1930s Hollywood returns to Madrid with a free film series featuring commentary by experts. The Juan March Foundation is organizing the program Romance and Transgression in Pre-Code Hollywood, which shows how films from 1929 to 1934 pushed the limits of censorship and revealed the moral dilemmas of society.
The films will be screened over several weekends until May 30 at the Foundation’s headquarters at 77 Castelló Street (Salamanca district). Two-thirds of the tickets are raffled off a week before each screening, and the rest are distributed at the box office one hour before the start, free of charge.
Creative freedom in the midst of the Depression
Still from Married by Chance. | Editorial credit: Fundación March
During the Great Depression, the film industry experienced its own crisis and opted for daring and provocative stories to attract audiences. The big screen featured conflicted romances, forbidden love, and courageous women.
Actresses such as Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Bette Davis were some of the stars of these stories, which challenged conventions. Their films openly showed love and desire, but also criticized the social appearances and double standards of the time.
All this freedom came to an end in 1934, when the Hays Code came into force, a guide on how to deal with topics such as love and crime in cinema. It ended up becoming an instrument of censorship and for this reason, earlier films that enjoyed greater freedom are known as the “pre-code” era.
Programming of desire and transgression
Still from Shanghai Express. | Editorial credit: Fundación March
Deception, passion, prostitution, alcohol, and even a broken marriage are the themes addressed in the films in this series by the March Foundation. In addition to the screening, the sessions will feature a 30-minute presentation by various film experts, which will give the audience a much better understanding of the impact of the work.
There will be two opportunities to see each film, as they will be shown on both Friday and Saturday at 6:00 p.m. This weekend, January 30 and 31, it will be the turn of Shanghai Express (1932), directed by Josef von Sternberg and presented by David Felipe Arranz, a journalist specializing in film and culture.
The program will continue in the coming months with four more films:
- February 13 and 14: Married by Chance (1932) by Wesley Ruggles, presented by Luis E. Parés.
- March 27 and 28: Ex-Lady (1933) by Robert Florey, presented by Jara Yáñez.
- April 24 and 25: You’re Mine ( 1933) by Sam Wood, presented by Andrea G. Bermejo.
- May 29 and 30: How Women Love (1934) by Clarence Brown, presented by Carlos F. Heredero.