With regimes such as Franco's being labelled as cultural wastelands and suffering unimaginable censorship, the possibility of cinema and artistic ideas flourishing under non-democratic regimes is unlikely. Dictatorships hold tight to distribution as well as production. They stop their citizens seeing foreign films. But they also control the local films lucky enough to be exported to festivals abroad. They actively permit the production of art movies obliquely critical of the regime.
However this interesting article sees many regimes' years some of the most influencial and unique in their releative cinematic histories. I highly recommend a read here
Good article. Can a regime be mesured by its films? Perhaps the more escapist a film is, the more in need of escapism are its people?
ReplyDeleteI really like the article's idea that a "formally innovative" art film, if good and creative, yet non-critical of the regime, is an infinitely more persuasive thing than any blatant piece of propaganda.
Another point. As the capability to make films gets easier and easier (all is needed now is a camera and a computer) will regimes find it more difficult to suppress dissident movies? And how about their release? Is it getting harder to stop the leaking of one of these?