Tra nazionalismo e cosmopolitismo. L’influenza della Universum Film AG (UFA) e del cinema di Weimar sul cinema spagnolo degli anni Trenta

Abstract

Between Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism. The Influence of Universum Film AG (UFA) and Weimar Cinema on Spanish Cinema in the 1930s.

UFA leeaded German movie industry during the Weimar period. After WWI UFA men strongly restarted German cinema reaching a dominant position in film production, film distribution and film screening. In a European and global perspective, the technical prestige and the cultural influence of UFA silent masterpieces supported the international spread of Weimar filming experience, beyond the borders of Germany and German market. The incoming of the sound film, the great financial and economical crisis, the raise of Hitlerism and the following Jewish diaspora crashed and restyled many strategies and techniques of UFA dissemination. Nazi propaganda and the Jewish emigration became soon alternative keys to deal with UFA style in order to rescue and reset it in a new perspective. Both ways reached Hollywood, but also touched Paris, London and, in Spain, Madrid and Barcelone. In Spain the divergent professional careers of Saturnino Ulargui and David Oliver  seem to be highly representative. During the hard times of the Second Spanish Republic, Ulargui and Oliver introduced and adapted, in their activities and projects, more than a fragment of the famous UFA touch, keeping the early Spanish speaking cinema in touch with a wider and deeper stream of industrialism, mass-media culture, modern cinema and future.

Received: 12-11-2019

Admitted: 08-12-2019