Complaint and the Bourbon Monarchy in (Post-)Recessionary Cinema from Spain

Abstract

This essay traces the expression of censorious affects toward Spain’s emeritus King Juan Carlos I in two films produced in the aftermath of the Great Recession (2007–2009). Centring on Santiago Sierra and Jorge Galindo’s Los encargados (2012) and El Rey (Alberto San Juan & Valentín Álvarez, 2018), I argue that cinematic forms of complaint provide an ideal vehicle for contesting the future of the Bourbon monarchy. In the context of the (post-)crisis, both take aim at the Crown, using complaint as a genre to debate social attachments and interrogate narratives linked to the history of democracy in contemporary Spain.

Key Words:

• Juan Carlos I
• Great Recession
• Santiago Sierra
• Jorge Galindo
• Los encargados
• Alberto San Juan
• Valentín Álvarez
• El Rey
• Affect
• Spanish Cinema

Notes

1 María Sierra, ‘The Time of Liberalism: 1833–1864’, in The History of Modern Spain: Chronologies, Themes, Individuals, ed. Adrian Shubert & José Álvarez Junco (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), 31–45 (p. 42).

2 Arnaldo F. Santos Sanz, Monarquía o república: consideraciones acerca del significado político de la actual democracia española (Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 2005), 62.

3 Juan Carlos I, quoted in Javier Casquero, ‘La primera vez que Juan Carlos I dijo “democracia” ’, El País, 4 February 2018, n.p.; available at <https://elpais.com/politica/2018/02/03/actualidad/1517672425_098661.html> (accessed 15 December 2023). See also Charles Powell, El piloto del cambio: el rey, la monarquía y la transición a la democracia (Barcelona: Planeta, 1991).

4 Sebastian Balfour, ‘Introduction: Spain since the Transition to Democracy: An Overview’, in The Politics of Contemporary Spain, ed. Sebastian Balfour (London/New York: Routledge, 2004), 1–5 (p. 2).

5 Rafael Chirbes quoted in María Costa, ‘Rafael Chirbes: “La gente está indignada, pero si el César dejara caer unos euros se acabaría el problema” ’, Culturplaza.com, 15 April 2013, n.p.; available at <http://epoca1.valenciaplaza.com/ver/82687/-rafael-chirbes---la-gente-esta-indignada--pero-si-el-cesar-dejara-caer-unos-euros-se-acabaria-el-problema.html> (accessed 15 December 2023). See also Izquierda Unida, quoted in ‘IU dice que la monarquía está salpicada por la “corrupción” ’, Diario de León, 15 April 2013, n.p.; available at <https://www.diariodeleon.es/articulo/espana/iu-dice-monarquia-salpicada-corrupcion/201304140600011340132.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

6 ‘La Constitución española de 1978, Título II: de la Corona’, artículo 56; available at <https://app.congreso.es/consti/constitucion/indice/titulos/articulos.jsp?ini=56&fin=65&tipo=2> (accessed 15 December 2023).

7 Cayo Lara, quopted in, ‘La izquierda ve “una falta de respeto” en el viaje del rey a Botsuana’, Público, 14 April 2012, n.p.; available at <https://www.publico.es/actualidad/izquierda-ve-falta-respeto-viaje.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

8 @IzquierdaUnida, ‘Nuestros recortes serán con #Guillotina Campaña por la #IIIRepública del Área de Juventud de IU’, Tweet, 13 April 2012, 10:03, <https://twitter.com/izquierdaunida/status/190726770708848640> (accessed 15 December 2023).

9 Germán Labrador Méndez, ‘The Cannibal Wave: The Cultural Logic of Spain’s Temporality of Crisis (Revolution, Biopolitics, Hunger and Memory)’, in Spain in Crisis: 15-M and the Culture of Indignation, ed. Bryan Cameron, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 15:1–2 (2014), 241–71 (p. 242).

