@ Beluind tle Spantete Lend, Denver: Arden Press, 1985, 1 THE BEGINNINGS nly 20 wesks after the ofcal tube presentation by the Lumiie Brothes of thelr einemargeaphi foachine in aries Grand Café on December 28, 1895, anda mere thee Weeks sie the histori fst pli performance of moving plus in ower & Bins’ Moni Hall n New York, dhe fs lnemtopespic pec ‘acl wat shawn in Madd. As elewhere nthe wod, the fe sppearance cf thecinematograph was echsasticalyrecetved by focal crowds, though ‘eeualy ao oe aspect that the new medium would burgeon forth over the coming yeas into sweeping new commeril andar levithan ‘whose ocala poi overtones would make rane ofthe most ovete, ‘oaniploted and contentious ideologies! weapons ofall ime. Such cor Ssletions were al ar down the roa. Dung the fest decade of cinema in Spin, flaumakers were content stply co record on lm some of de events of thet day ar her ily fo ince a storyline, st was done by Fructuoeo Gclabert in his 1897 [iad ur café(Quarel na Cat), he ine Span fle with aninenary ‘lot, oro expeiment with tick photography and. ypecal fects, 8 van fone by Segundo de Chomn ins series of ims thar emulated thon of (Georges Melts in Pur, the os famous bing El howl dicmie (The ‘ieee Hoel) shoe in 1295, “This was the penod during which cinema yread doughout Spain. Production companies were se yp Barcelona and Me, snd numerous ‘rams, comedies and bistorica fils were shor, many tobe remade with ‘he advent of sound, The plow were amos always simpli, tending © flor dhorc hora gues whose praies were ung inh official soy Fook, ow present she kind of cole innecence and pat acceptance of suche, wedherchuch sae, tat epied the ball of ns i as untienat che tne, Ar yt there soma 9 be no reaiation in Spain {har clnetaeould bi made fo serve purposes other than those of coming 3 oOSpin ha Eropean bac lin el Sin that time was a European backwater, living stil in relative < ataity aes centuries of agorersment and poverty though oes Pel eee mae and Nowra ideas ad eer rset sce the 18705 + Bey was ole from the files uestingarl ebalton of counties {Joe Rosie, France, Getmany, aed the Unies! Sac, where dhe poteviad Wiser herons or the cinematographic soca was lea teing 1 peopel. FS ghuteunorehodou tends ly donna in Spain, the government wat ‘otathees snare ofthe popagndstic and protyaing power offi Fo cUtiver'ae the beginning of 1916 an Asnerican technician, Charles Jean F2) Dyteners was roushe to Barcelona to mount a monumental bogies! “fim on Columbus, wih 8 Frenchman, Eile Rourgeo, slated to aire ‘pg pet in many ways antcipated those char were o be undertaken eotogical lines were drawn in Spin a shey were all over the wodd; fy (gosta mybing ste Twa opera lessee é fascism, regionalism aginst cenend goverment toraltatianse aginst irl the por ani hh ances gait de chr A ‘trong element anazchiam ha entered the Republican faction, epee lena and Aragsn, and by unleashing hetred that had teen sted decals, che Civil War tiger an often savage frat ge ‘Te peowveiNes 1s Bosh sides quickly received ald. Stalin sent arms and tanks from the Sovier Union to the beleaguered Republic; Hiter sent not only ple seltry applies, bac four bomber sGuairons of 12 planes each, and & fehuer group ofthe sae suength, known ar the Condor Legion, whee ‘ombing ofthe Base village of Gusrica wa to be dramas fn Pablo Pleas psinting o the same name Muslin so sent supplies oops, aul homers o the National. Late, when the wor ines ana fe Reali, while Fance and England continued a tempore ant even seed ontericfon upemant, on 4,00 wise ‘atone (including Kialy and Geran), caling themselves te Tere ‘ional Brigades, eame to Spain eo fight forthe survival ofthe Republic ‘Among their members were Emest Hemingvay, Ja Dos Paros, Osorgs ‘Onell, Stephen Spender, and Andee Malet ‘Mati, ike Valencia and Barcelona, managed to ld ou until neatly the ead ofthe war (a 1938, although Franco fontline trenches were within view ofthe ciey, inthe Casa de Campo Park. Bu at lt, on Apel 1, he lat bedraggled remnants the defeated Republican amis, dling fon the beach in Alicane, gave up. The delet ofthe Spun Repule as prelude othe coming rou f most of democratic Huse under the acl ofthe Fk, Franco and his generals had won the Civil War. Bu the country was in rls, eshateed, depleted, Nonetheless, Hider urged Franc to enter the Seeonl World War on the Axs side. Though, of eoune, the Caulls sxdheted «oa strongly pro-Nas line during the early yeas ofthe wat, he shen avoided ater lvelvement inthe confict, Thus, long fee Hitler, Mussolini Toho, and the others had fallen, Franco managed ‘exer his dictatorial powers, playing off maint each other those sectors that had supported him—dhe Monarchist, the Flange, the church, and ‘big business shifting policies and linemen with such clever oppor tunis that e was able live out his lero the esd dein as bed, yen then matting his ip fly onthe county he had wed #0 7 ‘Wid the end of the Civil War, 4 new era of clnems came into ealitence. Thug in any tsps ‘apis plos were nor greatly dierent fen hone made belore ae lrg the wat she victor: would see wo thatthe fess made an shown it Spain would reflec the offical eclogy The cod ofthe war mache the begining of picless purge of ll cone who fad been on the song side. And the specter of censorship loomed like an “entenniating angel" ‘over anyehing inns that might be consid ws even vaguely reste oF “subversion,” whether in polis, celigion, ot socal behavio. @