Review
Turning their faces away from Hollywood, except to exploit it as the purveyor of old and recyclable cliches, and towards the ruthless exposure of hypocrisy and repression, the four Spanish filmmakers Bunuel, Saura, Erice, and Almodovar have created a unique and distinctive body of work, making the most vibrant and iconoclastic contribution to twentieth-century film. Gwynne Edwards' Indecent Exposures depicts a world where middle class values collapse, and the facade of good manners, social propriety and the edicts of political expediency and established religion have all been thrown aside. Such cinema classics as Bunuel's Viridiana, Saura's Raise Ravens, Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive, and Almodovar's High Heels (as well as six more contemporary films by the same directors) are analyzed in great depth, their major and minor themes discussed and set against both their social and political context and the concerns reflected in the directors' own lives. -- Midwest Book Review
