sus informantes aparecen periódicamente para mostrar las acciones del grupo
de venecianos “Fuori”, que actúan del modo en que lo hacía “acción mutante” dos
décadas antes. A pesar de que emplea los
mass media
como fuente de información, en
este caso se hace hincapié en Internet como medio de difusión de contenido terrorista y
vi
olento. Es más, ningún canal se observa a través de un televisor, sino por medio de
portátiles, teléfonos móviles y tabletas. Resulta curioso, finalmente, que en
Veneciafrenia
se reincida en la idea de mezcla de ficción y realidad ante la muerte. Al igual que sucedía
en
Muertos de risa
y
800 balas
, también se atribuye a la ficción lo que real: “Es
acojonante el mundo del cine, parece tan real”. Esta frase, enunciada por turistas, muestra
los asesinatos tomados como parte del espectáculo, con uno de los profílmicos más
hiperbólicos de toda su filmografía. Las risas caricaturescas, las interpretaciones
desmesuradas y la escenografía carnavalesca conducen hacia lo grotesco.
5.4. Manipulación informativa
Dentro del contexto actual, ha surgido el término “posverdad” para definir una realidad
consistente en pervertir el concepto de verdad y encuadrarlo en un marco de
desinformación e incertidumbre (Mayoral, Parratt y Morata, 2019: 396). Uno de los
rasgos definitorios de la posverdad es algo tan conocido como la manipulación
informativa, entendida como práctica comunicativa, multimodal e interaccional que
domina de manera abusiva e ilegítima mediante el uso del discurso (Van Dijk, 2006: 51).
Se trata, por tanto, de una práctica intencional destinada a lograr una ventaja o beneficio
mediante la manipulación de la audiencia. Uno de los más claros ejemplos de crítica hacia
este tipo de abusos mediáticos está presente en
El bar
(2017). En ella, los clientes de un
local son encerrados por haber estado en contacto con un militar afectado por una
enfermedad contagiosa y letal. Cuando, para evitar la propagación del virus, los cuerpos
de seguridad del estado intentan ejecutarlos, los medios de comunicación difunden la
noticia de un incendio, desviando la atención del verdadero suceso:
-
Si no hay ningún incendio, ¡eso es una puta mentira!
Source: created by the author
Finally, in
Veneciafrenia
(2021) the mediation of television is again observed to move the plot forward. Turned into a true
vanguard for reality, the media and their reporters appear periodically to show the actions of the “Fuori” group of Venetians who
act in the same way that “Mutant Action” had done two decades before. Although the mass media is utilised
as a news source,
in this case emphasis is placed on the Internet as a means of disseminating terrorism and violent content. Furthermore, the
TV channels are not watched on a television set, but rather using laptops, mobile phones and tablets. It is interesting, nally,
that in
Veneciafrenia
the idea of mixing ction and reality in the face of death is reiterated. As happened in
Dying of Laughter
and
Eight Hundred Bullets
, what is real is also attributed to ction: “e world of cinema is frightening, it seems so real.” is
phrase, uttered by tourists, shows the murders taken as part of a show, with one of the most hyperbolic mise-en-scène of his
entire lmography. e cartoonish laughter, the overacting and the carnivalesque scenery tend towards the grotesque.
5.4. Information manipulation
e term “post-truth” has emerged to dene a reality consisting of perverting the concept of truth and setting it in a framework of
misinformation and uncertainty (Mayoral, Parratt & Morata, 2019: 396). One of the dening features of post-truth is something
as familiar as news manipulation, understood as a communicative, multimodal, and interactional practice that dominates in
an abusive and illegitimate manner through the use of discourse (Van Dijk, 2006: 51). It is, therefore, an intentional practice
aimed at achieving some advantage or benet by manipulating the audience. One of the clearest examples of criticism of this
type of media abuse is to be found in
e Bar
(2017). e customers of a tavern are locked up for having been in contact with
a soldier aected by a contagious and lethal disease. When, to prevent the spread of the virus, the state security forces try to
execute them, the media spread news of a re, distracting attention from the real event:
–
ere’s no re, that’s a fucking lie!
–
at’s what the tyres are for, so the TV can tape it from the helicopter.
–
ey’re just brazenly making up a re.
–
It’s a cover up, they’re covering up the murders.
–
But why? What don’t they want people to know? […]
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 327
–
Because it’s the kind of publicity no one is interested in.
