La actriz en Primer Plano bajo el primer franquismo: ¿un punto de apoyo para un feminismo amordazado? (1940-1945)

Abstract

The film magazine Primer Plano, which appears in October 1940, is designed from the beginning as the Franco Regime’s official mouthpiece in everything associated with cinema. At the same time, this magazine perpetuates the paradigm of “hybrid” or popular film press – the predominant one since the 1910s –, a feature which contributes to the heterogeneity of its contents. In particular, the presence of actresses and star system is a vector of ambiguities insofar as it contradicts the official gender discourse and the female model promoted by the Franco regime: the angel of the house. The actress, in fact, is a woman who enjoys a certain freedom as she works outside of the domestic sphere, pursuing personal projects and fulfillment and, in some cases, embodying a model of independence. From the perspective of Cultural Studies and Gender Studies, and from the texts published in Primer Plano – articles, interviews, testimonies –, this paper analyzes the discourses which circulates around the figure of the actress – considered in a generic way, even though the examples may refer to specific cases – during the most unbending period of the Franco dictatorship. The aim is to study the strategies which are used in order to eclipse and deny her subversive facets, as well as the articles and interviews which highlight and praise them, for instance through the mention of the actresses’ personal life. The study also uses some readers’ letters which were published in the magazine during the period in question. From all these elements, it shows how the actress crystallizes the most opposed positions on feminity and opens some loopholes for the expression of a muzzled feminism.