Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoLuis García Berlanga y la representación de La Guerra Civil española: La vaquilla (1985) como esperpento cinematográco doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | 363July-December of 2022ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978How to cite this article: Sánchez López, F. (2022). Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of e Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpento. Doxa Comunicación, 35, pp. 363-375.https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n35a1574Fernando Sánchez López. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Studies from the University of Salamanca and a Master’s degree in Literary eory and Comparative Literature from the same university. Currently, he is a PhD student at e Ohio State University, in the area of Iberian Studies. From his previous research, he has published an article on the motif of the double in the TV show Breaking Bad. Extra academically, he is involved in the divulgation and lm reviews in the online magazine of specialized criticism Mutaciones. e current work is based on his lecture at the “Mediterranean, party and carnival. In tribute to Luis García Berlanga”, held at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University of Valencia on November 18, 19 and 20, 2021.The Ohio State University, USA[email protected]ORCID: 0000-0002-1672-1799Abstract:e esperpento, beyond the literary conception coined by Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, entails singular aesthetics which can be transferred to other arts, as it is the case of lm. e cinematic esperpento, even though it assimilates its main characteristics into the audiovisual medium, has not had a historically well-dened path within Spanish lm, as it did not quite t in the common waves of dissident cinema and francoist cinema. As an answer to this problem, the aim of this essay is to analyze La vaquilla (Luis García Berlanga, 1985) as a paradigmatic example of the Spanish cinematic esperpento, even if it has not been considered like that by other authors or has been generally ignored. rough this analysis, the aesthetic functionality of the genre will be observed and its systematically deforming approach will lead to draw unique conclusions regarding the extremely traumatic event that the Spanish Civil War was, which shaped the historical memory of the nation. In this sense, the narrative possibilities of the cinematic esperpento and the necessity to give the genre a historical place of its own will be vindicated. Keywords: Cinematic esperpento; Spanish Civil War; Luis García Berlanga; Rafael Azcona; Memory.Resumen:El esperpento, más allá de la concepción literaria acuñada por Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, conforma una estética que puede ser transferida a otras artes, como es el caso del cine. El esperpento cinematográco, que asimila sus principales características al medio audiovisual, no ha tenido un recorrido histórico claro dentro de la cinematografía españo-la, condenado a transitar entre las tierras del llamado cine disidente y el cine continuista. Como respuesta a tal problemática, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar La vaquilla (Luis García Berlanga, 1985) como ejemplo paradigmático del esperpento cinematográco español, pelícu-la que no ha sido considerada como tal por otros autores o incluso se ha ignorado. A través de dicho análisis, se observará la funcionalidad es-tética del género y se indagará en las singulares conclusiones derivadas de un acercamiento sistemáticamente deformador respecto a un evento tan traumático para la memoria histórica nacional como fue la Guerra Civil española. De este modo, se reivindicarán tanto las posibilidades narrativas del esperpento cinematográco como la necesidad de otor-gar un lugar propio al género dentro de la historia del cine español.Palabras clave:Esperpento cinematográco; Guerra Civil española; Luis García Berlanga; Rafael Azcona; Memoria.Received: 15/02/2022 - Accepted: 20/04/2022 - Early access: 02/05/2022 - Published: 01/07/2022Recibido: 15/02/2022 - Aceptado: 20/04/2022 - En edición: 02/05/2022 - Publicado: 01/07/2022

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364 | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación1. Introduction 1.1. Characteristics of the esperpento: concept and aesthetics When speaking of an “esperpento”, beyond the common use of the word (practically inscribed in today’s everyday language) or its etymological origin, it is impossible to avoid the allusion to Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, who thus baptized his own literary conception around 1920. e author would grant the esperpento the capacity of deforming reality, which managed to accentuate its most grotesque features and, in this way, could be used to answer several questions about the nature of the Spanish situation at the time. In Valle-Inclán’s opinion, the most viable option to explain and denounce the tragic course of the grotesque reality of his country was through the esperpento, as he dened it in the seminal work Luces de bohemia (1924). ere, through the voice of his protagonist, Max Estrella, he establishes that “our tragedy is not tragedy” (Valle-Inclán, 1924: 154) and that, consequently, “the tragic sense of Spanish life can only be given with a systematically deformed aesthetic” (157), for which he would use the example of distorted reections in concave mirrors.e genesis of the Valleinclanian esperpento is located in a context of crisis whose ramications stemmed from the loss of the last colonies and the consequent discontent and instability of the late nineteenth century. In the midst of such a climate, there are several authors who arm a social commitment in the writer of Luces de bohemia, beyond a mere use of original literary resources. In other words, Valle-Inclán’s work “presents historical realities and characters with a considerable human density that does not disappear or is not invalidated by the abundant presence of ironic and grotesque ingredients” (Fernández Oblanca, 2001: 152). e middle ground to be reconciled would be the dichotomy realism-inconventionalism, since the singularity of the esperpento in the presentation of a given era clashed with the usual ideas of realism. is singularity stemmed from a conscious impulse on the part of Valle, who said the following: “the word in literary creation always needs to be transferred to that plane in which the world and human life are idealized” (quoted in Fernández Oblanca, 2001: 151). erefore, it is essential to pay attention to the functioning of this supposed idealization in order to understand the corrosive power of the esperpento.In this sense, Valle would speak very signicantly about the theory of the three visions in order to better conceptualize the esperpentic notion. ere would be three ways of contemplating the world from the artistic and aesthetic point of view: “kneeling, standing or raised in the air” (Pólak, 2009: 22). While in the rst, typical of classical tragedy, the characters are admired and in the second, as Shakespeare did, they are observed from the same height, Valle opts for a third way. He prefers to “approach them from the air, which is to look at them from a distance, with impassivity and superiority” (Santos Zas) and, in this way, he establishes a gaze that considers his characters “as beings inferior to the author, with a point of irony” (Pólak, 2009: 22). Taking this into account, it can be armed that the individuals who populate the esperpentic ctions suer a dehumanizing process, “they lose their greatness to become dolls [...], they are reduced to lumps and simple doodles or become animalized” (Santos Zas).As a result, the third vision, characteristic of the esperpento, must necessarily be represented through a concrete aesthetic, under the lenses of the aforementioned concave mirrors, in order to eectively establish such a distancing gaze in relation to its pathetic characters. In fact, the esperpentic aesthetic has been coined by several authors since several of its elements are traceable. For example, Petr Pólak considers that it is “consisting of the systematic deformation of classical norms, by means of which the most beautiful images become absurd” (2009: 17). Furthermore, for Francisco Ruiz Ramón, this aesthetic forms a vision of the
doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Fernando Sánchez LópezISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978365world “to which the writer arrives from a specic Spanish historical circumstance and from a particular ideology, the result of a critical stance, whose root is both individual and social” (1971: 126). is last idea reiterates what Fernández Oblanca mentioned regarding the idea of the esperpento as an urgent intellectual exercise and not only an aesthetic one. Anthony N. Zahareas would arm that “the esperpento is not simply a grotesque quality but a grotesque situation; [...] Valle-Inclán’s stylistic virtuosity is not only a case of aesthetic gymnastics but also aesthetics of commitment” (1966: 162). Consequently, it should not be forgotten that his formal exercise, although highly stylized, is dialectically linked to specic historical and cultural coordinates.On the other hand, although Valle established the bases of aesthetics during part of his work, the esperpento cannot be reduced as relative to a single art, already from its very genesis. In fact, “the comparison with Goya has [...] its origin in the declarations of the writer himself, who now as on other occasions understands his work in dialectical relation with painting” (Ríos-Font and Ríos-Font, 1992: 290). Again returning to Luces de bohemia, Max Estrella says that “esperpentism was invented by Goya” (Valle-Inclán, 1924: 156), so the author is appealing to the inter-artistic component of his conception, which would already be rooted, to a certain extent, in the Spanish tradition. With this in mind, the esperpentic aesthetic could not belong exclusively to the literary eld and, as a result, its inuence would branch out towards other cultural manifestations, where its functioning would share many of the traits, on the one hand, and adapt the remaining ones to the particularities of the medium in question, on the other. Such is the case of cinema.1.2. Esperpentic lm: an alternative modernityIt is not sucient to speak of a mere aesthetic assimilation to the cinematographic medium, since it would be reductionist to think that there is only an intermediate transfer of themes, oral language or character construction. Likewise, the necessary and signicant formal transemiotization must be taken into account when it comes to capturing on the screen questions of the esperpento in terms of style and point of view. Some of the dening formal considerations of the esperpentic lm have been reasonably grouped by Ángel Morán Paredes in his article “e cinematic esperpento: from El pisito to Crimen ferpecto”. According to the author, its most notable characteristics are the following (2006: 12): –A way of narrating in which simultaneous actions prevail, with dierent characters (main and secondary) together within the frame, which leads to a chaos of dialogues hindering each other. –Shots of long temporal duration, with a greater predilection for the sequence shot (colder and more distant) and a scale far from the characters, so that medium shots are scarce and close-ups are hardly used.With the aforementioned formal features, the esperpentic lm would achieve, from the audiovisual medium, “the demiurgic attitude proposed by Valle-Inclán, the non-identication of the author with his characters” (Morán Paredes, 2006: 12).However, the existence of this cinematic trend in Spain cannot be explained without the complicated post-Civil War context. Before the Salamanca Conversations (1955), considered a turning point in the history of Spanish cinema, the industrial, social and ideological situation of the seventh art was pitiful in the eyes of part of the sector. To exemplify this feeling, Juan Antonio Bardem would mercilessly dene these circumstances in the following way: “Current Spanish cinema is: politically ineective, socially false, intellectually insignicant, aesthetically null and industrially rickety” (quoted in Seoane Riveira, 2017: 195). Be that as it may, from the Conversations, which were programmed with the aim of seeking a common commitment that would change
366 | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónthe situation, “between the decades of the 50s and the 60s the history of cinematographic modernity in Spain is congured” (Seoane Riveira, 2017: 193).In a certain sense, what such an event achieved would be the historiographical division of Spanish cinema, in the manner of two Spains, around a pair of very dierentiated sides, “the continuists (followers of the regime) versus the dissidents (opposed to it)” (Seoane Riveira, 2017: 197). It would remain to be dened with certainty the place where the cinematic esperpento can be located, since, on the one hand, it is too cynical, disbelieving and rupturist to speak of “continuism” and, on the other hand, it is often accused of an absent political commitment or of generalized cruelty to speak of “dissidence”. According to Seoane Riveira, the esperpentic way would need to be considered “an alternative cinematographic modernity to the one consensualized from the Salamanca Conversations of 1955” (2017: 18).Tracing the precedents of this alternative path, several authors would agree in pointing to the famous Madrid director Edgar Neville as a lmmaker who, to a certain extent, began to work with the esperpentic elements, whose most prolic period was the decade of the 1940s with titles such as La torre de los siete jorobados (1944), La vida en un hilo (1945) or Domingo de carnaval (1945). In his feature lms “we sometimes nd a deforming, almost surrealist and expressionist character [...], therefore, the esperpentic aesthetic does not remain so far from Neville” (Morán Paredes, 2006: 7). It is therefore reasonable to consider the director from Madrid a remarkable precedent, since “he will represent the rst step on the path of Spanish cinema towards the esperpento with the assimilation of Valleinclanian and Quevedo’s literary techniques” (Seoane Riveira, 2017: 202). However, the real initiator of this current was not a director, but a screenwriter.1.3. Rafael Azcona: how a screenwriter initiates the cinematic esperpentoBefore getting to the well-known and indispensable Berlanga-Azcona tandem, whose work is undoubtedly framed within the coordinates of the cinematic esperpento presented here, it is worth emphasizing why the scriptwriter from La Rioja is considered the genuine initiator of this genre. A humorous and extremely acid writer, Rafael Azcona ventured into cinema as a screenwriter with Italian director Marco Ferreri, who adapted a novel by Azcona himself, El pisito (1958). is lm was to be the rst great example of esperpentic lm, but, although he was the screenwriter, “Azcona is not the garnish, he is the real content and it is Ferreri who serves as a ller for Azcona’s universe” (Deltell, 2011: 8). From this lm onwards, the Azconian aspect begins to be perfectly traceable, whose elements would include “the tendency to chorality, black humor, the distancing from his characters, irony, the presence of death” (Angulo, 2000: 35), all of them features shared with the esperpentic tradition.is is how a very young Víctor Erice and Santiago San Miguel explained it in 1961, considering Azcona the initiator of a new cinematic current whose bizarre realism would be linked to “the deformation of reality, monsters, the esperpento, the so-called black humor, Spanish humor”. In this way, the scriptwriter from La Rioja would be one more continuator within the long Spanish artistic tradition “that goes from the Picaresque to the present day” (San Miguel and Erice, 1961). More authors agree, such as Marta Raquel Macciuci, who also does not hesitate to include Azcona in the “path of the fertile Hispanic tradition of satire and mockery”, besides pointing out that he revitalizes practices connected “with Valle-Inclán, with Arniches, with Quevedo” (2001: 4). His more than reasonable link with Luis García Berlanga has meant that, on occasions, the gure of the scriptwriter has remained in the shadows. Nevertheless, it is necessary to point out the mutual inuence to which they were exposed.
doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Fernando Sánchez LópezISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978367Although it is true that in Berlanga, one of the most recognized gures of Spanish cinema, there are also clear signs of the esperpentic aesthetics in his beginnings, his rst lms tend to be framed in a more tender and sainetesque territory, although not lacking in mordacity. Such is the case of ¡Bienvenido, Míster Marshall! (1953) and Esa pareja feliz (1953), the latter co-directed with Juan Antonio Bardem, whose sarcasm veiled by costumbrist humor and some scenes of chaotic chorality are established as vestiges of what is investigated in the present essay. A very important point that would indicate the change in the director’s career when teaming up with Azcona would be the formal issue, a very signicant aspect in the conception of the cinematic esperpento, as indicated above. In fact, the extensive shots that made the director famous were not yet part of his repertoire, since “Berlanga did not yet use, in 1958, the long sequence shot of characters [...], the Berlangaian sequence shot appears with the collaboration of Rafael Azcona and not before him” (Deltell, 2011: 9).It is considered that, until Berlanga worked with Azcona, the manifestations of the esperpento would not reach their most powerful levels. From this point on, their collaboration would extend almost throughout the rest of his career (with the exception of Berlanga’s last lms, Todos a la cárcel, from 1993 and París Tombuctú, from 1999). Paradigmatic examples, essential lms in the history of Spanish cinema, could be Plácido (1961) and El verdugo (1963), able to circumvent Franco’s censorship through corrosive humor linked to the esperpento, already with a fully consolidated aesthetic thanks to the conjunction between Azcona’s narrative potential and Berlanga’s duly orchestrated expression. Precisely, again, in that aesthetic “Azcona and Berlanga seem to coincide with Valle-Inclán” with respect to the words of Max Estrella and the systematically deformed tragic sense already mentioned here (González, 2008: 75).However, the case that interests this study will be his famous lm about the Spanish Civil War, La vaquilla (1985), in which the esperpentic optics would be used to analyze the conict that dened the country in the twentieth century and whose resonances, to some extent, still persist today.2. La vaquilla: esperpentizing Spain’s wounds2.1. Summary, historical context and criticismis collaboration between Berlanga and Azcona, as already noted, sought the grotesque representation of the most traumatic event in recent Spanish history. To do so, it was based on a simple plot: at the front of the war, the rebel side plans to hold a party in the nearby town, where there will be a banquet and a heifer will be fought, but the Republicans will try to thwart it by inltrating their lines to steal the animal. From this event onwards, the spectator witnesses a systematic ridiculing of all the agents involved in the lm’s story.Regardless of its subject matter, La vaquilla, almost reaching two million spectators, “became one of the highest grossing lms by the director of El verdugo” (González, 2008: 73). is fact, which could be anecdotic, takes on great importance considering its year of release, 1985. It should be noted, as Jo Labanyi points out, that “few lms and almost no ction writing dealt with the subject in the rst ten years after Franco’s death, when the promotion of an outrageous hypermodernity prevailed” (2007: 95). On this point, Sánchez-Biosca also agrees, since he considers that “at the end of the 1990s, an inverse obsession is already in the air: a compulsive need for rehistorization that goes hand in hand with a certain disappointment, at least, of the ideals formulated
368 | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónin the previous decade” (1995: 181). However, the responses to the need mentioned by Sánchez-Biosca were dierent and even antagonistic in certain aspects.For example, quoting Labanyi again, once a certain point was reached in the eighties, some of the lms that would confront the issue of the war would be “seemingly driven by a nostalgic desire to romanticize the Republic” (2007: 95), where she mentions ¡Ay, Carmela! (Carlos Saura, 1990) and Libertarias (Vicente Aranda, 1996). Against this idealistic vision, La vaquilla seems to position itself, perhaps, more in line with the spirit of the pact of oblivion, without the decision to block the past, “but a decision not to let it shape the future” (Labanyi, 2007: 93), through a reduction of the conict to the absurd. To this end, Berlanga and Azcona’s lm would use a polyphonic and grotesque discourse that “serves to confront the rigid and static vision of the reality of the Civil War” (González, 2008: 78).However, the lm that is the subject of this research has not been classied in a particular current, precisely because of the unusual nature of its discourse. It is very curious how, in Labanyi’s articulation of two general types of cinematic approach to the memory of the war, La vaquilla is left adrift. e author dierentiates two signicant tendencies when it comes to approaching the conict: on the one hand, that which uses the realm of the fantastic and intergenerational memorial trauma, a “haunting presence of the violent past in the present”, and, on the other hand, “those texts which opt for a realistic or documentary format”, which would transport us “back to the past” (2007: 103). La vaquilla does not t any of these molds, since, although it seems to conform a representation of that warlike past, its esperpentic premises deform any realistic pretension. In this way, something similar to what happened after the Salamanca Conversations would be occurring, dividing the manifestations in binary terms, relegating a possible alternative esperpentic path to dismissal.Its coarse and cynical character contrasts sharply with the usual sacralization and dramatization with which such a traumatic event as the Civil War is presented. In fact, in Sánchez-Biosca’s opinion, the lm is not even considered as an example of esperpentic cinema, which would problematize the supposedly festive character of the lm when it comes to exploring the conict, due to its innocuous eectiveness. For the author, La vaquilla would be permeated by the comedy of the eighties and its aesthetics would be “’fallera’, colorful, eccentric, ‘Valencian’, to the detriment of the esperpentic tonality, of Valleinclanesque style, which once characterized Berlanga’s lms during the fties and sixties” (Sánchez Biosca, 1995: 185). On the contrary, Sánchez-Biosca himself arms that the script of the lm “had been written by Berlanga in collaboration with Rafael Azcona in 1956, but the censorship had forbidden it” (1995: 184), which would indicate that the intentionality of the lm does t in the temporal coordinates of his most remembered esperpentic works.Even taking into account that the gestation of La vaquilla was censored for decades, with the inevitable changes that the script would suer over time1, the lm is “the most complete approach to the civil war from the prism of the comic” (González, 2008: 73). Moreover, as will be shown below, the lm by Berlanga and Azcona does have many of the characteristics that dene the aesthetics of the cinematic esperpento, so it should be dened as such. rough distancing formal techniques, a construction of characters based on deformation, demythologization and chorality or a systematic situational confusion linked to the imsy, 1 His initial script, titled “No Man’s Land”, underwent changes in its progressive rewrites that eliminated some particularly grotesque scenes or characterizations. For example, the brothel scene shows bald, toothless, near-starvation women, something that does not prevent the soldiers from trying to have intercourse with them. Although it can be argued that the genesis of La vaquilla had a particularly corrosive grotesque character, this does not invalidate the idea that will be defended below.
doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Fernando Sánchez LópezISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978369almost interchangeable ideology of its inhabitants, La vaquilla achieves a unique commentary on the Civil War from the esperpentic approach.2.2. Distancing techniques, esperpentic heroes, inversion of roles and animalization-symbolisme rst aspect to highlight is the formal question, in which we will see how the semantic sense of some of the shots in La vaquilla is in line with the cinematic esperpento. Already from the opening scene, which begins with the reproduction of popular music on a record player and, therefore, signaling a tonal short-circuit between the conict and its soundtrack, the republican trench is presented in several sequence shots. Although the comparison may seem arbitrary, if one thinks of the aesthetic approach of lms like Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957) or 1917 (Sam Mendes, 2019), their sequence shots inside the trenches sought a total immersion in the terror of war, as well as a greater emotional connection with the soldiers. On the contrary, in La vaquilla, Berlanga uses these sequence shots in line with the esperpentic postulates of distancing and coldness with respect to the characters. us, what is seen at the beginning is a small trench from the outside, populated by soldiers who, in comparison with the dry and hot landscape, are almost reduced to a prop (Figures 1 and 2). is wide framing allows for the seemingly chaotic conuence of many of the characters, who are heard interacting, but it is dicult to properly understand what about. Such empathic disconnection and incommunication among its participants already points to a reection on the nature of war itself. Figure 1 Figure 2 9 los personajes, a los cuales se oye interactuar, pero es difícil entender correctamente sobre qué. Tal desconexión empática y la incomunicación entre sus participantes ya apunta a una reflexión sobre la naturaleza de la guerra misma. Imagen 1 Imagen 2 Fuente: Imágenes de La vaquilla, (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD es de 2013, por DIVISA HOME VÍDEO y Video Mercury Films. La escena acaba explicitando dicha incomunicación cuando un pregonero del bando sublevado transmite por megafonía que las fiestas del pueblo de al lado tendrán lugar, donde habrá un banquete, un baile y una corrida de toros. Esta forma de desmoralización enfada al sargento interpretado por Alfredo Landa, que correrá a transmitir desde la megafonía republicana, mientras que la interrupción entre personajes al mismo tiempo que sigue oyéndose de fondo el anuncio franquista es realmente confusa. Al fin, el sargento usa su transmisor para mandar callar a los del otro bando, pero tendrá que recurrir a los gritos. A esto, el soldado que está a su lado le dice «no grite tanto, mi Brigada, que distorsiona» (06:55). Los del mismo bando no se escuchan, a nadie le importa lo que dice cada individuo y hacerse escuchar significa gritar, aunque ello “distorsione” el ambiente. El uso del plano secuencia, como es frecuente en Berlanga-Azcona se ve con asiduidad en la película. Por mencionar otros ejemplos reseñables, cuando comienza el banquete de las fiestas, en una sola toma el espectador puede asistir a la ridiculización de los distintos personajes del bando franquista (imágenes 3 y 4). En esta secuencia, la cámara se va moviendo a lo largo de la mesa, parándose en cada uno de ellos (de 1:12:00 a 1:14:00). Primero, un requeté le cuenta a la marquesa que ha administrado mal el dinero de su marido, a lo que ésta le sugiere que diga que se lo han quitado los rojos, pero que le dé el dinero a ella, ya que se lo dará a los curas para así ir al cielo más rápidamente. A continuación, el cura pide por favor que el baile de las fiestas no sea “agarrao’”, para así evitar la promiscuidad. Finalmente, el marqués le cuenta a un militar cómo su dolencia, la gota, podría remontarse incluso a Felipe II. Así, solo en esos dos minutos sin cortes, se pone en tela de juicio desde lo esperpéntico: la inaptitud en la gestión y la sempiterna coartada que suponía culpar de todo a la “amenaza roja”, la avaricia disfrazada de caridad, la rígida y rancia moral de la Iglesia, además de los delirios de grandeza y los privilegios hereditarios de una nobleza venida a menos. De este modo, “la tragedia de España se convierte en espectáculo inquietante pero cómico” (Santos Zas) y “la ‘historia esperpentizada’” demuestra que no sólo se queda en el rasgo estilístico de lo grotesco, como se mencionaba en la introducción de este ensayo, sino que también es capaz “de una severa crítica social y de una profunda preocupación por la tragedia nacional” (Zahaeras, 1967: 706). Source: Illustrations from La vaquilla (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD is from 2013, by DIVISA HOME VÍDEO and Video Mercury Filmse scene ends up making explicit this lack of communication when a town crier of the rebel side transmits over the loudspeaker that the festivities of the next town will take place, where there will be a banquet, a dance and a bullght. is form of demoralization angers the sergeant played by Alfredo Landa, who runs to transmit from the Republican loudspeaker, whereas the interruption between characters while the Francoist announcement continues to be heard in the background is really confusing. At last, the sergeant uses his transmitter to command the other side to be quiet, but he will have to resort to shouting. To this, the soldier next to him says “don’t shout so much, my Brigade, it distorts” (06:55). ose on the same side do not listen to each other, nobody cares about what each individual says, and to be heard means shouting, even if it “distorts” the atmosphere. e use of the sequence shot, as is common in Berlanga-Azcona, is frequently seen in the lm. To mention other notable examples, when the banquet begins, in a single shot the viewer can witness the ridicule of the dierent characters of the Francoist
