Church and Catholic cinema at the beginning of the second francoism (1959-1969)
Ricardo Colmenero Martínez
Department of History and Philosophy
University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares
ORCID: 0000-0003-3021-3341
Published: 22/12/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/ahi.2023.2.4
ABSTRACT: At the beginning of the 1960s, among fi lm critics, there was a sensation of the end of the cycle of a very popular genre imbricated in the dynamics of the Franco regime: religious cinema. However, the production and the interest of directors, screenwriters and companies continued, as well as the continuous distinction of the authorities to this type of cultural product. This article analyses the continuity of this genre during the first stage of the second Franco regime (1959-1969), as well as the reasons for its permanence and the question of the limits of official openness in Catholic cinema, which characterised the period. This essay is documented with censorship and rating fi les guarded in the General Archive of Administration (AGA), several fi lm reviews and articles. Also, the films presented in this essay were watched and analysed and comparisons in those with similar plots were established.
KEYWORDS: second francoism, cinema, religious genre, Catholicism, Second Vatican Council.
