Page - 90 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

90 | Natalie fritz www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 89–94 portant to him, how these transformations affect the concept of the individual and its authenticity. in Todo sobre mi madre, almodóvar literally creates a multi-faceted image of motherhood, on the one hand referring explicitly to an iconographic tradi- tion of Mary, Mother of God, and on the other hand adapting these aesthetic conven- tions to alternative mother figures to intentionally irritate the audience. By doing this, Almodóvar shows that the specific meaning of a popular motif that is – through the process of transmission – bound to specific aesthetic conventions, is also a result of negotiations and has no exclusive character. Thus the meaning of a specific motif can only be interpreted in the wider context of its production, distribution and reception.1 from this perspective, it is intriguing to realise how many similarities can be de- tected between almodóvar’s work and the work of Vera frenkel. like frenkel in her work of art This is Your Messiah speaking (1990/91), almodóvar resituates a religious motif in a contemporary, apparently unusual context. By meshing a dense net of cross-media references on different levels, he clearly marks the interpretative frame and emphasises the dominant reading of the motif in a particular tradition.2 But, by putting into perspective alternative readings that may be subversive, almodóvar (and frenkel) stimulate the audience to rethink meaning-making processes in the wider context of power politics. in this sense, art creates an opportunity to critically analyse how religious and po- litical powers use media to establish their claim to power by allocating specific mean- ing to motifs that are constitutive for a society and the individuals within.3 One could say those who are able to control the production and the distribution of images4 are equally in the position to establish a dominant reading which is intended to legitimise the system as a whole and to maintain its leadership. MULTI-FACETED MOTHERHOOD in Todo sobre mi madre, Almodóvar refines his alternative concept of motherhood that he has already sketched in previous works.5 it is the story of Manuela, (Cecilia 1 Media studies scholars rainer Winter and sebastian Nestler (2010) refer to the importance of “read- ing” a film not as a hermetic product, but as a phenomenon that was created in a specific context with specific intentions for an audience, in short, as a product that interacts with society; within this process its meaning is negotiated. evidently their approach is based on classical cultural studies considerations concerning communication processes as presented in stuart hall’s encoding/Decoding or stuart hall’s and Paul Du Gay’s theoretic model of the Circuit of Culture. This “thick reading” of films is, however, a relative new approach in the broader field of film studies. 2 almodóvar was raised in la Mancha and extremadura, rural areas in central spain, where Catholicism permeated all aspects of life and hence Catholic imagery was omnipresent. see e.g.: Zeul, 2010. Un- der the influence of Franco’s dictatorship, a conservative National Catholicism arose that profoundly shaped spanish society. see: Camino 2010, 627. 3 see e.g. schade/Wenk 2011, 125–132. 4 Here the term “image” is used in a broad sense, as a term for different kinds of visual representations, which include mental, physical (artifacts such paintings, etchings etc.) and virtual images (film). 5 e. g. Tacones lejanos (es 1991), La flor de mi secreto (es 1995).