Open Collections

Crímenes contra el estado : el género policial fílmico en la España de la segunda década de la autarquía (1950-1959) y en la Argentina del primer peronismo (1946-1955)

University of British Columbia

This study analyzes six crime fiction films produced in Spain and Argentina between 1951 and 1955: Los ojos dejan huellas (José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, 1952), Hay un camino a la derecha (Francisco Rovira-Beleta, 1953), Camino cortado (Ignacio F. Iquino, 1955), Camino al crimen (Don Napy, 1951), Deshonra (Daniel Tinayre, 1952) and Mercado negro (Kurt Land, 1953). Both in their narrative structure and in their formal composition, these films display intricacies which throw into question some constituent elements of this genre within the context of authoritarian regimes, thereby challenging the ideological message that they aim to disseminate. These discrepancies manifest themselves by means of visual and thematic elements from German Expressionism, film noir as well as Italian Neorealism. They can also be observed by way of hybridization with other genres, and by parodying the detective-film subgenre. Similarly, these signs of transgression can reveal themselves by featuring a criminal with ambiguous behavior. Consequently, by using the crime fiction genre, which plays an important ideological role in maintaining the status quo, these films manage to oppose authoritarianism through formal and narrative strategies.

Text

2014-03-28

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/46293

Hispanic Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/