La estructura como fortaleza: el Alcázar de Toledo y su entorno
- Autores: Antonio Costa
- Localización: Archivos de la filmoteca: revista de estudios históricos sobre la imagen, ISSN 0214-6606, Nº 35, 2000, págs. 109-129
- Idioma: español
- Títulos paralelos:
- The structure as a fortress: Toledo´s Alcázar and its surroundings
- Enlaces
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Resumen
The first part of this essay analyzes way the Spanish Civil War was represented in the newsreels of the Istituto Luce. The focus is basically on a fight between civilized Christians versus the “red” barbarians. Through the propaganda documentaries and the fiction films we also see the importance of the war film in the technical development of film art and the way it was able to change some of the myths of the cinema of the 30s and 40s. In this respect, we follow some of Paul Virilio´s ideas about war and cinema. We also analyze the differences between L’Assedio dell’Alcazar (1940) and other Italian films about the Spanish Civil War. Genina’s film is related to various literary sources, such as Les cadets de l’Alcazar (Massis and Brasillach, 1936) and, foremost, with Luigi Freddi’s ideas. He was the director of the Direzione Generale della Cinematografia between 1934 and 1939 and carefully supervised the first draft of the film. Freddi promoted a cinema which, while strictly controlled by the Fascist Regime, avoided explicit propaganda and aimed for a standard that would allow it to compete with foreign films. This might explain why the film could be run in 1956 with few modifications, provoking less criticism than other fascist propaganda films. We also dedicate the end of the essay to its reception by film critics, taking as an example a review by abstract Michelangelo Antonioni written in 1940.
