6. The End of the Falangist Utopia (1950)
Franco and the Nationalist win the Civil War and Spain goes back in time. Modernization is Evil and autocracy and looking to the past is the point. But the consecuences of this splendid isolation is obvously an economic default. So, in order to save the State and the totalitarian regime, there is no more than an option: beginning another time a new controlled modernization.
This is the end of the Falangist Utopia. And the Falangist artists, like cinema director Edgard Neville, made a wonderful film that is the final point of this “pasatista” movement.
A horse in the Gran Vía (in 2010 we are commemorating Gran Via Centenary, Madrid modern urban arteria):
Edgard Neville: El último caballo (1950) – The Last Horse – The Last of the Mohicans
We are in a “taberna” called La Cruzada (The crusade) in the old part of Madrid.
There are 4 characters: in the center (an office worker in an electric company who is just demobilised from the Army and he has a horse but cannot find a place for the animal) – right one, a fireman in the same situation, demobilised – Civil War finished ten years before) – the woman -Edgar Maxence, a florist, so woman and flower, natural life, symbolist but up to date woman (is working with flowers not only making bouquets in a garden). And, of course, the horse “Bucéfalo” -name of Alexander the Great’s horse
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FFG (man in the center): Now we are going to offer a toast for the old world.
JLO (man left side): And what is that ?
FFG:The world in which a poor man could have a horse and could give him to eat without great difficulties. The world in which it was possible to be lived calmly without killing itself working. The world in which everything was smooth and easy, when there was SO-LI-DA-RI-TY between men. And when everything what it moved had hot blood.
JLO: Viva, we are going to drink by the hot blood.
CM (woman right side): What do you mean with that of the hot blood?
FFG: I mean when there was not so much motor and not so much machine and not so much iron and not so much gasoline and not so much smoke and not so much… nastiness. When people were not in a as much hurry and lived with more calmness. When hours to the day exceeded to take a walk in a horse, or a car thrown by horses. When it did not have that sullen gesture that today is observed everywhere because to people it always needs the leftover peseta with which bought the joy. When everything was worth pennies. Ten, ten pennies.
JLO: Now more gains.
FFG: Yes, today more gains. But today, it must only to live and to eat, and that… that is little.
CM: Sure, and so little.
FFG: In addition, no, it is not only about to eat.
JLG: Naturally. We are going to offer by the drink.
FFG: No, no, I no longer drink more.
CM: They had to prohibit wine.
FFG: It is a poison, a poison. Cm: We are going to drink by the Prohibition? [They toast by the Prohibition]
FFG: And the guilty of all of this is modern life with its haste and their ordinarieces.
DOWN WITH THE TRUCKS! DOWN WITH CARS (AUTOMOBILES)! DOWN WITH THE MODERN LIFE! IT IS NECESSARY TO END THE MODERN LIFE!
JLO: [Going out] Already we are fed up with this time of gasoline and trucks and are going to finish with it. [This is a good definition of Spanish Civil War for many people fighting in Francoist side]
FFG: Ahora vamos a brindar por el mundo antiguo.
JLO: ¿Y eso qué es?
FFG: El mundo en que un pobre hombre podía tener un caballo y le podía dar de comer sin grandes dificultades. El mundo en que se podía vivir tranquilamente sin matarse trabajando. El mundo en el que todo era suave y fácil, cuando había SO-LI-DA-RI-DAD entre los hombres. Y cuando todo lo que se movía tenía sangre caliente.
JLO: Viva, vamos a beber por la sangre caliente.
CM: ¿Qué quieres decir con eso de la sangre caliente?
FFG: Quiero decir cuando no había tanto motor y tanta máquina y tanto hierro y tanta gasolina y tanto humo y tanta… porquería. Cuando la gente no tenía tanta prisa y vivía con más sosiego. Cuando sobraban unas horas al día para pasear en un caballo, o en un coche tirado por caballos. Cuando no había ese gesto hosco que hoy se observa en todas partes porque a la gente le falta siempre la peseta sobrante con la cual se compraba la alegría. Cuando todo valía unos céntimos. Diez, diez céntimos.
JLO: Ahora se gana más.
FFG: Sí, hoy se gana más. Pero hoy, se tiene solo para vivir y para comer, y eso… eso es poco.
CM: Toma, y tan poco.
FFG: Además, no, no se trata solo de comer.
JLG: Naturalmente. Vamos a brindar por la bebida.
FFG: No, no, yo ya no bebo más.
CM: Eso, eso. El vino lo debían prohibir.
FFG: Es un veneno, un veneno.
CM: ¿Vamos a beber por la Ley Seca?
[Brindan por la Ley Seca]
FFG: Y de todo esto tiene la culpa la vida moderna con sus prisas y sus ordinarieces. !ABAJO LOS CAMIONES! !ABAJO LOS AUTOMOVILES! !ABAJO LA VIDA MODERNA! !HAY QUE ACABAR CON LA VIDA MODERNA!
JLO: [Sale] Ya estamos hartos de esta época de gasolina y de camiones y vamos a acabar con ella.