370 | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónside (Figures 3 and 4). In this sequence, the camera moves along the table, stopping at each of them (from 1:12:00 to 1:14:00). First, a requeté tells the Marquesa that she has mismanaged her husband’s money, to which the Marquesa suggests that she say that the Reds have taken it from him, but give the money to her, as she will give it to the priests so that she can go to heaven more quickly. Next, the priest asks that the dance at the festivities not be “agarrao’”, in order to avoid promiscuity. Finally, the marquis tells a military man how his ailment, gout, could be traced back even to Philip II. us, only in those two minutes without cuts, the following is questioned from the grotesque: the inaptitude in management and the everlasting alibi of blaming everything on the “red menace”, the greed disguised as charity, the rigid and rancid morals of the Church, as well as the delusions of grandeur and the hereditary privileges of a nobility that had fallen into disrepair. In this way, “the tragedy of Spain becomes a disturbing but comic spectacle” (Santos Zas) and “the ‘esperpentized history’” shows that it not only remains in the stylistic feature of the grotesque, as mentioned in the introduction to this essay, but is also capable “of a severe social criticism and a deep concern for the national tragedy” (Zahaeras, 1967: 706).Figure 3 Figure 4 10 Imagen 3 Imagen 4 Fuente: Imágenes de La vaquilla, (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD de 2013, por DIVISA HOME VÍDEO y Video Mercury Films. El segundo punto a discutir, vital en la cuestión esperpéntica e iluminador en el contexto bélico, es la articulación del héroe en este tipo de ficciones. Volviendo a la tercera visión de la que hablaba Valle, uno de sus epicentros estaría personificado por el héroe esperpéntico, en línea con el héroe absurdo, incapaz “de encarar la realidad con honra y dignidad” (Pólak, 2009: 20). Este antihéroe de rasgos ridículos y fuertemente determinado por su ambiente social sería descrito por Valle de esta forma: “en la vida existen muchos seres que llevan la tragedia dentro de sí y que son incapaces de una actitud levantada, resultando, por el contrario, grotescos en todos sus actos” (citado en Pólak, 2009: 20). En consecuencia, se habría dado la vuelta a los arquetipos clásicos, ahora inútiles ante la misma fatalidad del destino que los personajes de la antigüedad cargaban sobre sus hombros con altivez (Pólak, 2009: 21). La vaquilla, desde su coralidad, asume la misma representación del héroe esperpéntico en su regimiento republicano protagonista. Lejos queda cualquier tipo de romantización de la guerra y sus participantes. El heroísmo bélico, con historias sobre soldados valerosos capaces de gestas que los dignifiquen, se encuentra en el polo opuesto de lo presentado en la cinta. Esto se ejemplifica a la perfección en los momentos iniciales de la misión, cuando deben formar un pequeño equipo que se infiltre en la zona sublevada. La tropa, reunida en una iglesia abandonada y destrozada, espera órdenes, y cuando el teniente busca a uno de ellos que ayude con la caza de la vaquilla, éste intenta esconderse (16:10). No existe predisposición alguna por parte de los soldados y queda clara su total cobardía, solo terminada cuando un soldado que dice ser torero se ofrece para la aventura. Sin embargo, cuando este lamentable comando de 5 hombres llega a la cuadra en la que se encuentra la vaquilla, el torero no se atreve a atacarla, ni siquiera con amenazas como “o la matas o acabas en un consejo de guerra” (30:25). Entre todos intentarán acorralarla fallidamente, pero, antes de eso, el sargento se da cuenta de que el torero se ha hecho sus necesidades encima (imagen 4). Tras salir de allí, tratará de defenderse de forma poco convincente diciendo: “que conste que no ha sido el miedo, es que ayer comí ciruelas y como estaban verdes, claro, hoy cagalera” (34:30). La figura del soldado, por un lado, y la del torero, por otro, quedan simultáneamente reducidas al patetismo escatológico. Esa vía escatológica, soez y chabacana que, indudablemente, vertebra La vaquilla, es una de las causas por las que la película podría ser acusada de ordinaria y no esperpéntica. No obstante, se debe tener en cuenta que, en el esperpento, “el mismo principio de subversión de las normas clásicas lo aplica al lenguaje”, dando Source: Illustrations from La vaquilla (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD is from 2013, by DIVISA HOME VÍDEO and Video Mercury Filmse second point to be discussed, vital in the esperpentic matter and illuminating in the war context, is the articulation of the hero in this type of ctions. Returning to the third vision of which Valle spoke, one of its epicenters would be personied by the esperpentic hero, in line with the absurd hero, unable “to face reality with honor and dignity” (Pólak, 2009: 20). is antihero with ridiculous features and strongly determined by his social environment would be described by Valle in this way: “in life there are many beings who carry tragedy within themselves and who are incapable of a lifted attitude, resulting, on the contrary, grotesque in all their acts” (quoted in Pólak, 2009: 20). Consequently, the classical archetypes would have been turned around, now useless before the same fatality of destiny that the characters of antiquity carried on their shoulders with haughtiness (Pólak, 2009: 21). La vaquilla, from its chorality, assumes the same representation of the grotesque hero in its protagonist republican regiment.e lm is far from any kind of romanticization of war and its participants. War heroism, with stories about brave soldiers capable of deeds that dignify them, is at the opposite pole of what is presented in the movie. is is perfectly exemplied in the opening moments of the mission, when they must form a small team to inltrate the rebel zone. e troop, gathered in an abandoned and destroyed church, awaits orders, and when the lieutenant looks for one of them to help with the hunt for the heifer, he tries to hide (16:10). ere is no predisposition on the part of the soldiers and their total cowardice is clear, only ended when a soldier who
doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Fernando Sánchez LópezISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978371claims to be a bullghter oers himself for the adventure. However, when this pitiful commando of 5 men arrives at the stable where the heifer is, the bullghter does not dare to attack her, not even with threats such as “either you kill her or you end up in a court martial” (30:25). Between all of them, they will try to corner it, but, before that, the sergeant realizes that the bullghter has had his bowels done on him (Figure 4). After getting out of there, he will try to defend himself in an unconvincing way saying: “for the record, it wasn’t fear, it’s just that yesterday I ate plums and as they were green, of course, today I had a shitting problem” (34:30). e gure of the soldier, on the one hand, and the bullghter, on the other, are simultaneously reduced to scatological absurdity. is scatological, vulgar and tawdry path that, undoubtedly, vertebrates La vaquilla, is one of the reasons why the lm could be accused of being ordinary and not esperpentic. However, it should be taken into account that, in the esperpento, “the same principle of subversion of classical norms is applied to language”, giving equal space to “registers of popular, vulgar and torn speech” or “outburst and blasphemy” (Santos Zas), so it is consistent if it is intended to aect the aforementioned esperpentic demystication of human behavior in war. us, the scatological aspect joins the continuous sexist attitudes of the soldiers on both sides.Figure 4 Figure 5 11 igual cabida a “registros del habla popular, vulgar y