Modernity and Female Figures in La ciudad no es para mí (Pedro Lazaga, 1966)

Abstract

La ciudad no es para mí (The City Is Not for Me, Pedro Lazaga, 1966) is the most analysed of all of Paco Martínez Soria’s films, as it was his first cinematic success, achieving great popularity and establishing a character type. But while most studies have focused on the country/city dichotomy, this article offers an analysis focusing on the role of female characters in the film’s narrative and discursive structure, positing that these characters fulfil a dual active/passive role that makes them narrative motors and, at the same time, targets of the action of the male protagonist. Moreover, the film presents a threefold discourse in terms of its context, with the acceptance of the economic changes, the partial assimilation of the social changes and an outright rejection of the changes to moral values and family structure.