10 Labrador Méndez, ‘The Cannibal Wave’, 242.

11 In September–October 2021, Instituto 40dB conducted a survey to gauge the monarchy’s popularity via a crowdfunded initiative launched by the Plataforma de Medios Independientes. According to the poll, 39.4% of the Spanish public called for an end to monarchic rule, whereas 31% supported the constitutional monarchy in its current form (see Alexis Romero, ‘Encuesta Monarquía’, Público, 12 October 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.publico.es/politica/encuesta-monarquia-39-4-espanoles-apoyaria-republica-referendum-frente-31-apoyaria-monarquia.html> [accessed 15 December 2023]).

12 Guillem Martínez argues that ‘El Régimen nace como superación pactada del franquismo’, in his ‘El Régimen, la cosa’, ctxt, 15 January 2015, n.p.; available at <https://ctxt.es/es/20150115/politica/85/Régimen-78.htm> (accessed 15 December 2023).

13 Íñigo Errejón, ‘Régimen’, in Lugares comunes: trece voces sobre la crisis, coord. & prólogo por Pablo Bustinduy & Jorge Lago (Madrid: Ediciones Lengua de Trapo, 2013), 175–96 (p. 185).

14 Guillem Martínez, ‘Presentación’, in CT o la Cultura de la Transición: crítica a 35 años de cultura española, ed. Guillem Martínez (Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2012), 11–12 (p. 11).

15 Santos Juliá, Transición: historia de una política española (1937–2017) (Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2017), 609.

16 Kenneth Maxwell, ‘Spain’s Transition to Democracy: A Model for Eastern Europe?’, in The New Europe: Revolution in East-West Relations, ed. Nils H. Wessell, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, 38:1 (1991), 35–49 (p. 35).

17 At the time of writing, both films are available courtesy of their creators at the following links: ‘LOS ENCARGADOS’, YouTube video, 23 September 2012, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QllF0mwJe_I>; and Teatro del Barrio, ‘EL REY (PELÍCULA)’, YouTube video, 5 January 2022, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5MAMMaS-AY> (both accessed 15 December 2023).

18 Martínez, ‘Presentación’, in CT o la Cultura de la Transición, ed. Martínez, 11.

19 Productions include Isabel (Javier Olivares, 2012–2014), Carlos, Rey Emperador (Oriol Ferrer et al., 2015–2016), El Ministerio del Tiempo (Pablo Olivares & Jaime Olivares, 2015–2020), and La conjura del Escorial (Antonio del Real, 2008), though the focus is on sovereigns such as Isabel I, Carlos V, Felipe II and Felipe III who all preceded Bourbonic rule in Spain. Stella Cadente (Luis Miñarro, 2014) focuses on the short-lived reign of Amadeo de Saboya (1870–1873) who voluntarily abdicated to make way for the installation of the First Republic in February 1873.

20 Recent prestige productions focusing on the Windsor family such as The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006), The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010), The Crown (Peter Morgan, 2016–2023) and Spencer (Pablo Larraín, 2021) have garnered critical praise and a slew of Oscars, Emmys and BAFTA nominations and awards in recent years.

21 Sara Ahmed, Complaint! (Durham, NC: Duke U. P., 2021), 1.

22 Lauren Berlant, The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture (Durham, NC: Duke U. P., 2008), 11; original emphasis.

23 John D. Bergamini, The Spanish Bourbons: The History of a Tenacious Dynasty (New York: Putnam, 1974), 2.

24 Sara Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness (Durham, NC: Duke U. P., 2010), 65.

25 Sara Ahmed, ‘Feminist Killjoys (and Other Willful Subjects)’, The Scholar and Feminist Online, 8:3 (2010), n.p.; available at <http://sfonline.barnard.edu/polyphonic/print_ahmed.htm> (accessed 15 December 2023).

26 Cristina Moreiras-Menor, Cultura herida: literatura y cine en la España democrática (Madrid: Ediciones Libertarias, 2002), 33.

27 Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness, 189.

28 Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness, 189.

29 Ahmed, Complaint!, 271.

30 Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness, 168.