desgarrada” o “el exabrupto y la blasfemia” (Santos Zas), por lo que es consecuente si se pretende incidir en la mencionada desmitificación esperpéntica de las conductas humanas en la guerra. Así pues, lo escatológico se une a las continuas actitudes sexistas por parte de los soldados de ambos bandos. Imagen 4 Imagen 5 Fuente: Imágenes de La vaquilla, (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD de 2013, por DIVISA HOME VÍDEO y Video Mercury Films. Ya al comienzo de la película, el sargento republicano está preocupado cuando se da cuenta de que, en el bando franquista, habrá un baile al cual irán las mujeres del pueblo. Cree que, “si se corre la voz del baile, se me pone la tropa cachonda y se me pasa al enemigo en masa” (11:30). Esta percepción que posiciona los impulsos sexuales primarios por encima de lo ideológico se vuelve a repetir más adelante, ya con el equipo republicano infiltrado en las líneas enemigas. En vez de volver a su zona, el teniente decide que vayan a un prostíbulo improvisado que hay en el pueblo (imagen 5). Allí, se encontrarán con otros soldados y personajes franquistas, por lo que el sargento republicano concluye: “que si comunismo, que si fascismo, pero a la hora de meterla en caliente, todos de acuerdo” (56:10). Con esta afirmación, tanto republicanos como franquistas asumen la representación grotesca de una España patriarcal, definiendo a sus antihéroes esperpénticos como seres simplones de escaso raciocinio envueltos en una guerra que no comprenden. Una vez más, “detrás de lo bufo, lo grotesco, lo cómico y lo absurdo se vislumbra siempre una situación dramática” (Santos Zas). No sólo existe una generalizada incomprensión del conflicto, sino una falta de consistencia ideológica en todos los personajes, ilustrada por la arbitraria localización geográfica de sus componentes y “una inversión de papeles […] que genera una serie de equívocos y engaños fundamentales para la comicidad del film” (González, 2008: 77). El primer punto queda claro al comienzo de la película, cuando ambos bandos se reúnen para un intercambio en tierra de nadie, ya que, como dice el sargento republicano: “ellos tienen tabaco, pero les falta el papel de fumar y nosotros al revés. Pues nada, cambiamos una cosa por otra y así fumamos todos” (7:20). Una vez reunidos, un soldado franquista y otro republicano hablan sobre la posibilidad de intercambiarse también entre ellos, ya que la novia del republicano vive en el pueblo controlado por el bando sublevado y la familia del franquista vive en zona republicana. A tal proposición, el rango superior franquista le dice: “¿Pero es que tú te has creído que la guerra es una broma? ¿Pero es que no sabes que hay dos Españas, la nuestra y la de ellos?” (10:12). Los soldados no terminan de entender por qué el tabaco sí puede intercambiarse y ellos no, lo que señala cómo la única razón por la que luchan en su bando es una cuestión aleatoriamente espacial. Source: Illustrations from La vaquilla (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD is from 2013, by DIVISA HOME VÍDEO and Video Mercury FilmsAlready at the beginning of the lm, the Republican sergeant is worried when he realizes that, on the Franco side, there will be a ball attended by the women of the town. He believes that, “if word of the ball gets out, I’ll get the troops horny and go over to the enemy en masse” (11:30). is perception that positions primary sexual impulses above the ideological is repeated again later, with the Republican team already inltrating enemy lines. Instead of returning to their area, the lieutenant decides that they should go to an improvised brothel in the village (Figure 5). ere, they will meet other soldiers and Francoist characters, so the Republican sergeant concludes: “communism, fascism, but when it comes to having sex, we all agree” (56:10). With this statement, both Republicans and Francoists assume the grotesque representation of a patriarchal Spain, dening their grotesque antiheroes as simpletons of little reasoning involved in a war they do not understand. Once again, “behind the buoonish, the grotesque, the comic and the absurd, a dramatic situation is always glimpsed” (Santos Zas).Not only is there a widespread misunderstanding of the conict, but also a lack of ideological consistency in all the characters, illustrated by the arbitrary geographical location of its components and “a reversal of roles [...] that generates a series of misunderstandings and deceptions fundamental to the lm’s comedy” (González, 2008: 77). e rst point becomes clear at the
372 | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónbeginning of the lm, when both sides meet for an exchange in no man’s land, since, as the Republican sergeant says: “they have tobacco, but they lack cigarette paper, and we the other way around. Well, we exchange one thing for the other and that way we all smoke” (7:20). Once reunited, a Francoist soldier and a Republican soldier talk about the possibility of exchanging themselves between them, since the Republican’s girlfriend lives in the town controlled by the rebel side and the Francoist’s family lives in the Republican zone. To such a proposition, the superior Francoist rank says: “But have you thought that the war is a joke? But don’t you know that there are two Spains, ours and theirs?” (10:12). e soldiers do not quite understand why tobacco can be exchanged and they cannot, which points out how the only reason they ght on their side is a random spatial issue.Similarly occurs with the role reversal to which the Republican commando that inltrates the village is subjected. For the mission, they must disguise themselves as Francoists, which, inevitably, will force them to behave like them. However, one of the most remarkable scenes in this regard occurs when, after the rst failed attempt to steal the heifer, the Republican commando bathes in a pond (Figure 6). Suddenly, a van appears with Francoist soldiers who also decide to bathe there. As they are all naked, without their uniforms, they do not identify themselves as enemies, to which the Republican sergeant adds: “What life is, Lieutenant. Here, naked, no enemy, no nothing” (37:57). Again, the arbitrariness of ideology is called into question, exemplied in how the dispossession of ideologically charged symbols equalizes the human condition, at least on this occasion.Figure 6 12 De modo parecido ocurre con la inversión de roles a la que se somete el comando republicano que se infiltra en el pueblo. Para la misión, deberán disfrazarse de franquistas, lo cual, inevitablemente, les obligará a comportarse como ellos. Sin embargo, una de las escenas más reseñables en relación a esto se da cuando, después del primer intento fallido por robar la vaquilla, el comando republicano se baña en una charca (imagen 6). Repentinamente, aparece un furgón con soldados franquistas que deciden también bañarse allí. Al estar todos desnudos, sin sus