Eroticism and censorship: French cinema in Franco’s Spain

Abstract

The reception of French cinema in Franco’s Spain in the 1950s is the result of a study based on cultural and cinematographic transfer. Spanish film censorship, through its history, evolution, members, missions and organisation, had a considerable influence on the reception of French cinema in Spain, being its primary cause. And within this censorial organisation, sentimental, sensual, erotic and sexual content dominated the list of themes monitored and censored on the movies by Franco’s authorities. At the edge of the 1950s, French cinema, influenced by the New Wave movement, among others, represented many films reflecting the eroticism of French actresses. However, eroticism in Spain during the same period was closely monitored by the regime’s censors. This article looks at the essential relationship within the cultural transfer of French cinema to Spain in a very specific context, Franco’s dictatorship in the 1950s, through the prism of the eroticism of French cinema.