Mestre 2008 the Image of Spain as a Tourist Destination Built Through the Fictional Cinema

7/31/2019 Mestre 2008 the Image of Spain as a Tourist Destination Built Through the Fictional Cinema

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THE IMAGE OF SPAIN AS A TOURIST DESTINATION BUILT THROUGH THEFICTIONAL CINEMA

Rosanna MestreDpt. of Theory of Languages and Communication Sciences

University of Valencia

Antonia del ReyDpt. of Theory of Languages and Communication Sciences

University of Valencia

And

Konstantin Stanishevski

Dpt. of Theory of Languages and Communication SciencesUniversity of Valencia

ABSTRACT

Fictional cinema is one of the cultural agents which shapes the international imageof each country. It hits in the spectators, it colonizes their Imaginary and it can induce theirelections of tourist destination. Concerning Spain, the foreign films built its image duringdecades from clichs that reinforced the stereotypes established by nineteen-centuryLiterature. Although, currently the Spanish cinema, having greater international diffusion, ischanging that trend by exhibiting movies that renew the image of Spain and stimulate the

increase of a cultural tourism very different from the traditional one that came to thecountry mainly looking for sunny beaches.

Key words: fictional cinema, country image, Spain, stereotypes, country brand, touristdestination.

INTRODUCTION

The international image of each country, society and culture has been drawnthrough centuries by several cultural agents either they are the oral narrations of past timeor the Fine Arts, Literature, Cinema and current mass media. The production of thesedifferent agents generates a social Imaginary about cultures and countries under the form

of a parallel reality that fits the original one with higher or lower accuracy.Until the 19th century, the most deciding agent in social Imaginary was literature,

but the irruption of moving images, in 1895, transformed cinema into the most powerfulmaker of modern mythologies. Decades later, with the television arrival, the influence ofmoving images on society did not do anything but increase. This is thus until such anextent that images nowadays have become a guarantee for reality itself, given the needwe have as citizens of the 21st century to believe in reality, as anthropologists havebrought up (Aug, 1998).

In this sense, researchers from the scope of communication sciences have insistedrepeatedly on the psychological nature of image and the way movies reflect mans mental


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commerce with the world (Morin, 1956). The special ability of cinema to capture the humansubconscious allows it to colonize the spectators imagination very easily, because itsnarrations are constructed depending on the verisimilitude or the so called reality effect. In

addition, there is an unspoken agreement sustained by movies audiences when watchinga film in order to accept the suspension of their incredulity and to assume that the fictionalstory is a reality (Quintana, 2003).

It must be underlined, though, that images are not reality but its representation. Infact, images have been created according to certain strategic and ideological choices,previously taken by their author depending on the sense he or she wants to suggest toviewers. Consequently, talking about image means that we are referring to representationstrategies which will always appear regardless the nature of that image. Concerningcinema, film makers have used these strategies from the beginning relying on twotendencies: one of them looks for reproducing reality with a documentary approach andthe other one prefers to recreate it from fiction. These two procedures to face reality are

represented historically by Lumires productions against Mlis works in French silentmovies. Both cases from several representational strategies try to obtain different meaningeffects, whereas documentaries seek for transmitting the certainty of reality, fictional filmsonly aim to achieve a verisimilitude effect, even if it means to falsify, alter or reconstructthe reality itself (Talens, 1985).

Hence, fictional films have an impact on audiences and colonize their imaginationin an absolutely effective way.

This is due to cinema peculiarities whose specific reception conditions big screen,darkness, silent room and surrounding music- get relaxed and absent-minded spectatorswho give themselves up to the movie, ready to live characters vicissitudes as their own

ones. In fact, immersion in the story can be so intensive due to the so named transferenceeffectthat, sometimes, spectators get even to experience physical sensations induced bythe screen (Katz, 1991). This means that movies act on the different levels of humanpsychology by virtue of the spectatorial incredulity suspension that gives in to assumenarrations which can develop complex and emotively pregnant stories in long play formatsas truthful. In addition, cinema has long and short term effects on spectators, since moviesawake their imagination and remain in their memory. Movies also fit all audiencess likesand psychologies, by being heterogenous in themes and genres. On the other hand,movie watching can be planned in time and space, without forgetting that they speak lotsof languages. Among media, only cinema is considered an Art and viewers are willing topay for enjoying films, which is a sign of how prestigious they are. Moreover, the exhibitionsystem of cinema allows to have an audience control and to know the number of impacts

got by each movie precisely.Although the effect of film on tourism has been observed since the 1970s and

travel industry experts have long acknowledged the existence of film tourism, there is littledirect measurement of the impact of movies on tourism (MINTeL, 2003). In fact, there arenot enough and reliable means for determining the outcome of the cinematographicimpacts and, as several research works have highlighted, there are yet objectivedifficulties to the measurement of movie-induced tourism (Busby and Klug, 2001).