uniformes, no se identifican como enemigos, a lo que añade el sargento republicano: “lo que es la vida, mi teniente. Aquí en pelota, ni enemigo ni nada” (37:57). De nuevo, se pone en cuestión la arbitrariedad de la ideología, ejemplificada en cómo la desposesión de símbolos con carga ideológica iguala la condición humana, al menos en esta ocasión. Imagen 6 Fuente: Imágen de La vaquilla, (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD de 2013, por DIVISA HOME VÍDEO y Video Mercury Films. Por último, en cuanto a la animalización característica del esperpento, además de las constantes referencias a cerdos y marranos que, sin duda, están relacionadas con los comportamientos de los soldados, quizás se podría señalar el caso de la novia del soldado republicano, disputada tanto por él como por un pretendiente franquista. Según Luis M. González en su artículo sobre el filme, teniendo en cuenta que “la representación de la patria se ha hecho habitualmente a través de una figura femenina, la disputa entre los dos soldados por la misma mujer se puede leer como un símbolo de la contienda civil” (2008: 78). En este sentido, la lectura encajaría con la visión patriarcal de los soldados, en la que lo femenino sería únicamente objeto de deseo sujeto a la dominación masculina y, en este caso, la lucha por la novia se equipararía a la lucha por la vaquilla, un animal. No obstante, en el caso de este animal, el proceso es el opuesto, ya que resulta evidente que la pugna por ver quién se queda con la vaquilla simboliza el conflicto armado entre los dos bloques, enfrascados en una guerra que decidiría el mando del país. Uno de los símbolos estereotípicos de España es el toro, por lo que la correlación no deja lugar a dudas. El animal como símbolo de la nación escindida es explicitado en una última escena que corta de raíz el tono cómico de la cinta. Tras el caos que se produce en la plaza del pueblo, la vaquilla escapa, por lo que tanto republicanos como franquistas irán en su busca. Finalmente, los dos toreros de los respectivos bandos discuten por ver quién se la lleva, pero el animal, exhausto, acaba muriendo (imagen 7). En un primer plano del cadáver, se oyen insultos y disparos (1:53:08) y, Source: Illustrations from La vaquilla (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD is from 2013, by DIVISA HOME VÍDEO and Video Mercury FilmsFinally, as for the animalization characteristic of the esperpento, in addition to the constant references to pigs and swines, which are undoubtedly related to the behavior of the soldiers, perhaps one could point out the case of the republican soldier’s girlfriend, disputed both by him and by a Francoist suitor. According to Luis M. González in his article on the lm, taking into account that “the representation of the homeland has usually been made through a female gure, the dispute between the two soldiers for the same woman can be read as a symbol of the civil strife” (2008: 78). In this sense, the reading would t with the patriarchal view of the soldiers, in which the feminine would be only an object of desire subject to male domination and, in this case, the ght for the bride would be equated to the ght for the heifer, an animal.However, in the case of this animal, the process is the opposite, since it is evident that the struggle to see who gets the heifer symbolizes the armed conict between the two sides, engaged in a war that would decide the leadership of the country. One of the stereotypical symbols of Spain is the bull, so the correlation leaves no room for doubt. e animal as a symbol of the divided
doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Fernando Sánchez LópezISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978373nation is made explicit in a nal scene that breaks the comic tone of the lm. After the chaos that occurs in the town square, the heifer escapes, so both Republicans and Francoists go in search of it. Finally, the two bullghters of the respective sides argue over who gets it, but the animal, exhausted, ends up dying (Figure 7). In a close-up of the corpse, insults and gunshots are heard (1:53:08) and, later, the vultures end up devouring it in no man’s land. e heifer, reduced to carrion and with two “banderillas” stuck in what remains of its esh, is the last image of the lm (Figure 8). e intentionality is direct and, by breaking with the general tonality, Berlanga and Azcona succeed in creating a scene that is iconic for its symbolic-visual power, but demagogic in its political discourse. Two “banderillas” nailed that equate the violence of each of the sides in the body of a mutilated and abandoned Spain: La vaquilla, in this nal gesture, distributes equally the guilt in relation to the Civil War, pretending to leave behind a violent past under the cloak of the esperpento.Figure 7 Figure 8 13 posteriormente, los buitres acaban devorándola en tierra de nadie. La vaquilla, reducida a carroña y con dos banderillas clavadas en lo que resta de su carne, es la última imagen del filme (imagen 8). La intencionalidad es directa y, al romper con la tonalidad general, Berlanga y Azcona consiguen una escena icónica por su poderío simbólico-visual, pero demagógica en su discurso político. Dos banderillas clavadas que equiparan la violencia de cada uno de los bloques en el cuerpo de una España mutilada y abandonada: La vaquilla, en este gesto final, reparte por igual la culpa en relación a la Guerra Civil, pretendiendo dejar atrás un violento pasado bajo la capa del esperpento. Imagen 7 Imagen 8 Fuente: Imágenes de La vaquilla, (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD de 2013, por DIVISA HOME VÍDEO y Video Mercury Films. 3. Conclusiones Si bien el esperpento iniciado por Valle-Inclán goza de una gran salud, como así atestiguan numerosos estudiosos que alaban su capacidad corrosiva para deformar la realidad y en los que se localizan a la perfección sus coordenadas históricas, no se ha prestado la misma atención a su funcionamiento en el séptimo arte. Como ya se ha visto, la estética esperpéntica puede ser interesantemente recodificada en la pantalla. No obstante, la historia de este tipo de películas en el cine español fue complicada, ya que su carácter estrafalario las condenó a no encajar en ninguna de las vertientes dominantes. Se reivindica aquí un lugar alternativo para la vía cinematográfica esperpéntica, con el objetivo de que algunos de sus precedentes y paradigmáticos ejemplos sean reubicados y alejados del ostracismo. En la combinación Berlanga-Azcona, si casos como Plácido y El verdugo sirven para desenmascarar la profunda hipocresía y mezquindad de las clases altas o condenar la pena de muerte instaurada en el régimen franquista desde lo esperpéntico, La vaquilla se atreve a usar la misma estética contra el irresoluble dolor de la Guerra Civil española. Con este estudio, de hecho, se ha intentado demostrar que dicha película forma parte efectiva de la vía esperpéntica, como