31 Ahmed, The Promise of Happiness, 159.

32 Galindo identifies the former monarch as ‘el primer encargado del trile de la Transición’; quoted in Angeles García, ‘Arte para denunciar “el tocomocho de las élites de la Transición” ’, El País, 15 January 2013, n.p.; available at <https://elpais.com/cultura/2013/01/15/actualidad/1358249536_768482.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

33 Sara Ahmed, Willful Subjects (Durham, NC: Duke U. P., 2014), 1.

34 Guillem Martínez, ‘El concepto CT’, in CT o la Cultura de la Transición, ed. Martínez, 13–23 (p. 17).

35 See ‘Julian Schnable Discusses Jorge Galindo. In Conversation with Phong Bui from the Brooklyn Rail’, Pulpo Gallery, 20 February 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.pulpogallery.com/news/46-julian-schnabel-discusses-jorge-galindo-in-conversation-with-phong-bui-from-the-brooklyn/> (accessed 15 December 2023).

36 Rocío de la Villa, ‘Un alegre juego siniestro. Jorge Galindo’, Rocío de la Villa. Arte, estética y más, 14 September 2005, n.p.; available at <http://rociodelavilla.blogspot.com/2009/04/un-alegre-juego-siniestro-jorge-galindo.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

37 Quoted in Óscar García García, ‘ “Los Encargados”. Gobernantes cabeza abajo’, Plataforma de Arte Contemporáneo, 3 September 2012, n.p.; available at <https://www.plataformadeartecontemporaneo.com/pac/los-encargados-gobernantes-cabeza-abajo/> (accessed 15 December 2023).

38 Stefan Heidenreich, ‘Santiago Sierra Provokes Attention, But Rarely Implements Change’, Frieze, 57 (2001), n.p.; available at <https://www.frieze.com/article/santiago-sierra-2001-review> (accessed 15 December 2023).

39 Antonio Lucas, ‘Sierra rechaza su premio Nacional de 30.000 euros al grito de ¡Salud y Libertad!’, El Mundo, 6 November 2010, n.p.; available at <https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/11/05/cultura/1288967314.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

40 Quoted in García García, ‘ “Los Encargados”. Gobernantes cabeza abajo’, n.p.

41 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 237, note 2.

42 Quoted in Ánxel Grove, ‘Arte explosivo que señala al rey y a todos los presidentes como “encargados” del desastre’, 20 Minutos, 16 January 2013, n.p.; available at <https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1702097/0/exposicion/jorge-galindo-santiago-sierra/los-encargados/> (accessed 15 December 2023).

43 Serenella Iovino & Serpil Oppermann, ‘Theorizing Material Ecocriticism: A Diptych’, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 19:3 (2021), 448–75 (p. 448).

44 Jonathan Snyder develops a Situationist reading of Los encargados, perceptively demonstrating how the performative use of the street as stage ‘interpellate[s] bystanders with a political denouncement’ of Spain’s contemporary political scene. See his Poetics of Opposition in Contemporary Spain: Politics and the Work of Urban Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 119.

45 Designed by Antonio Palacios, the building in which the Círculo de Bellas Artes is currently housed was frequented by Spanish luminaries such as Pablo Picasso and Ramón del Valle-Inclán in its early days. During the Civil War, the site was used by the Frente Popular as a detention centre before being taken over and converted temporarily into the Falange’s headquarters.

46 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 18 & 20.

47 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 21.

48 See untitled page, archieveaction.art, 2013, available online at <http://www.geifco.org/actionart/actionart02/secciones/02-participacion/artistas/ciudadParticipacion/SantiagoSierra/sierra5.htm> (accessed 15 December 2023).

49 Philip G. Dwyer, ‘Napoleon and the Foundation of the Empire’, The Historical Journal, 53:2 (2010), 339–58 (p. 341).

50 Quoted in Fietta Jarque, ‘Santiago Sierra: “Vivimos la apoteosis de los cretinos” ’, El País (Catalunya), 19 de enero de 2013, pp. 10–11; this article is reproduced at Semolinika Tomic Tea-tron blog, n.p., available at <http://www.tea-tron.com/semolinika/blog/2013/01/21/santiago-sierra-vivimos-la-apoteosis-de-los-cretinos-arteentrevista-babelia-el-pais/> (accessed 15 December 2023).

