Both the films Welcome, Mr Marshall and Death of a Cyclist
Introduction
Both the films Welcome, Mr Marshall and Death of a Cyclist were set during the Francoist era, a period in which Spain had already been hit by the impact of World War II. The war-affected the economy of Spain until they started for help from the United States. In the film of Welcome, Mr Marshall Spain interested in a program known as The Marshall Plan. The program intended to help countries hit and devastated by the war. In the second film, the author set it in a period in which Spain strike an agreement with the U.S, Pact of Madrid. Therefore, the films seem to have a lot of similarities.
Body
Luis García Berlanga was the author of the first film which appeared more like a comedy by depicted various themes concerning Spain in 1950s. The comedy revolves around the Spaniards who started depending on the economic and monetary aid from the United States. The program headed by the Marshall Plan, an organization that was named after US Secretary of State George Marshall and it aimed to help in the economic recovery of European nations that was massively devastated by World War II. But on the other hand, the U.S wanted to limit the spread of communism and Soviet bloc in Western Europe at the time.
In the second film, Death of a Cyclist, of 1955, Juan Antonio Bardem set the film to depict the construction of high social class in Spain’s society after the war ended. The film starts with a wealthy mistress with her friend in a vehicle then they knock a poor cyclist to death. They ignored it and continues with their journey. It showed the relationship between the poor and the rich in Spain. I found the theme of hypocrisy and murder in both films in that The Marshall Plan and the agreement of the Pact of Madrid benefited a few in the upper class and discriminated the lower class people in the society.
Bardem criticized the harsh political reality of dictatorship that seems to favor the high classes and isolate the lower social group. The appearance of melodrama starlets in the film was a good example of how women were presented in the film. The starlets were good-looking in the interior designs of affluent households. The imagery of households thins on the wear of the starlet wears was a clear indication of how society thinks of women who perform indoor domestic labor. Women ware supposed to stay at home and take care of the children. Berlanga’s film also present Mr Marshall! “deals in multiple ways with gender roles and with the repression of sexuality”. The film tried to cover female and male space in that “the women perform indoor domestic labor, while the men hang out and smoke near the fountain.”
Conclusion
The two films brought a picture that women rarely took part in politics in because in Spain culture they were thought to be inferior and not allowed to be leaders. Only men were allowed to dominate politics and superior in authority. The picture interior design worn by the starlet brought represented gender roles where women in society were connected to house activities only. Women are identified as social agents but denied their rights even in public. The scenes of neorealism brought a picture of everyday life in the poor neighbourhoods of the popular areas of Madrid. Including women in the small, poor Castilian village who endured difficulties in the society and never given the right to express themselves. Women are seen as the only people to perform indoor domestic labor, as the men hang out.