The Old Memory

The documentary film The Old Memory (1977) is fundamental for understanding how the memory of the Civil War was managed during the Transition. Its very title suggests an ambiguous statement of intent regarding the value that can be attributed to individual testimony in understanding past events. In fact, the film consists mainly of a series of interviews with political leaders and combatants from both sides, almost always presented in a continuous, uninterrupted sequence. Most of them had been prominent figures during the war or in the Francoist regime, and some were still in exile. In addition to these testimonies, the film also uses archival materials, including photographs, film clips, and press excerpts.

The various voices aim to reconstruct the sequence of events related to the advent of the Republic and, above all, the beginning of the Civil War. The most notable aspect of the film is precisely the way in which Camino works with and shapes the testimonial voices by removing the usual presence of the interviewer or a narrator. Instead, he uses works editing, allowing the testimonies to engage in dialogue with one another—to overlap, complement, or contradict each other—even though the speakers are situated in different times and places.

The variety of perspectives means that the reconstruction of events that emerges from this dialogue is complex, at times indeterminate, heterogeneous, or divergent. Through this process, the editing gradually weaves together a sequence of events that, by contrasting the different voices, leaves space for the viewer to judge, compare, and arrive at their own conclusions about what is being recounted. In short, this editing strategy seeks to critically distance the viewer from the testimonial voice so that they can integrate it into their own understanding of the past. Furthermore, the film’s music (a splendid score by Xavier Montsalvatge) reinforces this process by distorting, emphasizing, or providing an ironic commentary on what is being said at each moment.

The reflective distancing proposed by the film, in short, works to draw the viewer away from the hypnotic warmth of the literal memory evoked by each testimony and places them in a more elevated position—one from which to judge the fractures, the differing perceptions of the same event, and the weaknesses and inaccuracies of memory. By focusing precisely on these contradictions, Camino seeks to go beyond sympathies and rejections to turn that memory of the past into an exemplary memory.

VJB