The Spanish Civil War in Cinema David Archibald University of Glasgow Departments of Theatre, Film and Television and Hispanic9 Studies Doctoral Thesis C) [David Archibald] [February 2005] Abstract in I In this thesis I present a case study of the Spanish civil war cinema. examine how this period has been represented in cinema through time, in different countries and in various cinematic forms. I reject the postmodern prognosis that the past is a chaotic mass, made senseof through the subjective narrativisation choices of historians working in the present. On the contrary, I argue that there are referential limits on what histories can be legitimately written about the past. I argue that there are different, often contradictory, representations of the Spanish civil war in cinema which indicates a diversity of uses for the past. But there are also referential limits on what can be legitimately represented cinematically. I argue that the civil war setting will continue to be one which filmmakers turn to as the battle for the future of Spain is partially played out in the cinematically recreated battles of the past. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: History and the Spanish Civil War 8 Chapter Two: History on Film: The Spanish Civil War 44 Chapter Three: For Whom the Bell Tolls: Hollywood 71 and the Spanish Civil War Chapter Four: Re-cycling the Past: Patterns of History in Vacas 105 Chapter Five: No Laughing Matter? Comedy and 131 The Spanish Civil War Chapter Six: Ghosts from the Past: El espinazo del Diablo 165 Chapter Seven: Cinematic Politics: Revolution Revisited in 191 Land and Freedom and Libertarias Chapter Eight: The Search for Truth in 221 Soldados de Salamina Conclusion 240 Filmography 244 Bibliography 249 2 Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisors, Mike Gonzalez and Dimitris Eleftheriotis. The Scottish Awards Agency for Scotland provided much needed funding towards my research and the departmentsof Theatre, Film and Television and the department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Glasgow provided additional resources. I'm grateful to Iciar Bollain, Andy Durgan, Paul Laverty, Ken Loach, Carlos Saura and Guillermo del Toro for taking time to talk with me about their work. The staff at the Filmoteca in Madrid were always helpful in ensuring I had access to their catalogue of films. An extra special thanks to my friends Blanca, David, Matxalen, Radija, Victoria, and everyone in Madrid who made my stay there in 2002 enormously enjoyable. I am also grateful to them for their assistance while discussing and translating French, Russian and Spanish films. I'm indebtedto SusanLord at QueensUniversity, Canadafor first planting these questions in my mind some time ago. Mike Gonzalez continually encouraged me along the arduous path from early thoughts to final draft. I am extremely grateful for his support and for convincing me that what I was doing was worthwhile. My mum, Ann, my son, Daniel, and my partner, Pauline, have also provided valuable encouragement. My thanks to all of them. 3 Introduction (1936- This thesis consists of a case study examining how the Spanish civil war 1939) has been represented in cinema-' Over sixty years after its conclusion the civil war still provokes considerable interest, both within Spain and abroad. It is generally recognised as one of the key political battlegrounds of the twentieth century. Yet knowledge about the event is usually restricted to the idea that it was a war between democracy and fascism. A cursory reading of some of the history books surrounding the conflict is sufficient to dispel this idea and indicates its complexity. It is a history that, even to this day, is keenly contested. The thesis explores theoretical issues surrounding the possibility of truthfully representing the civil war. Is it possible sixty years after the event to unearth what really occurred during the war? Is it possible to arrive at objective historical accounts of the past or can we only have conflicting, partial perspectives? In attempting to answer these questions, I look at one of the most complex historical periods and ask how it is represented in popular cinema. I use six case studies to investigate different ways that the civil war has been represented in fictional cinema through time, in different countries and in various cinematic styles. In chapter one I look at arguments surrounding the epistemological status of historical enquiry and outline recent attacks by Keith Jenkins and Hayden White inability on conventional historiography. I reject their arguments about the of historians to adequately access the past. In the process I draw on the work of Throughout this thesis I use lower case letters to write 4civil war', at any point where it appears in upper case it is only when I am quoting,others. 