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RESEARCH PRODUCT

El Ausente, ¡Presente! : el carisma cinematográfico de José Antonio Primo de Rivera, entre lider y santo

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Unlike most leaders of the masses, José Antonio Primo de Rivera was not elevated to the condition of charismatic personality until after his death. Moreover, his appearances on film during his life were few and far between. Following his death on November 20, 1936, however, the so-called Absent One was to become an object of veneration under Franco¿s regime, second only to the Generalissimo himself. The documentary Present! (1939) is an unusual and eloquent example of the contribution of film to a cult surrounding a fascist hero, as it portrays the spectacular transferal of the mortal remains of the founder of the Spanish Falangist Movement from Alicante to El Escorial between the twentieth and thirtieth of November, 1939. With a considerable dose of morbidity, the intention behind the film was to depict the fallen hero as a saint rather than render him the subject of political agitation. All this may be a b s t r a c t considered typical of Spanish fascism or pseudofascism.