51 José Colmeiro, ‘Canciones con historia: Cultural Identity, Historical Memory, and Popular Songs’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 4:1 (2003), 31–46 (p. 41).

52 Colmeiro, ‘Canciones con historia’, 41.

53 Germán Labrador Méndez, Culpables por la literatura: imaginación política y contracultura en la transición española (1968–1986) (Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2017), 149.

54 Daniel J. Nappo, The Poetry and Music of Joaquín Sabina: An Angel with Black Wings (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), 5.

55 Labrador Méndez, Culpables por la literatura, 144.

56 Esther Pérez-Villalba, How Political Singers Facilitated the Spanish Transition to Democracy, 1960–1982: The Cultural Construction of a New Identity (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2007), 56.

57 Permission has been granted to reproduce these lyrics, which are in the public domain.

58 Alison Ribeiro de Menezes, ‘Memory As Disruption: Entanglements of Memory and Crisis in Contemporary Spain’, in The Future of Memory in Spain, ed. Alison Ribeiro de Menezes & Stewart King, BHS, XCIV:8 (2017), 883–901 (p. 898).

59 Ribeiro de Menezes, ‘Memory As Disruption’, 899.

60 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 170.

61 Amador Fernández Savater, ‘Emborronar la CT (del “No a la Guerra” al 15-M)’, in CT o la Cultura de la Transición, ed. Martínez, 37–51 (p. 37).

62 Galindo, quoted in García, ‘Arte para denunciar’, n.p..

63 As Labrador Méndez contends, ‘la dinámica institucional abierta por los Pactos de la Moncloa, que cristaliza en la Constitución democrática, sirve para establecer un sistema de límites en relación con las reclamaciones ciudadanas, al tiempo que, en lo social, la represión se incrementa, disfrazada de orden público’ (Labrador Méndez, Culpables por la literatura, 539).

64 ‘Queer’, Oxford English Dictionary, n.p.; available at <https://www.oed.com/dictionary/queer_v2#eid> (accessed 15 December 2023).

65 See Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 171; and Sierra quoted in García García, ‘ “Los Encargados”. Gobernantes cabeza abajo’.

66 See the project’s crowdfunding page at ‘El Rey, la peli’, Goteo, 26 March 2018, <https://www.goteo.org/project/el-rey-la-peli/updates/la-peli-el-rey-es-una-realidad-gracias-a-ti> (accessed 15 December 2023).

67 See ‘El Rey, la peli’.

68 Quoted in Rosana Torres, ‘Alberto San Juan: “La lucha política sin alegría es un aburrimiento infernal” ’, El País, 7 October 2015, n.p.; available at <https://elpais.com/ccaa/2015/10/06/catalunya/1444166920_814052.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

69 Annie McClanahan, Dead Pledges: Debt, Crisis, and Twenty-First Century Culture (Stanford: Stanford U. P., 2017), 15.

70 Quoted in Pablo Caruana Húder, ‘Alberto San Juan: “Lorca percibió que el capitalismo es incompatible con la vida” ’, El Diario, 2 October 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.eldiario.es/cultura/teatro/alberto-san-juan-lorca-percibio-capitalismo-incompatible-vida_128_8360737.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

71 In his Prison Notebooks, Gramsci described the appearance of ‘morbid symptoms’ due to the ‘interregnum’ or a period in which ‘the old is dying and the new cannot be born’. See Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. & trans. Quentin Hoare & Geoffrey Nowell Smith (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1971 [1^st Italian ed. 1947]), 556.

72 Hayden White, Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. P., 1978), 82 & 88; original emphasis.

73 See Santiago Alverú, ‘El Rey’, Cinemanía, 4 December 2018, n.p. (available at <https://amp.20minutos.es/cinemania/criticas/el-rey-119187/> [accessed 15 December 2023]); Nando Salvà, ‘Crítica de El rey: el emérito y sus demonios’, El Periódico, 4 December 2018, n.p. (available at <https://www.elperiodico.com/es/ocio-y-cultura/20181204/critica-pelicula-el-rey-alberto-san-juan-valentin-alvarez-7184781> [accessed 15 December 2023]); and Alfonso Rivera, ‘Review: El Rey’, Cineuropa, 13 November 2018, n.p. (available at <https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/363174/> [accessed 15 December 2023]).