If we focus on fictional cinema and particularly on the movies related to Spain, wewill see that from their origins films about Spanish subject, produced both inside andoutside our borders, have contributed to reinforce and spread all around the world some


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identity commonplaces coined earlier, mainly in the 19th century literature. In order tostudy these clichs and the image they popularize, our research team has established amovies typology attending its content and the treatment they have been given. As a result

of this there could be three kinds of films: Icon Films, Pastiche Films and Tourist PosterFilms.

FILM TYPOLOGY

We consider Icon Films the ones that develop a global image of a country orregion, either by showing its most representative cultural features or by renewing the pre-existent traditional or topical glance. In the same way, Pastiche Films are those moviesthat use identity cultural rites with negligence or falsely in a way that distorts referentialreality, even thou it reinforces topics. Finally, Tourist Poster Films interlace their plots withthe monumental beauties and landscapes of a certain place combined with theexperiences and situations of daily life that tourists usually meet throughout their trips,

hotels, restaurants, airports, museums, markets, etc.

Although there are pure examples for each category, the features of all three kindsusually appear mixed up and you can find Pastiche characteristics in an Icon Film, orsome Icon components in a Tourist Poster Film. However, all three models are aninstrument to acknowledge the way Spain and its culture have been shown to the worldthrough cinema until shaping an image that more or less fits reality, but attractive andpintoresque enough to become a touristic subject matter and, as a result, a touristdestination that year after year receives million of visitors coming from all the corners inthe world.

Now let us analyze the way cinema has contributed to shape the image of Spain

from this variety of filmic models with practical examples.

Icon Films

From our point of view, Icon Films could be considered as an avant la lettreexample of the brand image of the country to which they make reference. Because theyact as a showcase from which its identity essence is exhibited to the world through themore representative symbols and cultural characteristics. Being either literary characters,rites or peculiar social habits. Naturally, each Icon Film that deals with a same countrygives different perspectives of it and all of them compose a mosaic of data, images andreferences that shows the profiles of that country and goes to thicken the Imaginary one ofthe spectators.

These films arise from the deep knowledge of the country and their people that thefilm maker has and, consequently, independently of its genre, style and subject, they actlike a crucible from which, in great or small doses, the identity essence of each nationalterritory arises. Watching these films, the citizens of the country perceive a reality that isclose to them and in which they can get to recognize themselves. In its activity viewersidentify without difficulty all those signs scattered across the film that they feel like own andintegral of their culture. On the other hand, the foreign spectators have in the Icon Filmsthe most suitable guide to get closer to countries and cultures that they do not know totallyor partly. Through its images, plots and characters spectators accede to a world thatdiscovers itself in front of them in all its exoticism and wealth. In this sense, the Icon Filmsare a weapon to explore, to spread and to maintain the cultural diversity of the planet


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whose wealth they contribute to conserve. Because of that, Icon Films are suitable to thequality tourists, that is to say, those of cultural upper level for whom the trip is anopportunity to learn.

The heap of produced Icon Films in the different countries in the world offersinnumerable examples on the matter. To mention some of them, and without separating usfrom names that are already classic, there is no doubt that, for any western lover of thecinema, the knowledge of the filmography of Yasujiro Ozu, with Tokyo Story (TokyoMonogatari, 1953) as its representative film, supposes an opened door to come near tothe Japanese society and culture in its stage of transformation of the traditional forms oflife that took step to present Japan. In the same way, one of the routes of access to theunderstanding of the cues that prevail the Hindu culture comes caused by the cinema ofSatjayit Ray, with The Apu Trilogy(1958) as its work more well-known. In fact, he showedwith enormous masters the evolution lived by its society. And, of course, it is not possibleto be denied that with respect to China this function is carried out, among others, by two

film directors whose films have had and still have wide dissemination in the West.

We talked about the very well-known Zhang Yimou, whose filmic masters isdemonstrated by different films as Red Sorghum (Hong gao liang, 1987) and The RoadHome (Wo de fu qin mu qin, 1999). On the other hand, the admired and less and lessminority Wong Kar Wai has become a cult f ilm maker in whose lyric modernity the presentman recognizes itself. Both film directors, with so different thematic and styles, have thesame capacity to reflect the identity characteristics that before the eyes of the westernworld discover and make acknowledgeble the unstoppable dynamism of the rural andurban contemporary China.