–
at’s why they thought up the re!
It is also no coincidence that, while the bar users’ lives are in danger, they are watching an Extreme Makeover program on
television
with an expression of total lethargy. e scriptwriters once again introduce an element of reality as an anticipatory
element. As someone says in the program: “I’m afraid, nothing is safe in this house. Everything seems normal and, in a second,
we could all die.” “‘ey fooled us, I don’t trust anyone anymore.” “Everything is one big lie.” is idea of a lie is reinforced with
the following televised information, in which the presenter falsies the data regarding the news: “e causes of the re that has
been raging in downtown Madrid for the last few hours are unknown at the moment.”
Despite everything the bar’s clientele insist that the media must nd out and make public the truth behind the news: “We have
to call a radio station, a newspaper, to let people know about this.” Despite the importance of the events, the media keep the
fact quiet:
–
Two people have just been killed in the centre of Madrid, and no one says anything!?
–
Maybe we have to wait for the evening news.
–
What do you expect them to say, don’t you see that they haven’t caught it yet?
–
ey can’t say anything.
–
If they say that there’s a terrorist shooting in the centre of Madrid, instead of leaving, people’re so dumb that they’d come to
watch, as if this were engineering work on the metro.
Once again, one nds the element of sensationalism embedded in manipulation and post-truth, and reinforced with a mise-
en-scène that distorts any naturality, by emphasizing the morbidity aroused by seeing a terrorist or a robbery live.
5.5. Separation of professional and personal life
e last ethical principle that frequently appears in the proposed lmography is not related to any communication practice,
but to the relationship that the journalist establishes between the private and public spheres. Films such as
My Big Night, e
Baby’s Room
or
Dying of Laughter
emphasise the need to avoid reporters’ being subject to conicts of interest, to separate
one’s professional life from private life. e journalists portrayed by De la Iglesia are not those whose “work is a form of social
commitment that must face numerous threats, sometimes from the very newspaper they work for, others –the majority–
coming from a callous and corrupt political and/or judicial background” (Pastor, 2010:193), for they ignore their obligations,
choosing instead to settle personal accounts.
at is what happens in one of his least well-known lms, the made-for-tv movie
e Baby’s Room
(2006), part of the ‘Films to
keep you awake’ series. e protagonist Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) is a journalist whose wife, Sonia (Leonor Watling), and their
newborn baby move to a large house which needs doing up. e problem arises when the baby’s camera-monitor begins to
show images of spirits watching the child sleep, to the despair and terror of his parents. Juan tries to nd an explanation for
what, at rst, he considers mere folly. When he tells Fernández (Antonio Dechent), his editor-in-chief, the editor’s reaction
means it reaches the ears of Domingo (Sancho Gracia), a reporter of paranormal events:
328 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
–
I’m going to publish it, it’s great fun.
–
Not Domingo, you can’t.
–
But he’s the best. Domingo is the one who knows the most about this nonsense.
–
So that I can be on the front page with the Loch Ness Monster, or the lady raped by aliens? No, look, no way. If I’d known, I
wouldn’t have told you.
Image 9. Frames from
e Baby’s Room
cuando el escuchador
-
cámara del bebé empieza a ofrecer imágenes de espíritus que
vigilan el sueño del pequeño, para desesperación y terror de sus progenitores. Así las
cosas, Juan trata de buscar una explicación a lo que, en principio, considera una
insens
atez. Cuando se lo confiesa a Fernández (Antonio Dechent), el redactor jefe, su
reacción implica pasarle la noticia a Domingo (Sancho Gracia), periodista de sucesos
paranormales:
-
Lo voy a publicar, es muy divertido.
-
Domingo, no.
-
Pero si es el mejor. Domingo es el que más sabe de estas chorradas.
-
¿Para que me saque en la primera página con el Monstruo del Lago Ness o la
señora esta que violaron los extraterrestres? No, mira, paso. Si lo sé, no te lo
cuento.
Imagen 8. Fotogramas de La habitación del niño
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
A pesar de la impresión a la que están sometidos, en un momento dado llegan a señalar:
“Imagínate tragarte ahora uno de esos programas con todo el mundo chillando. En
cambio, nosotros… Toma, una peli de nuestro hijo y de prota total”. Cuando pierda su
trab
ajo y la cordura a causa de los sucesos paranormales, no le quedará más remedio que
hablar con Domingo, periodista al que había evitado a toda costa (y cuyo diálogo recuerda
sobremanera a los de
El día de la bestia
):
-
¿Es posible que una cámara grabe imágenes que no pueden verse a simple vista?
