Предлагаемая вниманию читателей и любителей кино "Режиссерская энциклопедия. Кино Европы" является продолжением работы по исследованию истории европейского кино сотрудниками Зарубежного отдела НИИ киноискусства, несколько лет назад выпустившего "Актерскую энциклопедию Европы" и в настоящее время приступившего к осуществлению проекта "Шедевры европейского кино".

All of a sudden, or so it seems, Spanish cinema is emerging as one of the most exciting, fascinating, and special cinemas in the world—not only are others viewing Spanish films, they are adopting Spanish producers and Spanish actors as their own. Obviously, part of this trend can be traced to Pedro Almodovar or Penelope Cruz, but that would be a vast oversimplification. Spanish cinema is not new: it has been maturing for a long time, having been one of the first to arise in the early days of silent film, and having produced excellent producers, actors, and films for decades—even during the dark times of the Franco regime. But now it is winning numerous fans not only at home but also abroad. So, this is a particularly good time to take a close look at its past and present and see just what it has achieved to date. More particularly, it is essential to discover that in today’s cinema Almodovar and Cruz are simply part of a cinematic tradition that is impressively long and broad, in some ways specific to Spain, in others truly universal. Moreover, there is not just Spanish cinema, but a circle of regional cinemas that also gain from being known better. A historical dictionary is a good way to explore this tradition, because it starts with a chronology that progresses from the very first, hesitant steps, through various periods of modest success and occasionally dismal failure, to the present, when recognition and awards, as well as reasonable box-office receipts, are rewarding Spain’s cinema and auteurs. The introduction takes a much broader view, showing how the industry is organized, who the leading players were and are, and considering the very different eras and sometimes quite different cinemas within the same era. Much of this information has been totally ignored outside of Spain until recently, as Spanish cinema has garnered world attention. The dictionary section is obviously the most informative, with hundreds of solid entries on producers, directors, and film companies, on actors and actresses, and on memorable films. Still, there is a limit to what can be done in one book, and this one pushes those limits rather far, so it ends with a bibliography that allows readers to go even further. This Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema was written by Alberto Mira, who is Spanish, and lives in Catalonia (which is not without its advantages). His earlier studies actually focused on English and American drama, which makes it easier for him to adopt a comparative approach and explain his own national cinema to outsiders. This is what he has been doing for well over a decade now, since he is presently a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University in England while also teaching at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Along with film studies, he lectures on Spanish and Latin American Literature and Culture, as well as on gender studies. Aside from this book, he has written a number of works in Spanish, including translations of plays, and he was the editor of a special issue of a Spanish film journal on homosexuality and film. He is also a member of the editorial board and review editor for New Cinemas and a member of the Pedro Almodovar Research Forum. These various and varied activities have combined very neatly in this particular work, which he engaged in very enthusiastically and conscientiously, and which has turned into one of the more insightful and helpful volumes in this series on cinema.