All the above mentioned film makers, from their particular poetics, have contributed

to draw the image of their own countries with more or less heavy outlines, but alwayssufficiently representative as to provoke the interest and desire in the imagination of theviewers and potential tourists to visit them and to live actually what they imagined anddreamed through those films.

With regards to Spain, during decades its international image has been drawn upby foreign directors whose films, in many cases, have to do more with Pastiche Films thanwith the Icon Film concept itself, such as we have already defined. They have repeatedover and over again the cultural reasons fixed by writings made by the numerousEuropean and American travellers who from the 16th century visited Spain. Essentiallythey were the nineteen-century writers as Washington Irving and Prosper Merime whoformed an idea of it that, without adjusting totally to the reality, became an identity referring

of the Hispanic.Such motifs, transformed from the origins of the cinema into cinematographic

stereotypes about Spain, have lasted in the international productions during decades.Among them it is remarkable the bullfighting subjects; the flamenco songs and dances; thereligious rituals; and the leisure habits, like the popular fairs and celebrations. All havebeen seen with Andalusia used as its reference. Constantly repeated, they formed animage of a country which has nothing to do with real Spain. This one, like most of thecountries, was transforming itself slowly, in the middle of its many contradictions andobstacles imposed by the circumstances of its history.


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The reason why the foreign cinema was the almost exclusive creator of the outerimage of Spain should be looked for in the fact that, until the last decades, the works of theSpanish film directors, with the exception of Luis Buuel, did not have practically

transferred the national borders, because of the international isolation due to the dictatorialregime of general Franco, together with to the censorship imposed by him and the weekSpanish cinematographic industry.

Because of these circumstances, filmmakers as remarkable of the Spanish cinemaas Luis Garca Berlanga, Carlos Saura, or Vctor Erice, among others, are unknown for thegreat international public. In fact, their films as Welcome Mr. Marshall! (Bienvenido, Mr.Marshall!, 1953), The Hunt(La caza, 1965) and The South(El sur, 1983), to mention onlysome examples, are only accessible to the specialists or film fans. Nevertheless, theyrepresent authentic icons of the Spanish culture and identity, reflected by them through thevariety of subjects, genres and aesthetic that they cultivate.

Very different is the case of the Spanish film makers of the last decades whoseproductions spread more and more outside our borders through the exhibition circuits andcinematographic festivals. But if we have to look for the most international Spanish filmdirector, we must speak about Pedro Almodvar, who has become one of the culturalicons of Spanish modernity. With a cinematographic career started in the Eighties, in thecontext of the so called Madrilenian movida, Almodvar changed largely the thematicand ideological principles that governed the Spanish cinema. His initial voluntarily marginalfilmography was rejected at first by the great public, incapable to perceive the creative andinnovating wealthy that sustained it. The passage of time, nevertheless, ended up leadingto the maturity of the film director as well as of his viewers, who have been increasing allthrough the years. Although they were the awards granted by the institutions andEuropean contests the ones that launch his figure and work strongly mainly outside Spain.

This situation culminated with the Oscar to the best granted foreign film to All AboutMy Mother(Todo sobre mi madre) in 2000, that finished sending his films to the worldwideorbit. Later it would come the Oscar to the best script for Talk to her (Hable con ella,2002). And this year the award to the best interpretation to Return (Volver, 2006) in thelast festival of Cannes.

The cues that explain the interest provoked by the work of Almodvar have to dowith the particular approach from which he treats his subjects and the personnel aestheticwith which it shape them. Usually his plots are woven around marginal feminine characterswho coexist with more or less peculiar types whose little conventional behaviours reflectthe lifestyle of the present world in its increasing diversity. When turning the protagonists

of their stories, Almodvar gives them normality, showing them so next and natural ascommon people. And thus, he extends and renews the image of Spain, discovering to theworld a modern, plural and transforming society.

On the other hand, in the Almdovar films the signs of Spanish identity are alwaysmade visible. That is to say, the stereotypes that define what the world understands bygenuine Spanish are omnipresent in his films, although in such an unusual and renewedform that they are surprising. As a matter of fact, the greatest Hispanic stereotype of thetorero bullfighter like symbol of the masculine bravery facing the mortal risk of theencounter with the bull, is subverted by the film director in his movie Talk to Herwhere thatrole corresponds to a bullfighter woman who faces the bull by love.


