The superlative verticality of the Valley of the Fallen and its filmic avatars during the transition, as a noeud de mémoire

Abstract

The dramatic verticality of the Valley of the Fallen, with its giant cross of 150 meters, was expressed through a visual rhetoric, that culminated during the burial in the basilica of his creator, Francisco Franco, on Novembre 23, 1975. These images, symbolizing the essence of dictatorship, have circulated widely after the dictator's death, transformed into authentic noeuds de mémoire (literally "memory nodes", NORA, 1984, p. XII). In the large corpus of the audiovisual avatars of the superlative verticality of the Valley of the Fallen, the Transition's period is particularly fruitful because the cinema appropriated very early this monument in a plurivocal way. The aim of this article is to analyze how the superlative verticality of the Valley of the Fallen is represented in movies during this period hinge of history of Spain. After recalling what were the main features of the francoist representation of the monument, I'll present a sample of five films that prolong or subvert it, stressing their complexity in terms of memory.