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This book constitutes the first in-depth cultural analysis of a period generally held to be the golden age of film production in Spain. Its focus on the work of five directors between 1942 and 1964 seeks to dispel the myth that movie making of early Francoism consisted exclusively of propaganda exercises. Using Gramscian hegemony theory, the volume offers an original perspective on the comic possibilities of subverting State populism and maps a filmmaking tradition that persists, in the figure of Pedro Almodóvar, to the present day.
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Popular Spanish Film under Franco Comedy and the Weakening of the State
Steven Marsh
Popular Spanish Film under Franco
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Popular Spanish Film under Franco Comedy and the Weakening of the State Steven Marsh
© Steven Marsh 2006 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–4117–6 hardback ISBN-10: 1–4039–4117–3 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marsh, Steven, 1963– Popular Spanish film under Franco : comedy and the weakening of the state / Steven Marsh. p. cm. Filmography: p. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–4039–4117–3 (cloth) 1. Motion pictures—Spain—History. 2. Fascism and motion pictures—Spain. 3. Comedy films—Spain—History and criticism. I. Title. PN1993.5.S7M2939 2005 791.43′658—dc22 2005049204 10 15
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
This book is dedicated to my daughter Jana
Almost everything in Spanish Cinema is incongruent. Fernando Fernán Gómez in Cobos et al., 1997: 75 Spain is the country with the least sense of humour on the planet, although paradoxically we are always game for a lark. Just about anybody loves to laugh at somebody else but if you mess with him he is capable of killing you. We have an exacerbated sense of the ridiculous. Spain is full of dickheads, the problem is that we do not realize it. José Miguel Monzón ‘El Gran Wyoming’ in Rigalt, 1997: 32 A list of ‘populist’ tendencies and an analysis of each of them would be interesting: one might discover one of Vico’s ‘ruses of nature’ – how a social impulse, tending towards one end, brings about its opposite. Antonio Gramsci, 1985: 364
Contents List of Figures
viii
Acknowledgements
ix
Introdu