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More over, Almodvar takes care extraordinarily of the design of production of hisfilms whose chromatic wealth and composition reaches elaboration and originality levelsthat connects the film maker with the rich tradition of the Spanish plastic artists. Also, the

producer chooses the locations carefully, placed frequently in Madrid -Labyrinth ofPassions (Laberinto de pasiones, 1987) and Women on the Verge of a NervousBreakdown(Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, 1988)- and in other cities of Spainlike Valencia -Bad Education (La mala educacin, 2004)-, Cdiz -The Law of Desire (Laley del deseo, 1987)-, etc. Thus, with the impact of his films Almodvar achieves thatmany spectators feel attracted to visit the places in which the movies have been shot. Inthis respect, it has been verified that, after the exhibition all over the world of the Oscarawarded All About My Mother, an important increase of tourists was registered inBarcelona who went to visit the modernist building sceneries, where the film took place.For the same reason, his last film, Return, shot in Ciudad Real, in the region of LaMancha, is waking up the interest of the visitors towards a Spanish landscape that is notindeed one of the popular Spanish tourist destinations.

In order to conclude, let us think that the enumerated characteristics demonstratethat, with regards to Spain, thanks to the greater international spreading of Spanishcinema, the stereotyped image built during decades by the foreign productions is beingreplaced by another one better fitted to the reality of the country.

Pastiche Films

Formally we could postulate that every fictional film is a kind of pastiche in someway, because of common mixing by fictional cinema of very heterogeneous elements suchas locations, decorations, people, music, etc. inside the same movie or even the samescene. Furthermore, it is so because some of these elements are real and others are

artificially built purposely by the film maker. Nevertheless, the fictional film, whose goal isnot necessarily to represent the objective reality, has in more or less grade references tosome objective reality, which is related not only to the film characters, locations and otherrepresented elements, but also to the spectators knowledge and imagination about it.

Thus, the approach to the concept of pastiche is done not from the position ofinaccurate or paradoxical representation of the objective reality by one or another fictionalfilm. As we suggested at the beginning, this is not the goal of the fictional cinema.However, the concept of Pastiche Film could be applied keeping in mind the active role ofthe spectators perception of the cinematographic reality and the projection by spectator ofthis reality to his or her knowledge of the real world, precisely on the level of thisspectators projection. It is important to highlight that the spectators projection works on

the different levels of human psyche and obviously it depends on each individual.The fictional film Mission: Impossible II directed by John Woo and produced by

Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner in 2000 could be taken as a good example of PasticheFilm in our conceptualization. This movie has a sequence, which starts with a typicalestablishing shot titled Seville, Spain. Curiously this shot is computer made by Matte WorldDigital Company, that is to say, it is not real Spanish Seville. Without any doubt it perfectlyestablishes the geographical space of narration, Spain, Seville. The shot is followed by thewell known Spanish clich of flamenco women dancers inside a guessed luxury Spanishmansion. Furthermore, after the scene of the cars persecution we have another scenewhich could be positively classified as pastiche. It has two parts which are situated from2248 to 2328 and from 2904 to 2928. Apparently it is represented the Holy Week


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procession of Seville, the capital of the Adalusian Autonomous Community in the South ofSpain. Nevertheless, the women of the procession wear traditional dresses of two othertypical Spanish festivities. These are the Fallas of Valencia and the Bonfires of San Juan

of Alicante, both cities situated in the east of Spain, in the Valencian AutonomousCommunity. At the same time, some men of the procession wear traditional clothes of theSan Fermn fiestasof Pamplona, the bull races festivity in the Community of Navarra, inthe North of Spain.

In the real Sevilles Holly Week processions the believers carry the holy sculptureson their shoulders across the streets, but these are never burned. In fact, it does happen inthe festivity of Fallas in Valencia or also in the Bonfires of San Juan in Alicante. In anycase, at these both festivities the enormous figures from wood, foam plastic, glass fiberand papier-mach represent politicians, famous people, actors and actresses, commonpeople, animals, etc. with allegoric, ironical and/or critical meaning, but they neverrepresent saints with holy or sacred meaning.

The words pronounced by Anthony Hopkins about the strange festivity shown inthe previously referred scene they burn their saints into the fire could not be appliedobjectively neither to the Fallas nor to the Holly Week processions of Seville. In the sameway, the flag which appears behind the women in the procession does not belong to any ofthe above mentioned Spanish Autonomous Communities, but to Aragon and Catalonia.

