D'Lugo, Marvin

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D'Lugo, Marvin

PERSONAL:

Education: Brooklyn College, B.A., 1965; University of Illinois, M.A., 1967, Ph.D., 1969.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Clark University, 950 Main St., Worcester, MA 01610. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Clark University, Worcester, MA, professor of Spanish, 1972—. Latino Film Festival, Worcester, director.

WRITINGS:

The Films of Carlos Saura: The Practice of Seeing, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1991.

Guide to the Cinema of Spain, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1997.

Pedro Almodovar ("Contemporary Film Director" series), University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Film and the Humanities.

SIDELIGHTS:

Marvin D'Lugo is a professor of Spanish at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, who has, for several years, also hosted the city's Latino Film festival. He is the author of several film-related books, including Guide to the Cinema of Spain. It is divided into three sections, with the first being a study of eighty-two films about which D'Lugo comments regarding both artistic and commercial importance. The second section contains biographical materials about ninety directors, producers, cinematographers, and critics, and the third profiles eighty-nine actresses and actors. D'Lugo's introduction includes a history of Spanish film, a list of awards garnered by Spanish films from 1941 to 1994, a bibliography, and an index. A Booklist reviewer wrote: "D'Lugo's work is without question the most complete English-language dictionary of Spanish cinema."

Pedro Almodovar is D'Lugo's biography of the openly gay Spanish director who is noted for his explorations of sex and gender and use of Catholic iconography, which may result from his training for the priesthood. D'Lugo points out that Almodovar, who was born of a farm family, explores the tension between country and city life and draws on his own experiences in migrating from a rural area to Madrid. Almodovar's films provide his viewpoint on Franco and the years following his control of Spain. The transition to modernity can be seen in such films as Law of Desire (1987) and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988).

Reviewing the volume for Gay & Lesbian Review, Jim Nawrocki wrote that Pedro Almodovar is "a valuable introduction to, and summation of, the career of one of the world's most provocative and interesting film directors."