The process of cinematographic restoration and censorship in the Franco era: the case of "Los Jueves, milagro"

Abstract

The objective of this research is to study the cinematographic censorship carried out in Spain during the Franquism, and how the censorship decisions, as well as the future of the Administration, directly affected the films made at that time. In order to understand this situation and, especially, the relevant role played by the Catholic Church, an analysis will be made of the film Los jueves, milagro (Luis G. Berlanga, 1957), a paradigmatic case of the filmmaker's disagreement with Spanish censorship. The starting point of this analysis starts with the initiative taken by Filmoteca Española which, in 1980 decided to restore the film. The study reconstructs both the research process carried out in the restoration, as well as the search process through the FIAF, as well as the results obtained in the various film libraries in which materials of various kinds were found, giving rise to a situation unknown until now: a double version of Berlanga's film. This discovery not only made possible the restoration of the film, but also served to know the cuts of assembly and the consequent modifications that the censorship carried out on the same one.