-
¿Qué imágenes?
-
Personas, cosas…
-
¿Psicoimágenes?
-
¿Se llaman así?
-
En los años sesenta sí, pero eran todas falsas. Trucos de cámara. A las revistas les
encantan. Si tienes algo de eso, le podemos sacar un buen partido. Sé a quién
vendérselas, ¿qué son, fantasmas?... ¿Lloran, gimen, se arrastran?
-
Es un asesinato. Un hombre mata a su mujer y a su hijo en la cuna.
-
[…] Eso se llama inmanencia.
En
Mi gran noche
(2015), la acción se desarrolla en el interior de un plató de televisión
en el que se graba el programa especial de Nochevieja (de nuevo, como en
Muertos de
risa
y
El día de la bestia
, la época navideña como precipitadora del conflicto). En este
caso también se deja entrever la falsedad que rodea la televisión, empleando la hipérbole
interpretativa y la risa como elemento esencial de la farsa mediática. Cuando llega un
actor para actua
r como figurante, el regidor (Luis Callejo) le indica: “
No mires a la
cámara, no hables con la gente, no te bebas lo que hay en los vasos, la comida es falsa
[…] y sonríe, sonríe todo el rato, que se supone que esto es una fiesta”.
Source: created by the author
Despite the situation they nd themselves in, at one point they even say: “Imagine having to watch one of those programs with
everyone screaming. Whereas us... there you go, a movie with our son in the lead role.” When he loses his job and his reason
due to the paranormal events, he is left with no choice but to talk to Domingo, a journalist he had avoided at all costs (and
whose discourse is highly reminiscent of that in
e Day of the Beast
):
–
How can a camera record images the naked eye can’t see?
–
What images?
–
People, things...
–Psycho-images?
–
Is that the name?
–
It was in the sixties, but they were all false. Camera tricks. Magazines love them. If you have some of that, we can make good
use of it. I know who to sell them to, what are they, ghosts?... Do they cry, moan, crawl?
–
It’s a murder. A man kills his wife and child in the crib.
–
[…] at’s called immanence.
e action in
My Big Night
(2015) takes place in a television studio where a New Year’s Eve special program is being recorded
(again, as in
Dying of Laughter
and
e Day of the Beast
, Christmastime as precipitator of conict). Here again the falsehood
that surrounds television is made patent, using hyperbolic acting and laughter as essential elements of the farce that is the
media. When an actor arrives to act as an extra, the oor manager (Luis Callejo) tells him: “Don’t look at the camera, don’t talk
to anyone, don’t drink what’s in the glasses, the food is fake […] and smile, keep smiling all the time, this is supposed to be a
party.”
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 329
Image 10. Frames from
My Big Night
Imagen 9. Fotogramas de Mi gran noche
Fuente:
e
laboración propia
Cuando una huelga de trabajadores (grotesca y desmesurada hasta límites de conflicto
armado) amenaza con entrar, los profesionales de la televisión no dudan en intentar parar
la grabación, contra la oposición de la cadena:
-
Eso qué es ¿una película?
-
No, Benítez, eso está pasando ahora ahí afuera. Hay que cortar la grabación.
-
Vamos, ni de coña, antes me corto yo las venas.
-
¿Te das cuenta de lo que puede pasar si esa gente entra en el plató?
-
Para eso está la policía, ¿no?
En
Mi gran noche
, De la Iglesia no solo sitúa el conflicto de la acción en dos
presentadores televisivos divorciados y arribistas (Carolina Bang y Hugo Silva
respectivamente), sino incluso en la violencia que genera el fracaso de las relaciones
personales en el entorno periodístico. Sus diálogos son agresivos de manera constante,
evidenciando, además, la desigualdad en la profesión televisiva:
¿Tengo que parecer subnormal todo el rato? […] Coño, yo no sé nada. Me lo tiene
que explicar todo él y, encima, remata todos los chistes […] ¡Claro que sí! Dilo tú
todo, que no pasa nada. Eres el tío de puta madre que hace las gracias y yo la
gilipollas que enseña las tetas.
