Historia del cine en Alicante durante la Guerra Civil española (1936-1939)

Abstract

The main objective of this thesis was to study and analyse the films produced, distributed and exhibited in Alicante during the Spanish Civil War. The methodology used in this work divided the research process into three different parts: 1. Review and analysis of bibliography and films: a. State of the Art. b. Analysis of bibliography and films proposed by the directors of the thesis. 2. Fieldwork, planning: a. Analysis of archives. This stage led us to know the activities of the film industry managers in Alicante regarding the management of cinemas, funding sources, exhibition ways and film distribution. b. Newspapers and periodical library analysis. We focused our research on this analysis and from it we inferred all the information regarding the dynamics of film exhibition as well as the importance and the dimension of the propaganda and the social function of cinema, review, and controversy among newspapers; we also understood and analysed the dramatic events occurred in the city. 3. Conclusions. They were drawn by matching data obtained from each of the parts in which this research is divided, i.e., data obtained during the documentary research (1.) and data obtained during the fieldwork (2.). Consequently with all said before, these are the objectives proposed for our thesis: 1. To study and analyse the process of confiscation and the model of film industry management developed by political parties and unions in the city of Alicante during the Spanish Civil War. This led us to know the distinctive features in this city compared to other cities like Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. 2. To define the dynamics of film exhibition in Alicante during the reference period. This allowed us mainly to: a) draw the stake between the propaganda films and the entertainment films exhibited; b) analyse what genres were the most watched during the war; c) figure out the nationality and the proportion of films watched by people from Alicante; d) know whether the cinemas were well-stocked with films and the amount of premieres; e) set how was the public from Alicante in the cinemas under the special circumstances of war. 3. To know what changes were carried out by the new Franco regime. In the conclusions, this research has identified three specific stages in the Alicante process of confiscation: a) Partial confiscation and political and union pressure on private ownership: July 1936 - May 1937. b) General confiscation: May 1937. c) State intervention: January 1938. Despite the political and union management of the film exhibition during almost all the war, people from Alicante watched 89% of commercial films in front of 11% of propaganda films. 72% of commercial films exhibited in Alicante were films made in the U.S.A. This is an astonishing amount compared to the figure of 15% of the Spanish-made films exhibited, the second nationality in number of films exhibited during the war. The mentioned 72% represented one thousand and fifty seven films (75%) in front of seventy one Spanish films (5%), and this means that the comparison between the number of films or the screen share and the time that these films were shown per number of screenings, gives us a very advantageous and clarifying result about the public preferences for the Spanish and Republican films during the war. So we can end up by saying that in Alicante, the winner, in term of percentages, were the films made in Spain during the II Republic.