So, all the facts showed in the scene are absolutely unlikely not only from thegeographical point of view (four different festivities at four different places of Spainseparated by hundreds of miles) but also from the point of view of the simultaneity in time.The reason is because the Holy Week processions of Seville take place at the end ofMarch or at the beginning of April (depending on the year), the Fallas festivity of Valencia

is celebrated from 16th to 19th of March, the Bonfires of San Juan of Alicante take placefrom 20th to 24th of June and finally San Fermn fiestasof Pamplona are celebrated from6th to 14th of July.

Although this situation represented in the movie Mission Impossible II is unlikely,however, this works in the movie. Actually it operates perfectly inside the plot.Furthermore, the spectator may have not paid any attention to the major inaccuracies ofthe scene. So, the question is: what could be the effect of Pastiche Films or pastichescenes of fictional movies on tourist destination directly or indirectly represented by them?

We think the Fictional Pastiche Films build their particular vision of a country orregion, its culture and its people.

Although, on the one hand pastiche works inside the plot of the film, on the otherhand it connects to the objective reality through the spectators knowledge and imaginationabout the represented tourist destination. That is to say, pastiche enhances the previousstereotyped image of the country, region, culture or people that is in mind of filmspectators, who are at the same time potential tourists.

The problem is increased by the lack of qualitative and even quantitative studiesabout the impacts of the fictional cinema in general on the decisions to travel to therepresented destinations. However some researches indicate that about 80% of decisionsto travel to UK are related to some locations which had been previously seen by touristson movies; for Paris this percentage is about 60% (Tamargo, 2006).


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Although we do not have accurate data about how the analyzed sequence ofMission Impossible IIhad influenced on the decision of the viewers of the movie to travel

to Seville, the personal experience of one member of our research team, who has workedas an official tourist guide in the Valencian Autonomous Community for 10 years could betaken in mind. In this respect, we have evidences that some tourists who came to theFallas Valencian festivity, did not take their decision to travel to Valencia on basis ofMission Impossible II. Although, those who saw the movie (usually people between 20-40years old) remembered the sequence of Spain and were very interested on finding outmore on several Spanish festivities represented in it, expressing an evident desire to visitthem in the future.

Another very clear example in the same sense is related to another movie El Cid,directed by Anthony Mann in 1961, where the Castle of Pescola, a small Valencianvillage on the Mediterranean Sea is presented as if it was the city of Valencia. Pescola is

located about 100 km North of Valencia. In this case, some tourists who came to Valenciaasked the guide about the possibility of visiting the castle which they had seen many yearsago in the movie and were very surprised when they were informed about the reallocalization of the castle, expressing clear desire to visit Penscola sooner or later.

Obviously, these examples should not be taken as an exhaustive research aboutthe effects of Pastiche Films, but they give us some indications in the positive way abouthow only one sequence or one film move people to change their holidays plans visitingplaces that they have previously seen in the fictional movies.

Tourist Poster Films

We name Tourist Poster Films movies pervaded with a certain publicity chargeabout the city, the zone or the country where the plot is located. This publicity component,in the etymological sense of the word -this is, to make public, to present- may be shown inmany ways. It may help to tell a romantic love story in the frame of a tourist destination aspopular as Roma, the so called eternal city, as it happens in Roman Holiday (1953), byWilliam Wyler.

Landscape may be used as a literal and metaphoric space to locate an epicreflection about travelling and soul searching, as shaped by Bernardo Bertolucci in TheSheltering Sky(1990), the movie shot in the North African desert. But Tourist Poster Filmsmay also respond to openly admitted commercial, tourist or corporate communicationinterests as Gisaku(2005), by Baltasar Pedrosa, does. Travelling acts recurrently as the

main argumentative line in all these movies and spectators can find the common elementsof a tourist trip such as accommodations, restaurants, airport facilities, local sight views,local architecture and museums, sport facilities, festivals, cuisine, shopping, and so on. Inmany of those films, you can find a foreign traveller or tourist who discovers a new culture,city or country when he or she arrives at their goal destination, sometimes helped by alocal character who plays the role of a travellers guide. These characters work like a sortof spectators virtual representation, discovering the new geographic and culturalexperience. Gisaku, the movie we are now going to focus on, responds to this narrativeparadigm, too.

Gisakuis a unique production into the Tourist Poster Film category, as much by thecircumstances that promoted its birth as by the discourse peculiarities that are involved. It


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is a cartoon feature Spanish production made expressly to introduce Spain in theJapanese Expo Aichi 2005. The movie won the public competition held by the SpanishSociety for International Exhibitions (SSIE) to produce a film that linked the Japanese and

the Spanish cultures. Gisaku has the privilege and the challenge to be the first filmconceived to promote the image of Spain out of our borders with both public and privatefinancing. Gisakus creative team found in the Japanese popular animegenre a fitting wayto reach the Japanese audience. The movie directed by Pedrosa also has the merit ofbeing the first animeproduction in Spain and Europe. It is not a pure anime, since it mixesJapanese animewith Spanish cartoon style to make a sort of European anime.

