The academic journal Comparative Cinema recently published its latest issue, number 16, dedicated to the biopic and its potential, as a genre, to think about the comparison between different audiovisual works. The dossier includes texts on films about singers Freddie Mercury and Elton John, Mexican politician Luis Donaldo Colosio, Spanish intellectuals Clara Campoamor and Miguel de Unamuno, the foreign writers located in Brazil Stefan Zweig and Elizabeth Bishop, and painter Vincent Van Gogh.

The issue presents a diverse outlook on the contemporary biopic, with both mainstream and independent films, including fictions, animations and documentaries. Throughout the dossier, the articles pose fundamental concerns about the biopic, such as the connection between private life and public persona, the fidelity to real events, and the dynamics between characters, society and creative work. Beyond the dossier, the section Rear Window (miscellaneous) includes an analysis of three experimental films from the perspective of feminine desire (Christmas on Earth, Fuses and Je, tu, il, elle), which connects to topics addressed along the biopic articles. The issue also incorporates three book reviews.

This issue of Comparative Cinema also marks the incorporation of Dr. Stefan Solomon as journal co-editor. Dr. Solomon is Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia), and his main research lines include the cinematic works of William Faulkner and Brazilian cinema. He is the author of William Faulkner in Hollywood: screenwriting for the studios (University of Georgia Press, 2017), editor of Tropicália and beyond: dialogues in Brazilian film history (Archive Book, 2017) and co-editor of William Faulkner in the media ecology (Louisiana State University Press, 2015). He has also collaborated with numerous articles and dossiers on cinema and aesthetics. He is currently working on a co-edited volume on unfinished films.

COMPARATIVE CINEMA 16

DOSSIER BIOPIC VS BIOPIC: COMPARING CINEMATIC LIVES

Reading the Biopic through Persona: A Comparison between Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman - Hannah Andrews

El México que no fue: The Tentative Retelling of Luis Donaldo Colosio’s Assassination - Anna Marta Marini

Towards New Ways of Representing History: Generic Innovations in the Historical Biopic in Spain - Victoria Pastor-González

Tropical Purgatory: Brazil Through the Lenses of Stefan Zweig and Elizabeth Bishop - Fabio Camarneiro

The Van Gogh Enigma: Re-Mythifications of the Artist’s Genius in Loving Vincent and At Eternity’s Gate - Paula Arantzazu Ruiz

REAR WINDOW

Flowing Bodies: Autoethnographies of Desire in Christmas on Earth, Fuses and Je, tu, il, elle - Ariadna Moreno Pellejero

REVIEWS

Depetris Chauvin, Irene. 2019. Geografías afectivas. Desplazamientos, prácticas espaciales y formas de estar juntos en el cine de Argentina, Chile y Brasil (2002–2017) - Paul Merchant

Merck, Mandy. 2020. Cinema’s Melodramatic Celebrity: Film, Fame and Personal Worth - Fang Qi

Ruiz de Samaniego, Alberto, and José Manuel Mouriño. eds. 2011. La voz de Pasolini. Primeros apuntes de un ensayista cinematográfico - Roberta Vannini