Alejandro Amenabar

Since the release of his first feature (Tesis) in 1996, Alejandro Amenabar has become the "golden boy" of Spanish filmmaking, its "King Midas," a bankable star director, whose brand virtually guarantees quality, big audiences, and domestic box office success. He has directed three of the biggest grossing movies in Spanish film history and has enjoyed enormous international and critical acclaim (including an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, for Mar Adentro/The Sea Inside, 2004). With Alejandro Amenabar, Jordan provides the first full-length study in English of Amenabar's shorts and feature films. Known for his spectacular imagery, sophisticated editing, memorable sound tracks, and challenging subject matter, Jordan shows how Amenabar makes a serious and socially-aware, exportable "middlebrow'" cinema, designed for global audiences. There is also a detailed analysis of his engagement with popular film genres as the basis for an auteur cinema, and Jordan incorporates a reappraisal of Amenabar's auteurism as fundamentally de-centered and shared. The book will be an essential resource for teachers, students, scholars, and fans of Amenabar. It will also appeal to a wider readership, such as those who work in the film, media, and culture industries as well as those who have a general interest in the best of Spanish, European, and World cinema.