4 Karl Marx and the writings of Marxist critics, Terry Eagleton and Alex Callinicos, in addition to the writings of Richard J. Evans. I proceed to Outline the key developments in the Spanish civil war before recounting recent developments in the civil war's complex and contested historiography. In chapter two I turn to the relationship between history and cinema, examining arguments concerning how film, and different film forms, represent the past. I proceed to provide a general overview of cinematic representations of the civil war, both inside and outside Spain. I suggest that under the Franco dictatorship the civil war was initially represented as a just and righteous crusade, but I also outline how oppositional filmmakers struggled in the latter years of the dictatorship to present alternative views. I proceed to detail the key non-Spanish films set during the civil war before discussing how the conflict was represented in post-Franco Spain. The subsequent six chapters represent specific case studies of the different ways that the civil war has been represented cinematically. Chapter 3 examines how American cinema represented the civil war during the second world war, focusing primarily on the Hollywood blockbuster For Whom the Bell Tolls (Wood/USA/1943), but also touching on Blockade (Dieterle/USA/1938) and the documentary film The Spanish Earth (Ivens/USA/1937). This chapter outlines how Hemingway's original novel was appropriated as part of a move to adapt the Spanish civil war to suit the needs of wartime America. 5 Chapter 4 examines Julio Medem's Basque-set historical drama Vacas/Cows (Medem/Spain/1992), an arthouse film that places the civil war within the context of the Basque country's violent past. Through an analysis of Vacas I examine the ability of alternative film forms to represent the past. I also explore the cyclical view of history presented in the film, contrasting it with the historiographical view of Jenkins and White. Finally, by analysing the film in relation to the national conflict in the Basque country, I outline another example of the appropriation of the past for the needs of the present. Chapter 5 explores how the civil war is represented in a number of Spanish feature films that were produced in the 1980s and1990s that utilise aspects of comedy, jAy Carmela! (Saura/Spain/1990), Belle tpoque (Fernando Trueba /Spain/1992), La vaquilla (Berlanga/Spain/1985) and Libertarias/Libertarians (Aranda/Spain/1996). I examine whether it is possible to narrativise the civil war as a comedy. I reject the position put forward by White in chapter one that representations of the past are determined solely by the subjective interpretations of those in the present. Chapter 6 explores how the civil war is represented in the ghost story El espinazo del diablo/The Devil's Backbone (del Toro/Spain/Mexico/2001).In this chapter I examine the relationship between the figure of the ghost and the past. I also discuss the extent to which allegorical storytelling can adequately deal with the complexities of past events, in this specific instance the Spanish civil war. 6 In Chapter 71 explore how the revolutionary dimension of the conflict has been represented, primarily focusing on Land and Freedom/Tierra y Libertad (Loach/UK/Germany/Spain/1995) but also touching on Libertarias. I return to issuesdealing with the possibilities of various film forms to adequatelyrepresent the past and I defend non self-reflexive cinema against the charge that it is unable to foster a historical consciousnessin audiences. In Chapter 81 focus on one of the most recent films that representsthe conflict, Soldados de Salamina/Soldiers of Salamis (David Trueba/Spain/2002), a film that problematises the ability of accessing the past. I argue that although the film suggests that all that can be accessed are small-scale narratives about the past, nevertheless it also contends that the civil war needs to be re-visited by a younger generation of Spaniards. In this chapter I return to the theoretical issues raised in chapters one and two and, in some way, offer a theoretical conclusion to these questions. In the conclusion I pull the different threads of the thesis together in a general restatement of my position. I argue that the ghosts of the civil war may only be finally laid to rest when the social antagonisms that created it cease to exist. We may wait some time for that yet. Therefore, the civil war setting will continue to be one which filmmakers turn as the battle for the future of Spain is partially played out in the cinematically recreatedbattles of the past. 7 Chapter One History and The Spanish Civil War Introduction I begin this chapterby examining debatessurrounding the epistemological status of history and its ability to both make and substantiate valid claims about the past. I examine conflicting theoretical approaches towards the study of history, starting with postmodern critiques by Keith Jenkins and Hayden White.