El
crescendo
de su ira se enconará hasta el paroxismo:
-
¿Crees que soy imbécil, qué no sé lo que estás haciendo? […] Tú quieres
presentar
Supervivientes
. Eso es lo que pasa. Sé que tu representante ha
Source: created by the author
When a workers’ strike (grotesque and disproportionate to the point of becoming an armed conict) threatens to break out, the
television professionals do not hesitate to try to stop the recording, against the opposition of the network:
–
What’s that, a movie?
–
No, Benítez, that’s happening out there now. You have to stop lming.
–
Come on, no way, I’d slash my wrists rst.
–
Do you realize what could happen if those people come on set?
–
at’s what the police are for, right?
In
My Big Night
, De la Iglesia not only shows us the conict between two divorced, unscrupulous television presenters (Carolina
Bang and Hugo Silva respectively), but also the violence arising from the failure of personal relationships in journalistic
spheres. eir dialogues are incessantly aggressive, and shine a light on inequality in careers in television:
330 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
–
Do I have to look gormless all the time? […] Damn it, I don’t know. He has to explain everything to me and, on top of that, he
gets all the punchlines […] yeah, right! You say it all, no problem. You’re the cool guy, the funny one, and I’m the asshole who
ashes her tits.
Her anger grows to the point of paroxysm:
–
Do you think I’m an idiot, that I don’t know what you’re doing? […] You want to present
Supervivientes.
at’s what’s happe
-
ning here. I know your agent has spoken to the network, that you’re slagging me o behind my back. You’ve been sending
videos of my cock-ups upstairs for the last three days.
–
at’s not true.
–
ey’ve forwarded them to me!
–
e two journalists end up trying to murder each other on stage, as happened in
Dying of Laughter
, while the audience laughs
at a show that they take as ction, though it is pathetically real.
6. Conclusions
After exhaustive review of Álex de la Iglesia’s lmography, it is evident that journalists’ labours, and particularly their
social eects, are of great concern to the director. Not for nothing is he the screenwriter of all his lms, together with Jorge
Guerricaechevarría, which suggests that the topics he deals with in his lms are intimately related to his personal interests.
Despite this, Álex de la Iglesia’s lmography is not focused on journalistic praxis
per se
, since it is not interested in analysing
specic aspects of the profession such as professional secrecy, freedom of the press, journalistic integrity, defamation, libel, or
plagiarism, nor yet freedom of speech, as can be seen from the analysis of the ethical principles that he chooses not to address
in his lms. However, his plots do highlight those elements that determine the ethics of the means utilised (manipulation,
respect for privacy) or the result obtained (sensationalism, morbid fascination, falsehood). It has also become clear that he
is concerned about the harmful eect that media practices, especially those of television, can have on making the audience
lethargic. Frequent scenes of massacres being ignored by citizens while watching television, make manifest, grotesquely and
hyperbolically, De la Iglesia’s fear of the analgesic eect of media entertainment on public morality.
In this sense, it can be said that ethical issues do not matter to him in themselves, but in their social dimension, in the inuence
they have; hence the importance given to staging, performances and atmosphere, by underlining the grotesqueness of the
population. e conguration of dialogues is also key here, constantly full of coarse and foul-sounding expressions, with
insults and outbursts that further accentuate the sensation of violence and grotesqueness. Foul language is employed as a
deforming, grotesque, and subversive element. It can be said that Álex de la Iglesia is not interested in journalism in itself, but
rather in its antithetical portrayal, represented by the vices and perversions of journalists. In this sense, De la Iglesia shows a
total subversion of journalistic ethics through sensationalism and constant criticism of trash television.
A clear development of the means used can be perceived, reecting how technology has advanced, not so much because of
any notion of societal change, but rather because of changes to the technological paradigm itself, especially considering the
period analysed (1993-2022).
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 331
Regarding themes, although there have been signicant changes since the early days of his career, it remains apparent that
there is a persistent chronicle of crimes and the sordidness of society, although some constant tropes have been maintained
such as television programmes, live depiction of death, news coverage, Christmas programming (both Christmas Eve and
New Year’s Eve) and the presence of television sets in hospital waiting rooms, packed with images of crime, the epitome of
sensationalism’s absurdity.
Finally, it should be said that, despite the clear deformation his characters are subjected to, the mise-en-scène and the
situations, Álex de la Iglesia’s portrait of the media universe is completely necessary, since it makes the media accountable for
their social function and fosters attractive and undeniably democratic public debate.
