ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the forms of consecration and legitimation employed by the Spanish press, even as those subjective dispositions change over time in step with objective industrial and artistic conditions. It addresses two Spanish films released in 2007 that lay claim to being, in their very different ways, the most representative of their nation and their year. Juan Antonio Bayona's first feature El orfanato, generally taken to be a glossy horror film, was the biggest-grossing feature of the year, with an audience of some four million that eclipsed even Pirates of the Caribbean. Jaime Rosales' second feature La soledad, a rigorous and experimental art movie, was seen on its first release by only 41,000 viewers, but, in the face of strong competition from the favourite El orfanato, it won the main Goyas awarded by the Spanish Film Academy for best feature and best director. Rosales would at first seem to embody the 'anti-economic economy of pure art' with a vengeance.
