Il cinema arma di propaganda nel primo franchismo (1936-1945). Un confronto con il "modello" italiano

Abstract

With reference to the studies concerning the relationship between Cinema and History, the research focuses on the development of Spanish Cinematography during the first Francoism, in the period from the beginning of the Civil War to the end of the Second World War. The main purpose is to evaluate if the regime generated by the military coup of 1936 exploited the cinema as a propagandistic instrument to influence public opinion, legitimate its authority, re-define national identity and reclaim an important international rule, as the other authoritarian states of the time. The different forms of the State intervention are analyzed moving from bureaucracy built by the new government through a legal system based on protectionist rules, financial incentives and repressive procedures. Their characteristics and implications are related to the ideology and national/international political context. More specifically, film policy was articulated in an autarchic economic structure, a widespread censure, the violent persecution of dissidents and the diffusion of an idealized representation of Francoism and its origin. The eighteen numbers of the Noticiario español, a newsreel produced between the 1938 and 1941 with foreign support, is the first attempt to justify the Alzamiento and promote nationalist ideas through the cinema abroad. We can see the State intervention also in the cinematographic industry, in the narrative films and in the most popular genres. After the end of Civil War the production is generally heterogeneous, distant from the official rhetoric and realized to entertain, but in the historical films and in the “cine de cruzada” there are all main topoi of nationalist propaganda, at the first influenced above all by Falange Española. The most significant movie of this kind of cinema is Raza, made with an important economic state effort in the 1941 and based on the homonymous literary text written by Francisco Franco. The comparison between the two works shows how they are similar and how strong the mark of the dictator is. Its distribution in the countries of Rome-Berlin Axis and in Latin America, the presentation to Venice Film Festival and the existence of a second version prove the connection between Cinema and diplomatic relationships. Indeed in 1950 the film was modified, the title was changed in Espíritu de una raza, the copies of first movie were destroyed: only after the fall of the Berlin Wall it has been possible to understand the differences between the two works thanks to the discovery of the previous film strip. It is evident that Francoist regime gave a special attention to its international image. The foundation of NO-DO, an official and exclusive newsreel necessarily shown on the Spanish screens from January 1943 to 1975, and voluntarily till 1981, completes a complex and articulated framework. So the Spanish regime can be considered one of the political subject that used cinema as a propagandistic weapon in the twentieth century, in spite of difficulties, delay and failings. In this transnational perspective, the last chapter of this thesis compare the Francoist cinematographic system to the Italian organization. Even if there were different contexts and results, the similar strategies and tools pointed out confirm that the fascist film policy represented a “model” that inspired Spanish government. [edited by Author]