The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939 with the Nationalists taking charge of Spain, giving Francisco Franco the power over citizens and their freedom. Many restrictions were put in place, one being censorship, this controlled all types of media including the cinema, films would have to be checked and censored or not released by the regime for explicit images or contradicting views. This oppression on the freedom of expression forced creative people of Spanish society to join underground groups in order to express their true feelings and passion for the arts. This underground movement burst onto the mainstream scene as ‘La Movida Madrileña’ with the young director Pedro Almodóvar as the leader of new Spanish cinema. Many of Almodóvar’s early films appeared to be just that: films, but on closer inspection and once reading between the lines, one can see the criticisms of the regime and recognition of the new Spain that Spaniards were now experiencing, and outsiders were witnessing for the first time. Almodóvar tackles several key themes in his films as a director and in this essay, I will analyse how four main subjects highlighted in these films act as a reaction towards the regime. These four topics are the new Spanish identity, women, religion and family structure, which when portrayed in these films, reinforce the repression faced by society throughout the years of the Francoist Spain.
One way in which Almodóvar reacted against the oppression of the regime through his films is the representation of identity. Throughout the Civil War and during Franco’s dictatorship many were forced to hide their true identities due to fear of being persecuted by the Nationalists, anything that threatened traditional views was seen to threaten Spain as a whole. The film Todo sobre mi madre (Almodóvar, 1999) is one that tackles many issues of identity, the father of the main character’s (Manuela) son is a transvestite named Lola, one of Manuela’s friends, Agrado, is also a transvestite, this use of identity is something that would have been considered very taboo during the times of Francoist Spain. The director’s choice to have these characters be transvestites and also the fact that ‘Almodóvar not only [casted] a trans[gender woman] but ha[d] her play, by far, the most sympathetic, and indeed interesting part’ (Rivera-Cordero, 2012: 320) can be seen as him wanting to express the new Spanish identity, one of openness and more acceptance after the fall of the dictatorship. HIV and other diseases are somewhat another issue of identity dealt with in the film, some characters are in fact suffering throughout the story, including Rosa, a nun, who eventually succumbs to the disease and dies towards the end of the film. These two topics surrounding identity were unheard-of during the dictatorship as the connotations to homosexuality or transsexualism would have led to bad consequences from the regime. During the harsh dictatorship that Spain suffered, society became extremely patriarchal and unconcerned with the equality between men and women. This meant that women had certain separate rules that they had to abide by including that they were unable to go out and get a job. In another of Almodóvar’s films, Hable con ella (2002), these traditional gender roles are challenged with one of the main character’s, Lydia González, ‘exotically complex persona as a female bullfighter’ (Bradshaw, 2002). A matador is something of strong Spanish tradition and the job was typically taken by a male, the decision to make Lydia a matador can be seen as a challenge to the patriarchal ideas that were successfully imposed during the regime whilst representing the new Spanish identity, one that values women and believes in their equality as opposed to repression.
Under Franco’s regime, as stated in the previous paragraph, women were poorly mistreated. Rules were set aside specifically for women to follow which would restrict them from doing what men were able to in some cases, this created a patriarchal and oppressive society where women were not valued as highly as men were. Through his films, Almodóvar puts women in the spotlight and surrounds the stories and plots around them, making them a valuable key to the story, a contradictory narrative to the one projected to the people living under Franco’s dictatorship. The film ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!! (Almodóvar, 1984) captures perfectly what post-regime life was like for women in Spain. Gloria, played by one of ‘Las chicas Almodóvar’: Carmen Maura, is a housewife who also works as a cleaner that lives with her husband Antonio, his mother and their two sons. Throughout the film certain aspects of life that are still affected by the dictatorship are highlighted, for instance in one scene Gloria’s son asks her for help with homework to which she replies, ‘Don’t you know I’m illiterate?’, this shows the effect that a lack of education and concern for housework has had on many Spanish women at the time, although their younger neighbour Cristal mentions later in the film how she can write ‘but not as well as Toni’ (Gloria’s eldest son), this can be connected back to the new Spanish identity where women were recognising their right for equality. As mentioned previously women were not allowed to have jobs under the regime, in the film Gloria works as a cleaner since her husband’s job as a taxi driver does not make them enough money, however this still leads him to complain that ‘women today never stay at home’ and that he ‘[doesn’t] want [Gloria] going out to work’. This reflects how some of the patriarchal ideology from the regime was still instilled and supported by men in Spain, Almodóvar’s decision to include dialogue like this can be shown to be a criticism of the ideas that Franco enforced in Spanish society. During the film the mention of another dictator is present: Hitler. The first scene where we meet the husband, Antonio, he is seen singing a German song and after this he proceeds to say ‘may he rest in peace’ when referencing Hitler. This can be seen to highlight that repression was still present in Spanish society even after Franco died since it was the people that were retaining and carrying on his ideology, like in this particular film with Antonio oppressing his wife. The film ends with Gloria coming to terms with now finally being alone after murdering her husband, her mother-in-law and eldest son moving back to the village and selling her other son to their dentist. She appears to be pleased to finally be in control, imagery that can reflect women fighting back against repression, however she looks concerned and almost lost at this new sense of freedom, no longer being controlled by a male, one can assume, that’s what she’s known all her life. This is all until her youngest son returns claiming ‘this place needs a man’, which can be seen as the underlying influence that the regime still had in Spain, controlling its citizens even after its fall.
