Film censorship in Franco's Spain: the transforming power of dubbing

Abstract

ABSTRACTSince the invention of cinema, the prominence and significance of the moving image have never been underestimated by the powers-that-be, especially, though not exclusively, in totalitarian states, where foreign films and their translations are, and have been, ideologically controlled in order to avoid any conflict with the socio-cultural values predicated by the rulers of the hosting community. This paper focuses on the dubbing into Spanish of the classical film The Barefoot Contessa (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1954), in which glamorous Ava Gardner plays the role of a voluptuous Spanish flamenco dancer that becomes an international film star in the USA. Hollywood's appropriation and subsequent representation and internationalisation of Spanish mores and customs, embodied in the film by Ava Gardner and her Spanish family, was diametrically at odds with the values and virtues advocated by the Francoist regime (1939–1975), making this film a battleground for ideological manipulation and forcing the unleashing of a creative remediation process aimed at shrouding any criticism of Spanish interests or customs and cementing traditional values cherished by the regime.