La ruta de las voces invisibles. Voz narradora en el cine español del primer franquismo

The use of a voice over narrator in outstanding fictions of the first Francoism comes in direct line of those other voices of comment, tutelary and persuasive, that already appeared in the news and documentaries of the Civil War, of which it is still a trace more of his presence in these movies. In turn, the recognized self-conscious nature of some of these films is due to the use of this voice, responsible, to a large extent, for the sometimes melancholy and sometimes parodical, but always reflective, burden that characterizes them. From the fable tone of The Man Who Wanted to Kill (Rafael Gil, 1942) to the manipulative will of Mr. Marshall (Luis García Berlanga, 1953), the intervention of the narrator implies, in different degrees depending on the case, the will to establish a communication with the interior of the diegesis, in the direction of the characters, or with the outside, looking for the involvement of the subject-spectator.