74 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 13.

75 See Jacques Derrida, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression, trans. Eric Prenowitz (Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996 [1^st French ed. 1995]), 2; and Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 13.

76 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 12.

77 Ahmed, Willful Subjects, 12.

78 See ‘La no entrevista al rey’, El Diario, 4 January 2013, n.p.; available at <https://www.eldiario.es/politica/entrevista-rey_1_5553164.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

79 See ‘Spain’s Unemployment Rate Reaches Record High’, Al Jazeera, 24 January 2013, n.p.; available at <https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2013/1/24/spains-unemployment-rate-reaches-record-high> (accessed 15 December 2023).

80 William D. Phillips Jr & Carla Rahn Phillips, A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 2016), 302.

81 David Mikics, A New Handbook of Literary Terms (New Haven: Yale U. P., 2010), 67.

82 Berlant, The Female Complaint, 227.

83 Berlant, The Female Complaint, 5.

84 Berlant, The Female Complaint, 5.

85 Luisa Elena Delgado, La nación singular: fantasías de la normalidad democrática española (1996–2011) (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2014), 19.

86 Isa Serra quoted in Luca Piergiovanni, ‘Podemos ve en la monarquía una institución “corrupta, obsoleta y anacrónica” ’, Última Hora, 11 October 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.ultimahora.es/noticias/nacional/2021/10/11/1308563/monarquia-podemos-institucion-corrupta-obsoleta-anacronica.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

87 Instituto 40dB’s 2021 survey reveals that 29.1% of Spaniards polled associated King Felipe VI with the Right and 14.2% identified him as far-Right in his political leanings; 8.6% said he was either Left or extreme Left, 19.1% labelled him as centrist and 10.2% said he had no ideological preference at all. See Romero, ‘Encuesta Monarquía’, n.p..

88 Quoted in Antonio Javier López, ‘Pablo Iglesias quiere acabar con la monarquía en España para crear una nueva república’, Diario Sur, 19 September 2020, n.p.; available at <https://www.diariosur.es/nacional/pablo-iglesias-defiende-20200919171700-nt.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

89 Bayo claims that ‘la autocensura sigue vigente en todos los grandes medios de comunicaciones españoles’ and that the media is attempting to ‘blanquear y tapar una institución que nació corrupta, vivió corrupta y morirá corrupta’ (quoted in Jesús Barcos, ‘Carlos Enrique Bayo’, Noticias de Navarra, 8 August 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.noticiasdenavarra.com/actualidad/politica/2021/08/08/carlos-enrique-bayo-intentando-blanquear/1171461.html> [accessed 15 December 2023]).

90 Matías G. Rebolledo, ‘Almodóvar, Bardem o Serrat salen en defensa del rapero Pablo Hasél’, La Razón, 8 February 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.larazon.es/cultura/20210208/b22yne534rhprjrzzs7ktosibi.html> (accessed 15 December 2023).

91 Cameron, ‘Spain in Crisis: 15-M and the Culture of Indignation’, in Spain in Crisis: ed. Cameron, 1–11 (p. 2).

92 No te metas en política, ‘Alberto San Juan: “El fin de Juan Carlos I lo marcan las plazas del 15-M” #NTMEP’, YouTube video, 1 December 2018, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to44kPwRQWA> (accessed 15 December 2023).

93 Guy Debord, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, trans. Malcom Imrie (London: Verso, 1998 [1^st French ed. 1967]), 34.

94 Labrador Méndez, ‘The Cannibal Wave’, 242.

95 Nacho Gay, ‘Felipe VI mantiene un amplio respaldo pese al deterioro de la monarquía’, El Confidencial, 17 June 2021, n.p.; available at <https://www.vanitatis.elconfidencial.com/casas-reales/2021-06-17/encuesta-monarquia-felipe-gana-monarquia-pierde-brecha_3135016/> (accessed 15 December 2023).

* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.