Barcelona–the city with (as scholar Joan Ramon Resina titles his 2008 book) the “vocation of modernity”–has been the star of a number of films. Perhaps none are as visually stunning and recent as Biutiful (2010, starring Javier Bardem but featuring an incredible, numerous cast, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu).
Substantially changed by planner Ildefons Cerdà’s nineteenth-century geometrical vision for the city (above, the plan dates from 1859), Barcelona experienced subsequent changes in 1888, in 1929, and in preparation for the Olympic Games in 1992.
The more recent changes are also analyzed in depth as part of Donald McNeill’s 1999 book Urban Change and the European Left, and the areas at the center of these new late XXth-century changes have a predominant role (even if they appear only infrequently) in the film Biutiful–where the triumphant, international vision of Barcelona as a model for contemporary urban planning is splendidly juxtaposed to the underworld of sweatshop labor and exploitation upon which many of Barcelona’s successes rely.
Definitely a must-see film for students of urban cultural studies.
urbanculturalstudies 