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Screen 2009 50(3):318-333; doi:10.1093/screen/hjp014
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Screen. All rights reserved

The cinematic image of José Antonio Primo de Rivera: somewhere between a leader and a saint

Vicente Sánchez-Biosca


  Abstract

There is very little surviving film footage of José Antonio Primo de Rivera (1903–36), founding father of the Spanish fascist party, executed by republican forces during the Spanish civil war. However, after the victory of nationalist forces in 1939, the right-wing Franco dictatorship cultivated the image of Primo de Rivera as a fallen hero and political visionary, using cinematic newsreel and other film footage as a key element . The outstanding example of Spanish fascist cinema is ¡Presente! a short propaganda film produced in 1939 by the State Department of Cinematography which incorporates dramatic images of the ten-day ceremonial funeral procession which carried Primo de Rivera's remains from the site of his execution in Alicante prison to his first official resting place in the royal monastery of El Escorial in Madrid. The film evokes the politically-inspired cinema of postrevolutionary Russia and Nazi Germany mixed with elements of 1930s avant-garde cinema. This Spanish model of cinematic propaganda creates a sense of pathos and religious charisma through its use of elements of Roman Catholic imagery which have their roots in medieval and Baroque religious mystery plays and which contrast with the mythological imagery of other fascist cinema such as that of Nazi Germany.


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