Raw Meat: Masculinity and National Identity in the Films of Amat Escalante / Raw Meat: Mascolinità  e identità  nazionale nei film di Amat Escalante

Ádám Szabò

Raw Meat: Masculinity and National Identity in the Films of Amat Escalante / Raw Meat: Mascolinità e identità nazionale nei film di Amat Escalante

Authors

Ádám Szabò University of Debrecen

Abstract

In my paper I wish to analyse how Mexican film director Amat Escalante questions masculinity and how his method is connected to the most important themes of New Mexican Cinema. My study examines his three full-length features, that is, Sangre (2005), Los bastardos (2008) and Heli (2013). I would like to prove that male (or even female) bodies are not spectacles which entertain audiences and offer them some kind of a satisfactory view, but objects that are put into a marginalized position. Moreover, the paper argues Escalante shows the point of view of average citizens, not heroic archetypes which is a common theme in Mexican films made after the Millennium. By showing vulnerable bodies, the director points out how local identity is constructed and how the traditional Mexican identity changed compared to the previous eras.

Author Biography

Ádám Szabò, University of Debrecen

He graduated from University of Debrecen in 2009 with a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts. In 2011, he received my Master's degree in Film Studies from Lorà¡nd Eà¶tvà¶s University in Budapest. He is a PhD student in Philosophy at University of Debrecen, researching the connections between Nietzsche's theories and the American graphic novels. He regularly writes film reviews, essays for various Hungarian papers or Internet journals, including Filmvilà¡g (beginning in December 2010) and Revizor Online (since January 2012). His most important publications are a study, published in the summer of 2011 by Hungarian website Apertàºra on the soundscapes in Nicolas Winding Refn's works, and a February 2014 essay in Filmvilà¡g about the representation of masculinity in contemporary European crime dramas (I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Pusher 2-3, Savage, Bullhead). àdà¡m Szabò attended to Hungarian film conferences like Autumn Wind Conference in March 2014, a conference dedicated to the achievements of Hungarian theorist JenÅ‘ Kirà¡ly in December 2013 and such international film festivals as Titanic (held in every April) in Budapest and Jameson CineFest in Miskolc (held in every September).

References

Cohan, S., Rae Hark, I. (1993). Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema. New York: Routledge.

De la Mora, S. (2006). Cinemachismo: Masculinities and Sexuality in Mexican Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Fouz-Hernández, S. (2009). Mysterious Skin: Male Bodies in Contemporary Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris.

Reis, B., Grossmark, R. (2009). Heterosexual Masculinities: Contemporary Perspectives from Psychoanalytic Gender Theory. New York: Routledge.

Raw Meat: Masculinity and National Identity in the Films of Amat Escalante / Raw Meat: Mascolinità e identità nazionale nei film di Amat Escalante