A murky world of shadows and
doubts, a world of masks and lies, of big words and blood, a tense
moment of struggle between the classes, a world in which the
"paternalistic" methods used by old employers (sacking people or
beating them up to scare them) are no longer effective to fight
against the workers' movements and thus behind the negotiation
tables of business, the Fascist guns start to take aim: Barcelona
1917 - 1923. The movie "La verdad sobre al caso Savolta" (The Truth
about the Savolta Case) is a feature film, a performance, and a
team effort about historic and social events that demonstrate the
process of the birth of a dictatorship in Spain.
I believe that political or
historic films reflect with more precision the moment they are
conceived and produced than the time in which they are set. I
signed the agreement with Andrés Vicente Gómez to write the script
and direct a film based on Eduardo Mendoza's excellent novel in
January 1976, when the Franco-imposed censorship still existed.
With Mendoza's permission, we adapted the novel very freely. Some
leading characters disappeared and were replaced by new ones.
Actually, the film's main story is
based on a prior story of mine: A general strike is being prepared
and several trade unionists are murdered followed by the murder of
a big employer. In fact, the murderer is the same person: the
employer's own partner. In that way he can make the murder look
like an act of revenge by the workers. With the excuse of looking
for the murderer among the workers, the impending general strike is
dismantled. By September 1976 the script was almost finished. I
knew though that given the circumstances of that time it was
impossible to shoot the film. I got together with my friend
Sauquillo who knew the novel and loved the script. "You must make
this film by hook or by crook." In January 1977, Sauquillo and some
other labor lawyers were assassinated on Atocha Street. The script
contained a scene that was very similar to what actually happened.
We had to wait until 1978 to start the filming.
The filming was very hard and when
it was almost finished, I was expelled by the producer, Pedret, in
my view a meddlesome, intrusive newcomer who, for reasons I didn't
quite understand, had become the Spanish producer of the film.
After a strike that lasted four months during which I was defended
by an inter-syndicate consortia (CCOO, CNT y UGT) formed in
Barcelona (the only time as far as I know that something like that
has happened) and subsequently by the trade unions of Madrid, I was
able to finish the movie exactly as I wanted it to be and had
conceived it.
As I said, Andrés Vicente Gómez was
the promoter of the film. He gave me a complete free hand with the
script (I am very grateful for this) and later we traveled together
to do the casting and became friends. [...]
Later, that accursed Domingo Pedret
P.C appeared in Barcelona. When, after the four-month-long strike,
Pedret's setup collapsed, Andrés Vicente Gómez and I got together
and signed an agreement to finish what little remained to be shot
of the film. In view of the abuses which my team had been subjected
to, I imposed a condition: the re-recruitment of the technical crew
and artistic team had to be approved by the inter-syndicate
consortia of Barcelona, a body whom the Employers Association
didn't recognize. I had to pay dearly for that, and I suppose
Andrés too. I, for my part, gave up my salary as director. Thus we
ended up on friendly terms, at least, and with the film finished
(Domingo Pedret disappeared from the scene). The imposition on my
part of the recognition by the inter-syndicate consortia of a
contract that was to be made public (the press in Barcelona
followed the full scandal step by step) and the whole string of
defamation and slander they propagated (all of which was refuted by
the investigatory commission of the Inter-syndicate consortia) took
its toll: I was behind schedule and had overshot the budget, etc.
which did me a lot of harm, something which my subsequent
professional trajectory hasn't been able to set right. [...]
My style as director was influenced
by Fritz Lang. The "black" film narrates how crimes can be a
business. We have tried to show how business can be a crime. The
movie ends with a great defeat of the workers' movement, the
irresistible rise of the gunmen from the employers associations,
the rise of fascism and dictatorship. These were the nightmares we
had to endure and there was no place for the sort of happy ending
that pleases everyone. Buñuel used to say that movies should
shatter the spectators' idea that he is living in the best possible
world. We didn't try to write a pamphlet; we tried to make an
aggressive film with a fighting spirit. Rather than proposing a
truth or an absolute lesson which can only convince those who have
already been convinced, we proposed an exercise in communication
with the intelligence and heart of the spectator, in such a way
that such a joint exercise (the film) might influence people in
order to achieve the truth outside the movie theatres; in our own
lives. The film doesn't only oppose Fascism but everything that
makes Fascism possible; the intimate fascism that dwells in the
heart. It's about time we stopped seeking refuge in martyrdom and
exaggerating the deeds of criminals. Big political criminals don't
exist, what exists are the authors of great political crimes, which
isn't the same thing. Although they have won several times, we must
prove that we can fight against them, that they aren't
insuperable.
As regards the Savolta Affair, one
needn't be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who the perpetrator of the
crimes is. All that happens is that the criminal was lucky: his
interests coincided with those of the banks. A movie director
should respect his characters. They should be complex human beings.
The director must show that Fascists are human being but must also
bear in mind that human beings can be Fascists. The film ends with
two parallel quotes: one is from Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1858):
"political murders are of no use, if anything they make matters
worst. It is the will of people's conscience that must be changed;
the task to be fulfilled is totally moral, completely spiritual:
the dagger is useless." The other quote is from Brecha and was
written during the days of triumphant Nazism: "Violence only helps
where it rules". My feelings and reason were and still are with the
anarchist Proudhon, but in those difficult times when we were half
way through pulling out of another ignominious dictatorship, it was
hard for us to feel cheerful and enthusiastic.
ANTONIO DROVE.