7. Acknowledgements
e author is grateful to Brian O’Halloran for having translated the original version of this paper into English.
e author received nancial support for the translation of this paper by the e International University of La Rioja (UNIR)
–Grant for Scientical Papers Translation and Public Access–, 2023/2024.
is research has been carried out into the research group MediaART: Communicational, Audiovisual and Artistical Narratives
in the digital society.
8. Conict of interest
e author declares that there is no conict of interest contained in this article.
9. Bibliographic references
Angulo, J. y Santamarina, A. (2012).
Álex de la Iglesia. La pasión de rodar
. San Sebastián: Filmoteca Vasca.
Barroso, Porrio (2011). Códigos de deontología periodística: análisis comparativo.
UPS-Ecuador
, 15, julio-diciembre, pp.
141-176.
Borio, Álex (2022). Efectos transculturales de las estrategias de doblaje y subtitulación para las películas de terror y de humor.
Artifara
22.2, pp. 129-138.
http://dx.doi.org/10.13135/1594-378X/7096
Bracco, Diane (2014). Las entrañas de Madrid: la radiografía de Álex de la Iglesia.
Pandora
, 12, pp. 399-417.
Brajnovic, Luka (1979).
El ámbito cientíco de la Información
. Pamplona: Eunsa
Buse, P., Triana, N. y Willys, A. (2007).
e cinema of Álex de la Iglesia.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Campos. C. (2012). Álex de la Iglesia: «No creo en el estilo, creo en la enfermedad».
Jotdown
, 26 de junio.
https://bitly.ws/39pzZ
De la Iglesia, Álex (2016). Álex de la Iglesia: Pertinencia de la comedia excéntrica. Festival de cine de San Sebastián.
Academia.
Revista de la Academia de Cine
, 215, septiembre.
Desantes, J.M. (2004):
Derecho a la información. Materiales para un sistema de la comunicación.
Madrid: Fundación COSO.
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
332 |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
|
July-December of 2024
Subversion of media & journalistic ethics in Spanish cinema: sensationalism and trash TV in the lmography of Álex...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Díaz-Campo, Jesús y Chaparro-Domínguez, Marian (2020). Periodismo computacional y ética: Análisis de los códigos
deontológicos de América Latina,
Icono 14,
18 (1), 10-32. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v18i1.1488
Díaz-Campo, Jesús (2016). Consideraciones éticas sobre el contenido generado por el usuario en el periodismo digital. Suárez
Villegas, J.C.; Cruz Álvarez, j. (eds.).
Desafíos éticos en el periodismo digital
. Madrid: Dykinson.
Fabbrocino, Michela (2020). El arte visual como herramienta de investigación para analizar la imaginación de los niños. Tercio
Creciente (Monográco extraordinario II) octubre 2020 pp. 155-174,
https://dx.doi.org/10.17561/rtc.extra2.5790
Fraile, Teresa (2014). Nostalgia, revival y músicas populares en el último cine español.
Quaderns de cine
, 9, pp. 107-114.
Galeano, María Adelaida (2017). Estudios de derecho y cine: entramados de una historia que ya se está rodando.
Revista CES
Derecho
, (8), 2, 298-321.
Gámez-Ceruelo, V., Sáez, I. (2017). La imagen como documento gráco visual en la enseñanza de la historia en educación primaria
en perspectiva comparada. Análisis y propuesta didáctica. Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado,
20(2), 127–142.
https://doi.org/10.6018/reifop/20.2.284781
García Ureña, P. (2017). ¿Me da una Mirinda? Constantes en el cine de Álex de la Iglesia.
Área Abierta,
17 (2), 199-212.
https://doi.org/10.5209/ARAB.52042
García Sánchez, Enrique (2021). Revista de Medicina y Cine: origen y evolución. Revista De Medicina y Cine, 17(3).
https://doi.org/10.14201/rmc2021173175177
Guereña, J. L. (ed.) (2007).
Image et transmission des Savoirs dans les Mondes Hispaniques et Hispano‐Américains
. Tours: CIREMIA.
Heredero, C. (1999).
Veinte nuevos directores del cine español.
Madrid: Alianza.
Jiménez Marín, Gloria; Elías, Rodrigo (2012). El cine como instrumento para la formación en la universidad.
Aularia: revista
digital de comunicación
, 1(2), 163-169.
Jiménez González, Marcos (2022).
