Regulations and Legislation on Ecclesiastical and State Cinema Censorship in Franco’s Spain and its Application to Films Translated from English

Abstract

he censorship system established in Spain during the Franco regime began to operate on the Nationalist faction in 1936, when the Spanish Civil War had just begun, and gave its last throes in 1985, in the midst of democracy. The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the regulations and legislation of ecclesiastical and state cinema censorship during the Franco regime, providing examples of its application to the films translated from English collected in the TRACEci (1951-1975) Catalogue. To this end, it examines the Catholic Church’s regulations on moral matters and the evolution of official legislation published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (Official State Gazette). This analysis shows that, due to the great social impact of cinema, both the Catholic Church and the State established strict control measures over cinema in general and over translated films in particular. The Catholic Church created an advisory film rating system, but only the censorship and rating boards had the power to issue a verdict. Our analysis also shows how, while the moral rating remained unchanged, state control measures were adapted to the changing socio-political situation of the regime and how the influence of the Catholic Church diminished from the 1960s onwards, as Spain gradually opened its borders to the outside world. This work contributes to the generation of knowledge about the functioning of national and translated film censorship during the Franco regime.