Page - 89 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Cross-media Transmission Processes | 89www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 89–94 Natalie Fritz Cross-media Transmission Processes Marian Figures in Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodóvar, ES 1999) aBsTraCT This paper builds on aspects of the cultural studies perspective that understands art itself as a method of cultural analysis. This will be exemplified by focusing on how film as a cultural technique for framing and reframing the world, using its different audio- visual devices of representation, is an important contemporary agens in the process of transmitting religious motifs and concepts. The paper highlights how Pedro almo- dóvar skillfully stimulates the audience to reflect on the polysemy and polyvalence of motifs by not only referring explicitly to iconographic traditions, but also playing with aesthetic conventions. KeyWOrDs film as method, cross-media transmission processes, framing/reframing, polysemy/ polyvalence of motives, tradition, innovation BiOGraPhy Natalie fritz has a Master’s Degree in religious studies and is currently writing her doctoral thesis on the motif of the holy family in contemporary arthouse cinema. her principal research interest is currently the field of media (especially film) and religion, involving aspects such as gender and family concepts, cross-media transmission pro- cesses, visual studies and media theory. her latest publications include Images Travel- ling through Time and Media: De-and Reconstruction of the Holy Family in contemporary Independent Cinema, 2015. she has written a number of articles on media and religion and coedited (with C. Martig and F. Perini-Pfister) the volume Nur für reife Erwachsene. Katholische Filmarbeit in der Schweiz, 2011. MEANING-MAKING PROCESSES aND Their relaTiON TO POWer The title Todo sobre mi madre is paradigmatic of Almodóvar’s recurring reflection on social transformations as the result of transmission processes and, even more im-