It tells the story of a young Samurai, Yohei, who was a member of the Japanesemission sent to the kingdom of Spain by Sendai-han in the 17th century. Falling under amagic spell, he sleeps for centuries and awakes in modern Spain, where his weapons andskills appear to be useless. Having the mission to save the world from Gorkan, a terribledemon who has settled in Spain, the brave samurai shares exciting adventures with two

local characters, Riki and Moira. Riki is an orphan boy and Moira is a young scientist.Linceto, a mutated Iberian lynx, and Gisaku, an old devil turned tender lion puppy, bothjoin the group and help Yohei in the final fight against Gorkan. On his way around theSpanish geography, the Samurai has the opportunity to discover an attractive countrybalanced with historical cities and natural landscapes, ecological high technologies andsustainable cultures, shared common values and rich gastronomical traditions. Everythingis fine in Spain, except for the wicked actions of a gang mobilized by the yuppie proprietorof a top corporation, who turns out to be Gorkan.

When Filmax Productions won the government competition the companycommitted itself to improve the image of Spain in Japan with a modern portrait. Thecreative team of the movie based its work on an opinion study among the Japanese

population made by Elcano Royal Institute (Real Instituto Elcano), Cervantes Institute(Instituto Cervantes) and the above mentioned SSIE. The study (SEEI, 2005) showed thatthe Japanese people did not have a negative image of Spain and Spaniards, but theypictured mainly a very traditional country, with low economic development. Positivefeatures were the confidence Spanish people inspire the prestige and attractivenes ofSpanish culture and language, as well as the major knoweledge of some main brands likeLladr or Loewe, in the economic field. Some items did not fit into the stereotyped imageof Spanish culture, like being able to name football and not only bullfights, and theprevalence of the ability to associate well-known Spanish figures or topics, such as Gaudas an artist, Barcelona as a city and Olympic Games as a historical event. On the negativeside, there was the image of a traditional country with a low scientific and technologicaldevelopment and security problems; in addition, Spaniards were seen as people with a low

educational level. In a few words, Spain was seen more as a Latin country than as aEuropean one.

Given the results derived from the opinion research, the SSIE (SEEI, 2005, p. 29)worked on some priority goals collected in a handbook that Gisakus script should follow.These goals were:

Showing 2005 Spain as one of the leading countries in the European context. Exhibiting Spain as a country supporting science, technology, environment and the useof renewable energies.


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Reinforcing the prestige and image of Spain in Japan by showing it as a country withmodern facilities, great cultural richness, many tourist choices and rich Mediterraneanbased gastronomy.

Developing the mutual knowledge with regard to Japanese and Spanish lifestyles,cultures and traditions. Presenting Spanish language both as a cultural heritage and an economical resource. Portraying a country that is friendly, open to the world and feels a sense of solidarity withthe rest of the world. Showing off the innovation and quality of Spanish architecture and design. Supporting innovation, imagination, surprise, tradition and modernity. Embracing quality and excellence in products and facilities. Transmiting realistic, authentic, nonexaggerated messages.

In our view, the purpose of these goals was not to spread a realistic image ofSpain, with lights and shadows. It was to promote a perfect imaginary of our country, trying

to further the most favourable issues, neutralize the negative perceptions and propagatethe positive but unknown (or less known) aspects of contemporary Spain. As corporatecampains do, the main goal of SSIE handbook was not to broadcast a factual image ofSpain, but a slanted one created just to emphasize the most positive aspects into anactuality which is necessarily complex, polyhedral and often contradictory, as everycountry is. It is, in addition, a laudatory slant reinforced by the final instruction in thehandbook (recommending realistic, authentic and nonexaggerated messages).Promotional content must be present in promotional movies, but it must not been forgottenthat they are first of all fictional movies. The strength of its impact on the audience is justbased on the confidence this both illusory but realistic world projects on the screen. Themore the film evoids an advertising format, the easier it gets a favorable predisposition inits audience, taking profit of the lower commercial aims attributed to fictional discourses.

As a matter of fact, after establishing the promotional items any Tourist Poster Film shouldhave, the eventual negative effects on the audience of too obvious promotional contentsare probably one of the key points that must be taken into account when designing acountry (city or zone) brand campaign with fictional movies.

