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- Title
Letters from The City: Writing Boundaries in Nueve cartas a Berta (1965).
- Authors
Keller, Patricia
- Abstract
Spanish director Basilio Martín Patino's 1965 film, Nueve Cartas a Berta, narrates the story of Lorenzo, a young man who, after returning home from England, feels alienated in his native Salamanca. To cope with this estrangement, he writes letters to his exiled girlfriend, Berta. These letters become both an exercise in imagining new places, perspectives, and experiences, and a practice of defining boundaries that transcend yet are paradoxically confined to national borders. Through close literary and cinematographic readings, this article explores the function of writing in creating and delimiting imaginary places, both within Francoist Spain and abroad. First examining the narrative, then specific filmic techniques - freeze frames, voice-overs, slow motion - as a way to capture and emulate visually the act of writing, this article considers not only the crucial role that imaginary places play in Patino's film but also what other possible spaces writing opens up for the spectator.
- Subjects
NUEVE Cartas a Berta (Film); PATINO, Basilio Martin; LETTERS in motion pictures; IMAGINARY places; CINEMATOGRAPHY; AUTHORSHIP &; psychology
- Publication
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (1475-3839), 2013, Vol 90, Issue 8, p945
- ISSN
1475-3839
- Publication type
Film/Television Criticism
- DOI
10.3828/bhs.2013.57