Acción mutante
(1993), de Álex de la Iglesia, en el marco del género distópico: análisis contextual
y estético de una rareza en la industria cinematográca española.
Distopía y Sociedad:
Revista de Estudios Culturales
, 2, pp. 62-77.
Jiménez González, Marcos (2023). Álex de la Iglesia y las escenas de alturas. Simbología del espacio desde la narrativa. Volumen
13 (1), pp. 53-60.
Madriz-Sojo, Gabriel; Sáenz, Ronald (2018). Ciencia política y cine: un enfoque para el análisis político desde la Teoría del Discurso.
Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales,
63 (233), 141-167. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.2448492xe.2018.233.59076
Mancebo, Juan Agustín; Sánchez, Mónica (2022). La adaptación de
Perdita Durango
: de Barry Giord a Álex de la Iglesia
. Trasvases
entre la literatura y el cine,
4, pp. 137-161. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Trasvasestlc.vi4.13669
Martínez Luna, Sergio (2015). Cultura Visual y Educación de la Mirada: Imágenes y Alfabetización.
Revista Digital do LAV
- Santa
Maria
, 7 (3): 003, pp. 3-18.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/1983734816201
Mayoral, Javier; Parratt, Sonia; Morata, Monserrat (2019). Desinformación, manipulación y credibilidad periodísticas: una
perspectiva histórica.
Historia de la comunicación social
. 24 (2), pp. 395-409.
https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/hics.66267
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 311-333
July-December of 2024
Lucía Tello Díaz
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 333
Ortí, Roberto; García, María Ángeles (2012). La mezcla de géneros en el cine actual. Una propuesta didáctica:
La comunidad
de
Álex de la Iglesia (2000).
Las lenguas en la educación: cine, literatura, redes sociales y nuevas tecnologías
. Madrid: Ministerio de
Educación, pp. 71-80.
Pastor, María Ángeles (2020). Quiero ser periodista: tras las motivaciones de la profesión periodística.
Comunicar
.
Revista
cientíca de educomunicación
, 34, XVII, pp. 191-200. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3916/C34-2010-03-19
Pérez Franco, Neftalí (2010). La intertextualidad en el cine de Álex de la Iglesia: el caso del cómic.
FOTOCINEMA. Revista
Cientíca de Cine y Fotografía
1 (2010), pp. 39-73.
Ramonet, Ignacio (2002).
La tiranía de la comunicación
. Madrid: Debate.
Rivero, Marta (2015). El esperpento en el cine de Álex de la Iglesia.
Fonseca, Journal of Communication
, 10, enero- junio, pp. 360-
392.
https://bitly.ws/39pxy
Rodríguez Mateos, Araceli; Montero Díaz, Julio (2005)
El cine cambia la historia
. Madrid: Rialp.
Tello Díaz, Lucía (2016-A).
Diccionario del periodista en el cine español (1896-2010).
Madrid: Notorious.
Tello Díaz, Lucía (2016-B).
Hablemos de cine. 20 cineastas españoles conversan sobre el cuarto poder
. Zaragoza: PUZ.
Tello Díaz, Lucía (2013). Periodismo y cine: la práctica y la ética mediática según los cineastas vascos (1910-2010).
Ikusgaiak
. 8,
pp. 5-34.
Tello Díaz, Lucía (2010). Cuarto poder vs. séptimo arte: el periodista en el cine español.
Academia. Revista de cine español
, nº 169
julio/agosto; pp. 12-13.
Tello Díaz, Lucía (2007).
La enseñanza de la ética periodística a través del cine
. Madrid: EAE.
Trenzado, M. (2000). El cine desde la perspectiva de la Ciencia Política.
Reis. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas
, 92,
45-70.
Van Dijk, Teun (2006). Discurso y manipulación: Discusión teórica y algunas aplicaciones.
Revista Signos,
39 (60), pp. 49-74.
Vásconez, G., Carpio A y Carpio N. (2023). Categorías representacionales de la comedia negra en tres películas de Álex de la
Iglesia.
Comunicación. Revista Internacional de Comunicación Audiovisual, Publicidad y Estudios Culturales,
21 (1), pp. 115-134.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/Comunicacion.2023.v21.i01.07115
Suárez Villegas, JC (2013). La actitud ética de los periodistas andaluces ante cuestiones de especial sensibilidad social.
Revista
Latina de Comunicación Social
, 68 pp. 309-328. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2013-979
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>