The movie showed a modern image that ran away from classical stereotypes inorder to sell an updated version of our country where tradition mixes with technology, citiesmix with country, and economic and sustainable development are compatible. It followedthe recommendations proposed by Javier Noya (2003) when describing the general linesthat Spanish goverment and corporations should follow for branding our country, afteranalyzing the spread of labours performed previously. Pedrosas movie took on thismodernizing policy since it embraced more popular (anime animation film) than high

culture, multiculturality (heterogeneous characters) than tradition (absence of Spanishstereotypes), future projection (high technology development) than shining past (absenceof strong historical references).

In this sense, Gisakuwent together with the efforts made in Spain in the last yearsto run a competitive and reputated country brand that has gone beyond what Ch. Brymernamed a passionate and wonderful identity that has become a great piece of repositioningfrom a country on the edge of modern European dynamics to one right at the heart, to theextent of having being considered the most recognized country mark in Europe (Brymer,2003, p. 3).


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Finding a balance between the institutional contents and the entertainment featureswas one of the challenges the creative team of the movie had to face. They were given ageneral guidance in the handbook, a list of cities and country places, as well as some

cultural, economic, scientist and tecnological data that should appear in the movie. Most ofthem are successfully naturalized in Gisaku thanks to the use of several narrativestrategies, like the local characters that explain some general issues or the mostcontemporary devices to a 17th century samurai (like the geographic location of theplaces they visit or the High Speed Train). Another creative solution is the presence of apedantic and locuacious character, Moira, who makes use of any chance she gets todemonstrate how smart she is... and how much information she knows about everything. Athird choice we would like to highlight was the mixture of historical and fiction connectionsbetween the Japanese and the Spanish cultures. Samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga was thefirst Japanese who came to Spain in 1613. He was born in the city of Sendai, as well ashis feudal sir, Date Masamune, lord of Sendai.

Hasekura Tsunenaga, named by Masamune Japanese ambassador for Spanishand Vatican courts, travelled to Spain with more than 180 Japanese people, most of themtraders. As Tsunenaga, the fictional samurai Yohei arrived in Spain in the 17th centurylooking for Gorkan and remained there until the 21st century with an important mission thatonly special heroes can face. Nevertheless, writing the script for a Tourist Poster Film wasnot an easy job. The SSIE representatives and the creators of Gisakuhad cordial but longdiscussions about the institutional contents the movie might assume. Fifteen pages in thescript were excluded in the animation process and there are still eight minutes that thereshould not be, in the directors opinion, (Mestre, 2006b) as for exemple the detailedgastronomic information. The scriptwriter ngel E. Pariente has also an autocritic positionabout this concern. Asked about how he understood his work with prescribed data, hedeclared that he enjoyed the experience, but also his belief that exposing institutional

information in a too obvious way may turn to be a contradiction, because appealing soopenly to cultural values moves away more than it approaches. For him, the best way tosell a country is not by designing productions openly made to foment a betterview of thesite but with daily work, with movies made to show the country with other eyes, to create anew mythical audiovisual territory, as he would say. As a matter of fact, Pariente isconvinced that one of the pending subjects we have in Spain is rethinking the way we lookat our country. And with Gisakus script he just wanted to try another glance. It is a moviewhich, in his opinion, the less it sells Spain, the more it really sells it (Mestre, 2006a, p.2).

If you look for comments on the movie from Spanish adults spectators at theInternet after the movie was released, you would find pretty critical assessments related tothis point. Basically they liked the movie, they appreciated the cartoons design and the

plots creativity, but they were more reluctant to accept what they saw as an impure animeproduction with promotional content too openly shown. Although Spanish people was notthe targeted audience for Gisaku, their opinions should not be disregarded, because themovie was also commercially distributed in our country.

With regard to its reception by the Japanese audience, we must specify that Gisakuhas not (by now) been distributed in the Japanese market because of the difficulties forforeign animation movies to reach this market. The movie was exhibited in the SpanishPavilion of Aichi and in the island of Sendai. In this last city audiences gave a very goodwelcome to Gisaku, according to the focus group asked by the Section of InternationalRelations and Promotion of the City of Sendai (SIRPCS). Both, children and adults foundthe movie interesting, creative, entertaining and/or spectacular, and they were surprised at