muchos de sus elementos así la definen. Primero, su composición formal articulada en torno a los usuales planos secuencia, cuyas escenas siguen a una amplia y abigarrada gama de personajes, así como una escala alejada de la emotividad de los primeros planos, coinciden con la actitud demiúrgica propia del esperpento, mediante la cual se provoca un distanciamiento del autor respecto a sus personajes, ahora empequeñecidos. Además, el protagonismo coral de La vaquilla funciona significativamente en su intención desmitificadora del heroísmo bélico, ya que los soldados son representados como Source: Illustrations from La vaquilla (García Berlanga, L. (1985). InCine S.A / Jet Films. DVD is from 2013, by DIVISA HOME VÍDEO and Video Mercury Films3. ConclusionsAlthough the esperpento initiated by Valle-Inclán enjoys great health, as attested by numerous scholars who praise its corrosive capacity to deform reality and in which its historical coordinates are perfectly located, the same attention has not been paid to its functioning in the seventh art. As we have already seen, the esperpentic aesthetic can be interestingly recodied on the screen. However, the history of this type of lm in Spanish cinema was complicated, as their outlandish character condemned them to not t into any of the dominant strands. Here we claim an alternative place for the esperpentic cinematic path, with the aim that some of its precedents and paradigmatic examples be relocated and removed from ostracism.In the Berlanga-Azcona combination, if cases such as Plácido and El verdugo serve to unmask the profound hypocrisy and pettiness of the upper classes or condemn the death penalty established in the Franco regime from the esperpentic, La vaquilla dares to use the same aesthetics against the unsolvable pain of the Spanish Civil War. With this study, in fact, we have tried to demonstrate that this lm is eectively part of the esperpentic path, as many of its elements dene it. First, its formal composition articulated around the usual sequence shots, whose scenes follow a wide and variegated range of characters, as well as a scale far from the emotionality of the close-ups, coincide with the demiurgic attitude of the esperpento, by means of which the author
374 | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Luis García Berlanga and the portrayal of The Spanish Civil War: La vaquilla (1985) as cinematic esperpentoISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicacióndistances himself from his characters, now dwarfed. In addition, the choral protagonism of La vaquilla works signicantly in its intention to demystify war heroism, since the soldiers are represented as fools driven by their lowest passions and an evident lack of understanding of the causes that move them, in line with the archetype of the esperpentic hero: unworthy, ridiculous and conditioned by a grotesque reality. Finally, the reversal of roles, which questions the ideological stability of the sides in the conict, as well as its animalization or the symbolism of some of the lm’s elements, are strong contrasts that add more layers to its grotesque universe.In short, La vaquilla is a cinematic esperpento that approaches the Civil War with a very particular aesthetic. Its representation, systematically deformed, is far from the majority of approaches to the conict, within realistic assumptions or in the realm of the fantastic. erefore, the lm by Luis García Berlanga and Rafael Azcona functions as an alternative approach to the historicization/anti-historicization of the conict. Although the lm, through the esperpento, ridicules the essence of the war and all its combatants equally, it ends up taking ideological sides in its last minutes, accusing, in the same way, both the Republicans and the Francoists for the devastation suered in Spain. In this way, La vaquilla establishes itself as a discordant piece within the Spanish collective memory: too cynical, deeply oensive against the Manichean and triumphalist past of the Francoist side, but insensitive and forgetful of the sad historical contempt suered by the losers of the Republican side.4. AcknowledgementsArticle translated into English by Fernando Sánchez López.5. Bibliographic referencesAngulo, J. (2000). Realidad, humor y vitriolo. El mundo según Azcona. Nosferatu. Revista de cine. 33, 29-48.Deltell Escolar, L. (2011) Marco Ferreri y Rafael Azcona: el realismo grotesco. En F. García Serrano (Ed.), Rafael Azcona: escribir el cine (pp.1-19). Madrid: Universidad Complutense of Madrid.Fernández Oblanca, J. (2001). Literatura y sociedad en el esperpento de Valle Inclán. Literatura y sociedad, el papel de la literatura en el siglo XX: I Congreso Nacional Literatura y Sociedad, 145-164.García Berlanga, L. (1985). La vaquilla. Spain: InCine S.A / Jet Films.González, L. M. (2008). La vaquilla: memoria histórica y humor carnavalesco. Quaderns de cine. 3, 73-79.Labanyi, J. (2007). Memory and Modernity in Democratic Spain: e Diculty of Coming to Terms with the Spanish Civil War. Poetics Today. 28, 89-116.Macciuci, M. R. (2001). Antes que el guión. Sobre estrafalario/1 de Rafael Azcona. Olivar. 2, 77-102.Paredes Morán, Á. (2006). El esperpento cinematográco: de El pisito a Crimen ferpecto. Cuadernos de Documentación Multimedia. 17, 3-24.Pólak, P. (2009). El esperpento valleinclaniano en el contexto del arte grotesco [Doctoral Dissertation, Masarykova univerzita, Filozocká fakulta].
doxa.comunicación | nº 35, pp. 363-375 | July-December of 2022Fernando Sánchez LópezISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978375Ríos-Font, W. & Ríos-Font, W. C. (1992). Valle-Inclán, Goya y el esperpento. Hispanic Journal, 13(2), 289-300.Ruiz Ramón, F. (1971). Valle-Inclán y su teatro en libertad. Historia del teatro español: siglo XX, 98-150.San Miguel, S. & Erice, V. (1961). Rafael Azcona, iniciador de una nueva corriente cinematográca. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/rafael-azcona-iniciador-de-una-nueva-corriente-cinematografica--0/html/ff43ec6a-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_2.htmlSánchez-Biosca, V. (1995). La ccionalización de la historia por el nuevo cine español: de La Vaquilla (1985) a Madregilda (1994). Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos. 20, 179-193.Santos Zas, M. La teoría y la práctica del esperpento. Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/catedra_valle_inclan/vida_teoria/Seoane Riveira, J. (2017). Originalidad y reescritura en la obra cinematográca de José Luis García Sánchez [Doctoral Dissertation, University of Salamanca].Valle-Inclán, R. (1924). Luces de bohemia. ePub Version, Titivillus.Zahareas, A. N. (1966). e Esperpento and Aesthetics of Commitment. MLN, 81(2), 159-173.Zahaeras, A. N. (1967). La historia en el esperpento de Valle-Inclán. Actas del Segundo Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas, 705-711.

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