¿De quin (neo)realisme (neo)rural parlem quan analitzem Alcarràs?

Abstract

The critical reception of Carla Simón’s Alcarràs has served to speak of the fashion of neo-rurality and the way in which the filmmaker used methods close to neo-realism. The common places detract from the stylistic work of the film and you have to ask yourself what we are talking about when we talk about both neo-rurality and neo-realism. To answer these questions, the article goes on a historical journey through certain forms of realism in cinema and its projection in the vision of the field in order to discover the latent heritage that these theories have left in Alcarràs. The tour starts from André Antoine's adaptation of Émile Zola's La terre (1921). It continues with the work that Georges Rouquier does between fiction and reality in Farrebique (1946), the portrait of family life on a farm in Aveyron. Finally, we analyze the debate about what it means to film the reality that arose at the beginning of Italian neorealism. The historical tour makes it possible to analyze Carla Simón's working methods, to question her style and ultimately to reflect on the links between postmodernity and neo-rurality.

Keywords

• new ruralism
• realism
• peasantry
• arthouse cinema
• Simón Carla