A Neorealist melodramas problematic contention with Hollywood: Calle Mayor (1956)

Traditionally championed as a Neorealist masterpiece and an auteur art film in the history of the Spanish cinema, Bardem's Calle Mayor (1956) has triumphantly been contrasted with preceding and contemporaneous Spanish movies, especially with melodramas, indicted for their alleged political acquiescence to Francoist cultural policies and commercial bent.]]>

<![CDATA[Attempting to reposition Calle Mayor within the contemporary critical debate on the relationships between melodrama and (Neo)realism, this article uses a historicized film genre analysis to argue that the Neorealist strategies of Bardem's movie are not opposed to, but enabled by, a skilful resignification of the vilified Hollywood classical melodrama. By contextualizing the hybrid discourses of Calle Mayor and their conflicting responses in the reviews of the time, this article discusses the extent to which it was the non-verbal melodramatic register of the film that effectively contributed to a powerful socio-political critique of the Francoist small town and society of the time.