226- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
New Spain laid bare
Franco died in 1975 but censorship lingered for a further
two years. Predictably, when it was scrapped the
floodgates gaped. Some directors peeled back the veil
on politics and society, probing for a sense of Spanish
identity. Others peeled off clothes:destapefilms,
as they became known, reflected the new spirit of
permissiveness with lashings of nudity. However,
despite being off the leash, the Spanish film industry
laboured somewhat through the 1980s. Faced with the
joys of uncensored cinema, most filmgoers chose to
watch American blockbusters instead of more cerebral
homegrown stuff. Government subsidies hoped to change
viewing habits but tended, instead, to reinforce them.
Cash was given to art house projects that carried
on the traditions of New Spanish Cinema, but Spain’s
dwindling audiences, it seemed, wanted escapism. Many,
turning instead to nights out on the town, didn’t seem to
want cinema at all.The auteurs keep it real
Many of the directors who found success early on in the
Transiciónsimply continued along the auteurist social
realist path of New Spanish Cinema, lingering from the
1960s. Mario Camus made an epic version of Camilo José
Cela’sLa Colmena(1982), which, like much art house fare
of the time, cast a critical eye back to austere early Franco
years. Another experienced director, Carlos Saura,
maintained his impressive repertoire.Carmen(1981) and
Flamenco(1995) explored gypsy culture as an integral part
of Spanish identity, not as some hackneyed sideshow.
A third director, Victor Erice, has only made two full films
since Franco crossed the great divide (only three films in
all), but both are masterful.El Sur(1983) andEl sol del
membrillo(1992) offer unpretentious windows on life, the
first exploring an adolescent girl’s bond with her father, the
second an artist absorbed by a quince tree.Cash flow situation
In 1982 film-maker Pilar
Miró was made Director
General of Cinema
by the new Socialist
government. She
instigated a series of
reforms, the most
significant of which gave
subsidies to more erudite
film projects as selected
by a governmental panel.
By the early 1990s the
system was failing badly.
Few of the films they
backed, while worthy,
made any money or
enticed the public into
cinemas. In 1994 the
government effected a
U-turn and cash was
given to films based on
how many tickets they
were likely to sell. Today,
a system of film subsidy
remains in place, partly
beefed up by tax breaks
for film-makers and cash
from TV stations.
“WHEN I’VE
FINISHED A FILM,
IT’S NO LONGER
MINE – IT BELONGS
TO THE PEOPLE.
I’M NOTHING
MORE THAN AN
INTERMEDIARY IN
THE PROCESS.”
Victor Erice
5.1.4 Film uncut: modern Spanish cinema