Religion was something that was highly valued by Franco and his regime. National Catholicism and its conservative values were reinforced to all throughout Spain due to the fact that all other religious opinions were effectively banned in the country, they could not be advertised, have legal status, own property or publish books. Religion and the Catholic church were something to be respected in Francoist Spain with the teachings influencing many outcomes of the regime including the abolishment of divorce, civil marriages, abortion and homosexuality. Censorship was another role undertaken by the church, this however completely contradicts the portrayal of religion in Almodóvar’s film Entre tinieblas (Almodóvar, 1983). This film is based around a convent of nuns that have taken in Yolanda, a cabaret performer, after she witnessed her boyfriend’s death. The convent once acted as a haven for ‘fallen women’ including prostitutes and murderers, but is now lacking in financial stability, leading to an effective corruption of the Sisters and Mother Superior who are involved in drugs and lesbianism. The Mother Superior appears to be a big fan of Yolanda and welcomes her into their convent, where the leading Mother has given the Sisters odd names including Sister ‘Damned’ and ‘Sewer Rat’. This disrespect of the Sisters through their rude names is a true contradiction to what superiority members of the Church were held to by the Spanish nation. The acceptance of Yolanda can be seen to contradict the censorship that was enforced by the Church under the dictatorship since her performances would have been something hidden by the religious workers acting under Franco’s request to censor anything against traditional and conservative norms. Yolanda along with Mother Superior take many drugs including heroin and cocaine and the Mother falls in love with the cabaret performer, this shows a reaction against Church because, as mentioned before, homosexuality was banned by the National Catholicism. Almodóvar’s criticisms of the Church highlight a reaction towards the repression they reinforced during the regime as they undertook the censorship role against the cinema which would have restricted Almodóvar’s own creative freedom.
The traditional nuclear family was reinforced during the regime undertaken in Spain with laws making divorce and abortion illegal. The image of the male breadwinner and female homemaker with obedient children was one promoted all throughout the country, family policies put forward encouraged large families, for example the 1943 Large Family Law that rewarded families with many children. In the film Todo sobre mi madre, Almodóvar uses a family structure which challenges the traditional view of the family. Manuela is a divorced mother of her son, Esteban, whose father, Lola, is a transvestite. The decision to make the lead role of Manuela a single mother can be to reflect the strength of women without needing a man, an idea that was promoted under Franco. Manuela only having one child is something against the older typical families of Spain, proving feelings towards traditional family structures are changing, also Lola’s role as a transvestite father goes against the idea that families need a strong male to survive. Another family shown in Todo sobre mi madre is that of the nun Rosa and her father suffering from Alzheimer’s, the father’s role could have been used to suggest the hidden fragility of males and that sometimes they need to rely on the women in their lives as opposed to the traditional breadwinner-homemaker concept. ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!! is another film that features Almodóvar’s reactions towards the regime through the family. Gloria is a homemaker however her breadwinner husband is not making enough money meaning she has to work outside the house too, this frustrates her husband who disagrees with the concept of women working instead of caring for the family, a true sign of Franco’s impact highlighted after the dictatorship. Throughout the film we witness the family structure constantly changing, her youngest son leaves to live with someone else, she murders her husband, her eldest son and mother-in-law leave to go back to the village then it ends with her youngest son returning. This shows the emergence of new family structures in Spain, a complete difference to a country that once only had the nuclear family in most of its homes.
Pedro Almodóvar’s early films can be seen as a reaction against the repressive culture of the Franco era as they highlight key themes that were heavily censored under the dictatorship. Almodóvar’s abundant use of female protagonists and characters in general strongly promotes a feminist quality to his work, something that would not have ever been considered for cinema under Franco’s regime. His open representation of a wide range of identities throughout his films also shows his reaction to the repression by highlighting all the aspects of Spanish identity that had to be hidden during the dictatorship. The clear criticism of religion and the church in his work also challenges the repression they caused during the era of Franco’s Spain, along with the effects present on family structure, another theme dealt with by Almodóvar.