Spanish Prisoner

Despite more than a passing nod to such crowdpleasing classics asHitchcock''s North by Northwest, playwright-turned-independentfilmmaker David Mamet''s The Spanish Prisoner is a particularlyidiosyncratic film that betrays its origin outside the Hollywoodmainstream. Featuring a convoluted narrative, an excessive, often anti-classical, visual style, and belonging to the generic category of the''con game film'' which often challenges the spectator''s cognitive skills,The Spanish Prisoner is a film that bridges genre filmmaking withpersonal visual style, independent film production with niche distribution,and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic techniques.This book discusses The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent cinema while also using the film as a vehicle toexplore several key ideas in film studies, especially in terms of aesthetics, narrative, style, spectatorship, genre and industry.

• Distinguishes between independent and ''indie'' cinema through anexamination of the ''classics divisions,'' especially Sony Pictures Classics
• Assesses the position of David Mamet within American cinema
• Introduces the genre categories of the ''con artist'' and the ''con game'' film and discusses The Spanish Prisoner as a key example of the latter
• Examines the ways in which narrative, narration and visual style deviate from the mainstream/classical aesthetic

Yannis Tzioumakis Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at theUniversity of Liverpool.