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The Children of Bunuel: Spanish Cinema Takes Off |
| Section: THE ARTS / FILM |
| Author: Carlos Perellon |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 10/1/1987 |
| Size: 3,454 Words, 20,768 Characters |
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There is a rare quality about the cinema that dictatorships have always particularly feared, namely, the amazing ability of film to show life as it is, using its own blend of images and words. Modern-day dictators have generally taken into account both the potential danger and the great usefulness of the screen. They have attempted to eliminate those films they consider harmful to their interests, while encouraging and endorsing those that support their authority.
For this reason, dissident film directors have often been among the first to flee totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. At the same time, filmmakers willing to collaborate with the propaganda machinery of the totalitarian state have been indulged and flattered by dictators, who have never failed to realize the advantages that films offer them for proclaiming their theories and magnifying their power.
The situation of Spanish filmmaking during the political regime of Francisco Franco, which lasted from the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936) until the Generalissimo's death in 1975, is a clear-cut example of the relationship that exists between power and art. The Franco dictatorship virtually killed any chance for creativity outside the official Spanish filmmaking industry. Producers who wanted to make movies in Spain had to submit to harsh censorship, wielded by the most entrenched elements of Spanish society, who were constantly on guard to eradicate the slightest hint of immorality or criticism of the political system. At times, in their zeal to protect the Spanish public from any perceived obscenity, these censors often stumbled into ridiculous situations. One prize example occurred in the dubbing of a foreign film, when they decided to change married lovers into brother and sister, and, in the effort to conceal their adulterous relationship, made them incestuous lovers instead.
New Golden Age
Thus, in early 1976, as Spain moved toward democracy, the possibility of creativity unhampered by government interference kindled hopes for...
Read Full Article
...Spain every year. It is a motion picture industry that utilizes the political and social environment of its own country, for, as the current director of the Institute de Cinematografia, Fernando Mendez Leite says, "the great advantage of the total disappearance of censorship is that, suddenly, directors can tell any type of story at all, without anyone putting the brakes on their imagination."
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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