Contents
Introduction: God and the Spanish Director
One. Luis Buñuel and the Reinvention of Catholicism
Looking Back in Anger: Iconoclastic and Anticlerical Roots
Catholicism Reinvented in Later Films
Two. The Religious Genre Film and Its Discontents in Francoist Spain
History of the Christian Religious Genre Film
Preaching to the Converted: Missionaries and Apparitions of Mary
Lives of the Saints as Measures of Holiness and Citizenship
New Genres and New Wave Directors of the Sixties and Seventies
Three. Breaking Boundaries: Post-Franco and Contemporary Directors
Variations on a Theme of National Identity: Reclaiming St. Teresa
Pedro Almodóvar and the Gathering Storm
Postmodern Skepticism versus the Need to Believe
Conclusion: Religion and the Spanish Habitus
Notes
Filmography of Films Discussed in Detail
Works Cited
Index of Film Titles, Theorists, and Directors