Abstract
The chapter focuses on the specialised film cultures that emerged around film clubs, magazines or film schools in the dictatorial regimes of Francoist Spain and the German Democratic Republic during the first half of the 1960s. It offers a contrastive analysis that shows the potentialities of approaching New Cinema History as History of Film Culture. Both film cultures were flawed in its core, as critics and spectators redefined cinema as cultural practice based on titles rarely seen and frantically (sometimes wrongly) imagined. But they were also very rich: written and oral testimonies illustrate the anxieties, dreams and hopes that characterised the lives of cinema-goers under a dictatorship.
We were poorly informed and didn’t have movies to watch. One should investigate whether that flourishing in film criticism in the 1960s was not the consequence of the fact that because there were no films, they had to be invented in writing.
—José Luis Guarner in Tubau (1979, pp. 481–482)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Research project: Cinéphilie unter der Diktatur. Europäische Filmkultur zwischen 1955 und 1975 am Beispiel Spaniens und der DDR. Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), project number 221699788.
- 2.
de Baecque (2003, p. 11), in his study of classic French cinephilia of the 1950s and 1960s.
- 3.
East Berlin was an exception, as its inhabitants could cross the border up until 1961 to watch other foreign films (especially American) in the 21 border-cinemas (Grenzkinos), which had an offer and prices oriented at the East German spectators. According to Kersten (1963, p. 301), these cinemas attracted 800,000 viewers from the eastern part of the city.
- 4.
The film clubs show a continuous growth over the decade: there were 145 in 1965 and already 244 by the end of the decade (Hernández Marcos & Ruiz Butrón, 1978, pp. 91, 100).
- 5.
After some first months of fascination for the new copies, by the mid-1960s, film clubs were already complaining about having to screen titles that many of their members did not understand (Ramos Arenas, 2021, p. 289).
- 6.
Although this term was often used, it was often film protocols that were translated from abroad. Even the story of one of Juan Antonio Bardem’s first films from the 1950s, Cómicos (1954), goes back to this limited reception of foreign films. The inspiration for it came from All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), specifically its screenplay, which he had read at the Casa Americana in Madrid (Cf. García de Dueñas, 1964, p. 31).
- 7.
The most striking example of this practice may have been the publication of Citizen Kane’s (Orson Welles, 1941) ‘screenplay’ in several parts in Nuestro Cine from the 9th edition in 1962; the film did not reach Spanish cinemas until 1966. The collaborator of the magazine Carlos Díaz Delgado produced this ‘Screenplay’ on the basis of already published texts and fragments and, above all, on the basis of the transcription of the French version of the film. See Díaz Delgado (1962, p. 57).
- 8.
In December of 1963, these 120 film clubs were invited to a first national gathering at the cinema Die Möwe in Berlin. See Ramos Arenas (2021, p. 228).
References
Andrew, D. (2010). Time zones and jetlag: The flows and phases of world cinema. In N. Ďurovičová & K. E. Newman (Eds.), World cinemas, transnational perspectives (pp. 59–89). Routledge.
Beyer, F. (2001). Wenn der Wind sich dreht. Meine Filme, mein Leben. Econ.
Biltereyst, D., & Meers, P. (2016). New cinema history and the comparative mode: Reflections on comparing historical cinema cultures. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 11, 13–32.
Biltereyst, D., & Meers, P. (2020). Comparative, entangled, parallel and ‘other’ cinema histories. Another reflection on the comparative mode within new cinema history. TMG Journal for Media History, 23(1–2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.18146/tmg.795
Biltereyst, D., & Van de Vijver, L. (2020). Mapping movie magazines. Digitization, periodicals and cinema history. Palgrave Macmillan.
Brockmann, S. (2013). The Eleventh Plenum and film criticism in East Germany. German Life and Letters, 66(4), 432–448.
de Baecque, A. (2003). La Cinéphilie. Invention d’un regard, histoire d’une culture 1944–1968. Fayard.
Díaz Delgado, C. (1962). El ciudadano Kane (III). Nuestro Cine, 11, 57–64.
Egea, J. L. (1963). Bergman, de la sonrisa al espejo. Nuestro Cine, 18, 31–35.
García de Dueñas, J. (1964, May). Bardem, 64. Confesiones a las cinco de la tarde. Nuestro Cine, 29, 24–40.
García de Dueñas, J. (1967, March 18). Salas especializadas. Triunfo, 250, 14.
García de Dueñas, J. (2003). A la deriva por el Cabo de Buena Esperanza. Travesías por unos cursos de la EOC. In C. F. Heredero & J. E. Monterde (Eds.), Los ‘nuevos cines’ en España. Ilusiones y desencantos de los años sesenta (pp. 79–102). Institut Valencià de Cinematografía Ricardo Muñoz Suay.
