La dimensión cultural del paisaje y el territorio en el cine rural español 1950-1959

Resumen

This dissertation shows a cultural history of cinematographic images that have tackled the Spanish countryside between 1950-1959. The theoretical framework is fueled by Anglo-Saxon studies that have looked into the spatial uses and their meanings in the processes of collective identity formulation. In the premodernism years of the Spanish society in the 1950s, the rural cinema not only witnesses the synergies that were coming about, but it is also recognized as a perpetuating agent of the collective imaginary. Its transcendence will be analyzed considering the political strategies of the Francoist regime, the state of the national cinematographic industry, and the discursive set of formulae adopted. In order to fulfill this objective, an overview of 35 rural cinema projects will be provided, with special focus on the forms of setting, landscape and territory. Specifically, case analyses will be brought to the fore for the levels of landscape in Condenados, Manuel Mur Oti, 1953; Sierra maldita, Antonio del Amo, 1954; and Cañas y barro, Juan de Orduña, 1954. As for territory, La guerra de Dios, Rafael Gil, 1953; Amanecer en Puerta Oscura, José María Forqué, 1957; and La venganza, Juan Antonio Bardem, 1958, will be analyzed. In these levels, the experience of landscape entails a cultural entity allowing the use of these films as primary sources to tackle the constellation of synergies that paved the way for the modernization of the country.