Men Playing with Dolls: Cinematic Pleasure between Eros and Thanatos in Spanish-Speaking Movies

Abstract

This article addresses the fascination of real dolls on the screen that represent the male imaginary between lust and anxiety. The Spanish filmmaker Luis Berlanga illustrates this dilemma quite explicitly in “Grandeur Nature / Tamaño natural / Life Size” (1974): the protagonist fails with his relation to a life size sex toy, for he is not able to maintain his social life. The fatale logic of this love affair becomes obvious when compared with two less radical versions of doll relationships: In “No es bueno que le hombre esté solo” (1973) a man replaces his dead wife by a doll, but reality forces him to give up his melancholy. Luis Buñuel’s “Ensayo de un crimen” (1955) shows us a man who kills a doll replication of the woman he is in love with. All three films the agency of the doll exemplifies the effects of cinematographic desire between Eros and Thanatos.