Garnemark, R. (2015). Ingmar Bergman y la censura cinematográfica franquista. Reescrituras ideológicas (1960–1967). Shangrila Textos Aparte.
Gehler, F. (1965, February 21). Die Nachkömmlinge. Sonntag, 8, 8.
Gehler, F. (1999). Cui bono—Film 68? Montagestücke einer vergessenen Zeitschrift. In S. Barck, M. Langermann, & S. Lokatis (Eds.), Zwischen “Mosaik” und “Einheit”. Zeitschriften in der DDR (pp. 214–220). Christoph Links Verlag.
Gersch, W. (2014). “Wir haben geglüht”—die DDR-Zeitschrift “film-Wissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen” 1964/65. In J. Roschlau (Ed.), Im Zeichen der Krise: Das Kino der frühen 1960er Jahre (pp. 146–155). Edition Text+Kritik.
Guarner, J. L. (1971). 30 años de cine en España. Kairós.
Gubern, R., & Font, D. (1975). Un cine para el cadalso. 40 años de censura cinematográfica en España. Euros.
Hernández Marcos, J., & Ruiz Butrón, E. (1978). Historia de los cine clubs en España. Ministerio de Cultura.
Jordan, G. (2014). Seine Hoheit Genosse Staat. Filmzensur in der DDR. In H.-M. Bock, J. Distelmeyer, & J. Schöning (Eds.), Kunst unter Kontrolle. Filmzensur in Europa (pp. 11–20) Edition Text+Kritik.
Kersten, H. (1963). Das Filmwesen in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone Deutschlands. Deutscher Bundesverlag.
Labanyi, J. (2005). The mediation of everyday life: An oral history of cinema-going in 1940s and 1950s Spain. Studies in Hispanic Cinema, 2(2), 105–108.
Labanyi, J. (2007). Cinema and the mediation of everyday life in 1940s and 1950s Spain. New Readings, 8, 1–24.
Los desconocidos de siempre. (1959, May). Film Ideal, 31, 14.
Moix, T. (1993). El peso de la paja. Editorial Planeta.
Monterde, J. E., & Piñol, M. (2015). Crónica de un desencuentro. La recepción del cine moderno en España. Ediciones de la Filmoteca.
Montero, J., & Paz, M. A. (2011). Lo que el viento no se llevó. El cine en la memoria de los españoles (1931–1982). Rialp.
Navratil, A. (1964). Wertow, die Thorndikes und ‘Das russische Wunder’. Filmwissenschftliche mitteilungen, 2, 432–438.
Nuestro Cine. (1967, November). Editorial. Nuestro Cine, 67, 3.
Oliver, J. (2005). Recuerdos sobre Rossellini. In A. Quintana, J. Oliver, & S. Presutto (Eds.), Roberto Rossellini. La herencia de un maestro (pp. 87–97). Ediciones de la Filmoteca.
Patzner, F. (1965). Aus den Filmclubs. Filmclub Radebeul. Film, 64(4), 31–32.
Ramos Arenas, F. (2019). From Stalinism to cinephilia. The emergence of East German film culture in the 1950s. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39(2), 271–289.
Ramos Arenas, F. (2021). Cinephilie unter der Diktatur. Filmkultur in Spanien und der DDR in den 1950er und 1960er Jahren. J.B. Metzler.
Saura, C. (1974). Carlos Saura. In A. Castro (Ed.), El cine español en el banquillo (pp. 281–399). Fernando Torres.
Torres, A. M. (2002). Las películas de mi vida. Espasa Calpe.
Treveri Gennari, D., & Dibeltulo, S. (2017). ‘It existed indeed … it was all over the papers’: Memories of film censorship in 1950s Italy. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 14(1), 235–248.
Tubau, I. (1979). “Film Ideal” y “Nuestro Cine”. Tendencias de la crítica cinematográfica española en revistas especializadas, años sesenta [Doctoral dissertation, Universitat de Barcelona].
Vaquerizo García, L. (2014). La censura y el nuevo cine español. Cuadros de realidad de los años sesenta. Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante.
Weckel, U. (2020). Rehabilitation historischer Stimmvielfalt. Rezeptionsforschung als Kulturgeschichte. In T. Birkner, P. Merziger, & C. Schwarzenegger (Eds.), Historische Medienwirkungsforschung. Ansätze, Methoden und Quellen (pp. 21–24). Herbert von Halem Verlag.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ramos Arenas, F. (2024). Cinephiles without Films: Culture, Censorship and Alternative Forms of Film Consumption in Spain and the GDR around 1960. In: Treveri Gennari, D., Van de Vijver, L., Ercole, P. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Comparative New Cinema Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38789-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38789-0_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38788-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38789-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)