According to directoryaah, the outcome of the Second World War, with the defeat of the Axis countries, did not involve the Spain, where the Franco regime survived by adapting to the new times without changing ideology: after a period of autarchy, the government opened up to the world and Franco was preparing to sign agreements with the United States and a new concordat with the Vatican. The Ministerio de Informacióne y Turismo was created and an attempt was made to give a modern image of the country. In 1947 the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas (IIEC) was founded, then simply called Escuela de Cine, where the new generations of Spanish cinema would be formed; in addition, the semi-clandestine screening of Rome open city (1945) by Roberto Rossellini in 1950 and the discovery of the work of Cesare Zavattini introduced Italian Neorealism to young directors. In official cinema, however, nothing changed: the success of historical-patriotic films continued and a current of religious cinema developed which made great box office during the 1950s. The first generation of directors, Orduña, Saénz de Heredia and Gil, gave way to a second generation, in which the names of Manuel Mur Oti, Antonio del Amo, Francisco Rovira Beleta, José María Forqué and José Antonio Nieves Conde, author by Surcos (1951), considered the first Spanish neorealist film. The “conformist currents” (as defined in Heredero 1996) of Spanish cinema of the 1950s continued to follow the already established genres: the historical film, which culminated in ¿Donde vas Alfonso XII? (1958) by Luis César Amadori; the religious one, whose apex is represented by Marcelino pan y vino (1955; Marcellino pane e vino) by Ladislao Vajda; the folkloric one, with Sara Montiel’s moment of glory in Orduña’s El último cuplé (1957) and with the consecration of a group of young singers, led by Carmen Sevilla, Paquita Rico and Lola Flores which gave rise to a very particular sub-genre: cinema with the child singer, whose most significant examples were Joselito and Marisol. Political cinema became openly anti-communist and a new genre emerged from Barcelona, the detective film, which produced some appreciable titles, such as Apartado de correos 1001 (1950) by Julio Salvador, Brigada criminal (1950) by Iquino or Distrito quinto (1958) by Julio Coll. Parallel to the official cinema the ‘ internal dissidence ‘: Juan Antonio Bardem and Luis García Berlanga, with Esa pareja feliz (shot in 1951, but released in 1953), paved the way for a different cinema. A critical movement was formed around the magazines “Objetivo” and “Cinema universitario” and the production company UNINCI (Unidad Industrial del Cine Español), linked to the Spanish Communist Party at the time, which resulted in the Conversaciones Nacionales Cinematográficas organized by the university of Salamanca in 1955, during which the foundations were laid for a renewal of Spanish cinema and from which one of the most important cinema magazines in the country was born, “Film ideal”.
To the names of Berlanga – whose solitary career ranges from Bienvenido Mister Marshall (1952; Welcome, Mr. Marshall!) To Plácido (1961) – and Bardem, director of Cómicos (1954), Muerte de un ciclista (1955; Gli egoisti) and Calle Mayor (1957), we must add those of Fernán-Gómez with La vida por delante (1958), Marco Ferreri with El pisto (1958) directed together to Isidoro M. Ferry, and Carlos Saura with Los golfos (1962). This period of dissidence culminated in Buñuel’s scandal at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival with the presentation of Viridiana, his first Spanish film made after the war. Produced by UNINCI, the film was shot with the apparent consent of censorship. But the screening in Cannes sparked the ire of the Catholic and Francoist hierarchies, who prohibited its circulation and closed the production house. we must add those of Fernán-Gómez with La vida por delante (1958), Marco Ferreri with El pisto (1958) directed together with Isidoro M. Ferry, and Carlos Saura with Los golfos (1962).
This period of dissidence culminated in Buñuel’s scandal at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival with the presentation of Viridiana, his first Spanish film made after the war. Produced by UNINCI, the film was shot with the apparent consent of censorship. But the screening in Cannes sparked the ire of the Catholic and Francoist hierarchies, who prohibited its circulation and closed the production house. we must add those of Fernán-Gómez with La vida por delante (1958), Marco Ferreri with El pisto (1958) directed together with Isidoro M. Ferry, and Carlos Saura with Los golfos (1962). This period of dissidence culminated in Buñuel’s scandal at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival with the presentation of Viridiana, his first Spanish film made after the war. Produced by UNINCI, the film was shot with the apparent consent of censorship. But the screening in Cannes sparked the ire of the Catholic and Francoist hierarchies, who prohibited its circulation and closed the production house. This period of dissidence culminated in Buñuel’s scandal at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival with the presentation of Viridiana, his first Spanish film made after the war. Produced by UNINCI, the film was shot with the apparent consent of censorship. But the screening in Cannes sparked the ire of the Catholic and Francoist hierarchies, who prohibited its circulation and closed the production house. This period of dissidence culminated in Buñuel’s scandal at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival with the presentation of Viridiana, his first Spanish film made after the war. Produced by UNINCI, the film was shot with the apparent consent of censorship. But the screening in Cannes sparked the ire of the Catholic and Francoist hierarchies, who prohibited its circulation and closed the production house.
