Performing Gender in Life and Art: Pilar Miró and El pájaro de la felicidad

Pilar Miró’s positions in the public sector and the film industry are an indication of the rapidly evolving roles of women in Spain during the mid-1970s through the 1980s. Most significant, and the focus of this study, is how Miró as director of El pájaro de la felicidad reflects the transformation of gender constructs during that period. Miró’s artistry succeeds in expressing the protagonist’s inner turmoil as she counters normative gender behavior. An intricate design of chiaroscuro, symbolism, the presence of the camera, intertextuality, and the foregrounding of art as process makes palpable the protagonist’s emotional state of disempowerment and her resolve to find an elsewhere where viable positions of subjectivity are possible.