Delayed Cinema and Feminist Discourse in Fernando Fernán-Gómez's El mundo sigue (1963/1965/2015)

Abstract

This essay considers the extraordinary exhibition history of El mundo sigue, whose nationwide release was delayed by some 50 years. Rather than lament the treatment of the film by Franco's censors, it uses Laura Mulvey's reflections on 'delayed cinema' to argue that the delay in release until 2015 in fact brings into focus 'details that lay dormant'. While previous criticism has stressed that El mundo sigue's originality compared to the contemporary Nuevo Cine Español lies in its deployment of national cultural influences like the esperpento, this study locates its originality in its treatment of gender. By feminizing, and thus revitalizing, the well-worn metaphor of Civil War as fraternal conflict, as well as exploring desarrollista Spain through female prostitution, and ultimately condemning Francoism through the figure of the stillborn, Fernando Fernán-Gómez departs from the androcentrism of the Nuevo Cine Español, foregrounds female experience to narrate the nation and anticipates feminist concerns.