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the high quality of Spanish animation movies. One issue highligted by several spectatorsas a successful finding was the mixture of historical and fiction connections between theJapanese and the Spanish culture. It was easy for the Sendai audience to recognize in the

fictional samurai the spirit of the actual samurais, like Hasekura Tsunenaga, a veryrespected personage in Sendai historical legacy. Conforming to the referred public-opinionpoll (SIRPCS, 2005), some people had some difficulties to understand the plot (mainlyspectators under 9 years or over 70), but most of them had a very positive appraisal andwere amazed by the high level of Spanish animation productions. One part of the audiencethanked the opportunity to discover Spanish culture through the movie, another oneappreciated the occasion to revisit an already known country. And some of themexpressed their interest for learning more about Spanish culture and their intention to visit,or visit again, Spain. Certainly, a wider exhibition of Gisakuin Japan would have reach ahigher impact on this country audiences and, as a result, would have given more detailed,and maybe demanding, spectators perceptions. It is too bad that the Japanese market isnot more open to foreign animation productions to allow Gisaku to have a regular

commercial distribution.

CONCLUSION

As we tried to expose in the previous lines, fictional cinema is a great creator ofcultural images that travel all around the world and have a significant impact on audiences.Concerning Spain, our finding suggests that, thanks to the greater international spreadingof Spanish cinema, the stereotyped image built during decades by the foreign productionsis being replaced by another one better fitted to the reality of the country.

In this sense, the three typologies we have established work on the spectatorsimagination in different ways. Icon Films, from its fiction plots, give identity signals that do

not distort nor lie on the reality they try to reflect, but they reach a degree of sufficientlikeliness to become evidences of a society or country. On the other hand, Pastiche Filmsbuild their particular vision of a place or culture throughout a lack of verisimilitude whichenhances the previous clich image of the country, culture and people that existed in themind of viewers. Finally, with regard to Tourist Poster Films, it can be said that the countrybrand experiment tried with Gisakuworked. The desire for travelling to Spain expressed byone part of the focus group who watched the movie confirms this assertion. Institutionalcontents were well enough fused with the dramatic story line to make spectators to feelmotivated to know more about Spain. This strategy is the first step for a country to be seenas a tourist destination by potencial travellers.

In this sense, not only Gisakubut the new Spanish Icon Films could induce the

behaviours of the so called cultural tourism, corresponding to the high level tourists, notonly educational, but also economical. On the other hand, the authors recognize that,concerning Spain, there are not yet enough and reliable means which let us acknowledgethe effects that movies about the national culture and heritage have on viewers in order toexplain the outcome of the cinematographic impacts. On this aim and in spite of thedifficulties to reach the objectives our research team is working.

REFERENCES

Aug, M. (1998). LImpossible Voyage. Le tourisme et ses images. Paris: ditions Payot etRivages.Brymer, Ch. (2003). Branding a Country. Retrieved July 31, 2006, from


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http://www.brandchannel.com/images/papers/Country_Branding.pdfBusby, G. and Klug, J. (2001). Movie-induced tourism: The challenge of measurementand other issues. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 3(4), 316-328.

Katz, S. D. (1991). Film Directing Shot by Shot: visualizing from concept to Screen. StudioCity, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.Mestre, R. (2006a). Entrevista a ngel E. Pariente. Retrieved August 7, 2006, fromUniversity of Valencia, CITUR Research Group Web site:http://www.uv.es/~citur/Entrevistangel Pariente.pdf(2006b). Entrevista a Baltasar Pedrosa. Retrieved August 7, 2006, from University ofValencia, CITUR Research Group Web site: http://www.uv.es/~citur/EntrevistaBaltasarPedrosa.pdfMINTeL (2003). Film Tourism The Global Picture, Travel & Tourism Analyst, 5. London:Mintel International Group Ltd.Morin, E. (1956). Le Cinma ou lHomme imaginaire. Paris: Minuit.Quintana, A. (2003). Fbulas de lo visible. El cine como creador de realidades. Barcelona:

Acantilado.Section of International Relations and Promotion of the City of Sendai-SIRPCS (2005).Resultado de la Encuesta sobre la Pelcula GISAKU. Unpublished document.Sociedad Estatal de Exposiciones Internacionales-SEEI (2005). El Proyecto MarcaEspaa en la Exposicin Universal Aichi 2005. Madrid: Proyecto Marca Espaa, fromhttp://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/publicaciones/libros/marca_espanya_aichi.pdfTalens, J. (1985). Documentalidad vs. Ficcionalidad: el efecto referencial. Revista deOccidente, 45, 7-12.Tamargo, J. A. (2006). Decorados de cine convertidos en mecas del turismointernacional. Hosteltur. Asociacin Espaola de Turismo y Hostelera, 149, 14-15.

Documents

Mestre 2008 the Image of Spain as a Tourist Destination Built Through the Fictional Cinema