Class 3

Plan of Stabilization (1959) and Economic Expansion (1961-73) -Growth in industrial and service sectors -Unemployment down -Population growth -Spain as a consumerist society -New mentality toward sexuality, particularly among youth -Tourism boom http://www.historiasiglo20.org/HE/15b-2.htm

The director/cowriter Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón on the premise: Me apetecía contar la historia de una mujer del norte que llegaba a Madrid con lo puesto y que, con su propio esfuerzo, conquistaba a toda una ciudad. Ahora ya se puede decir sin problemas que esa historia estaba inspirada por el caso de Mayte, aunque nunca estuvo entre mis propósitos hacer su biografía. Tan sólo quería contar cómo durante los años sesenta una mujer humilde alcanzo el éxito social contra todo pronóstico. (Heredero, 1998: 96)

History of the restaurant Mayte Commodore A Cantabrian like the director, Teresa del Carmen Aguado Castillo began this restaurant in the Plaza de la República Argentina in Madrid. Stars, politicians, business owners gathered here for food and drinks, but due to its association with Franco sympathizers, it lost its popularity after the death of Franco in ’75. http://ligasalsas.blogspot.com/2012/04/mayte-commodore.html

The life of every woman, in spite of however much she might want to pretend-or disguise this-is nothing more than an eternal desire to find someone to submit herself to. The voluntary dependency, the constant offering, of all desires and illusions, is the most beautiful state, because it is the absorption of all the bad germs-vanity, selfishness, frivolities-by love. Exerpt from the magazine of “la Sección Femenina”, August 13, 1944 (my translation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5QYuu3wK_8 (11:40-14:00)

MATCH CUT: a transitional technique, in which there's a cut between two shots (outgoing and incoming) that are joined, matched, or linked by visual, aural, or metaphorical parallelism or similarities http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms13.html Example from 2001 A Space Odyssey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3s5fA7Zhk

VIDEO EXAMPLE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laU2MI6X48I LONG SHOT: a camera view of an object or character from a considerable distance so that it appears relatively small in the frame, e.g., a person standing in a crowd of people or a horse in a vast landscape MEDIUM SHOT: refers to a conventional camera shot filmed from a medium distance; although it is difficult to precisely define, it usually refers to a human figure from the waist (or knees) up CLOSE-UP: a shot taken from a close distance in which the scale of the object is magnified, appears relatively large and fills the entire frame to focus attention and emphasize its importance http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms6.html

GROUP A Find examples of the following shots in Half of Heaven: match shot, insert shot (cut-in), establishing shot. Analyze the alternation between long shots, close-ups, and medium shots GROUP B Analyze the mise en scène by considering how the following elements relate to the themes and overall message of the film: juxtaposition, contrasts in settings, masculine v. feminine worlds, rural v. urban imagery, elements of fantasy, association of the characters (particularly the females) with the natural world

http://www.slideshare.net/laplazainvisible http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/20090328/sociedad/cantabria-mesa/cocina-practica-mayte-20090328.html http://ligasalsas.blogspot.com/2012/04/mayte-commodore.html http://www.historiasiglo20.org/HE/15b-2.htm http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms13.html