The thesis aims to uncover some of the many ways in which contemporary Argentine and Brazilian cinema have registered and helped to construct national identity since the mid 1990s, when, after almost collapsing at the height of the debt crisis of the previous two decades of military dictatorship, film production experienced a boom as a result of new film legislation. The transition from dictatorship to democracy and the adoption of the neoliberal economic model were accompanied by the erosion of the nation-state, an increase in international agreements and the formation of regional blocs such as Mercosur. The thesis draws primarily on postcolonial and film theories to show how the socio-political aspects of the transition engendered changes in the ways in which the nation is constructed. The thesis does this through engaging with discourses pertaining to the formation of supra-national communities via case studies of selected films. Among the questions addressed are the following: How have Argentine and Brazilian films negotiated the impact of globalisation on identities? How have cinematic practices and filmic representations in contemporary Argentine and Brazilian cinemas encouraged critical reflection on the countries‟ position in a global system? I construct an argument in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 for the continued relevance of a critical focus on the nation in a globalised era in which trends in criticism are set toward a transnational approach. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 explore how films have re-constructed the national in the face of the growing impact of globalised identities, by engaging with supra-national entities such as diasporic, Lusophone, Ibero-American, and regional communities. Contemporary Argentine and Brazilian films are shown to display complex identity-negotiations in a globalised context and, in turn, pose meta-critical questions for filmic (and more general cultural) analysis in a transnational context.

The thesis examines the effects of the cross-fertilisation between cinematic, musical and televisual texts on depictions of two emblematic Brazilian social space - the favela (shantytown) and the sertão (arid backlands) - in recently released independent and mainstream domestic productions. I argue that through processes of intertextuality recent Brazilian films have gradually transformed the favela into a widely exposed, lucrative but also productively challenging spectacle. Similarly, the iconicity of the sertão has been resignified allowing a new understanding of the region to emerge. My analysis of recent films set in either the favela or the sertão also proposes that different elements, such as traditional and modern, local and non-local cultural forms, are not simply blended into a single hybrid filmic text. As these elements coexist and traverse the cinematic landscape in the contemporary moment, I insist on the fact that the idea of national culture, in Brazil as well as elsewhere, must be considered in relation to ever-changing contexts rather than in relation to prescriptive ideologies. My research contributes to reassessing Brazilian cinema history by exploring key examples of the aesthetic, constitutional and cultural interaction between popular media in the country. The reassessment allows me to challenge established distinctions between art and popular cinema, to propose more productive ways of understanding how different media can support their mutual development, and to highlight the implications of intertextuality for new expressions of brazilidade (Brazilianness). The discussion is based on an intertextual analysis of four recent domestic films: Cidade de Deus (City of God, 2002), Lisbela e o prisioneiro (Lisbela and the Prisoner, 2003), O invasor (The Trespasser, 2001) and Baile perfumado (Perfumed Ball, 1997). I examine elements of the mise-en-scène (mainly set design and performance), editing and soundtrack to identify cross-media references.

This thesis examines the portrayal of the femme fatale in Brazilian cinema. It shows that although such a character is well known in cinema, her presence in Brazilian cinema has so far been neither acknowledged nor theorised. The thesis argues that this is a result of the ways the femme fatale has been constructed and understood in popular culture and cinema: as a beautiful heterosexual Caucasian woman. Therefore, the main objective herein is not only to identify the femme fatale in Brazilian film production but also to show the different guises in which she appears in order to decolonise the ideal type of her that has been propagated in film history: the blonde bombshell. To do so, it proposes that this figure be understood as a 'performance' that threatens and challenges hegemonic roles rather than in terms of its biologically born body. Consequently, 'femme fatale ' denotes, in this thesis, a female as well as a male body that challenges pre-established social boundaries through its performativity. The thesis focuses on a sample of six films to illustrate the di verse ways the femme fatale has been configured in Brazilian cinema. It concentrates on three main topics in these films: race, gender (and sexuality) and social class. These are discussed through a qualitative analysis of each film that mainly explores three features besides their narrative: the iconography of image, the visual style and the language the characters use. Moreover, the analysis is supported by a theoretical framework that is essentially interdisciplinary because such an approach opens up more possibilities to understand the various themes associated with the portrayal of the femme fatale in Brazilian cinema. The results show that reading the femme fatale as a performance instead of focusing mainly on her look is a productive way to uncover various guises in which this complex figure has appeared in Brazilian cinema. Furthermore, they show that this can help to identify and theorise other femmes fatales in contexts beyond Brazil as the analysis indicates that she is a potential transnational figure. The thesis also identifies areas of Brazilian cinema that need to be addressed in future research (particularly gender and sexuality and their different facets). Key Words: Brazilian Cinema, Femme Fatale, Race, Gender, Sexuality, Social Class

Since the inception of film production in Brazil, women have been involved in all capacities including directing, acting and a variety of other roles behind the camera. During the 1990s and into the new millennium (a period sometimes termed the Retomada or re-birth of Brazilian cinema), there has been a large increase in films which feature notable female characters in prominent narrative positions and in the number of women directors successfully making their feature-length debut. Despite this, critical attention to such characters and directors, beyond a merely descriptive or numerical focus, is lacking and the established class-oriented social tradition remains the dominant language in criticism. With a view to addressing this relative critical neglect, as well as inadequacies in still embryonic studies, this study suggests new critical approaches relevant to the specificity of women’s experience in Brazil and analyses the representation of female characters in five representative films of the Retomada period. The study further aligns its predominant focus on female characters with the socio-political critical orientation that has established certain films as important cultural markers in Brazil, for example Deus e o Diabo na terra do sol /Black God, White Devil and Cidade de Deus/City of God. For this purpose, it again departs from the traditional emphasis on class and brings, rather, the specificity of the women’s movement in Brazil to bear. In order to critically assess how these specific contextual developments are reflected in the films analysed, it further distances itself from mainstream gender criticism in film and advances the use of the construct of agency, bridging Paul Smith’s notion of subject dis-cerning and Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration. It also opens perspectives for future work by briefly engaging with the subject of female directors.