Romy Schneider in Portugal: Transnational cinema and censorship in the Marcelist period (1968-1974)

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the presence of Romy Schneider in Portuguese cinemas, especially in the Algarve region, valuing the transnational dimension of her stardom, and simultaneously analyzing the processes of censorship of the actress’s films in Portugal. The chronological period chosen for this article goes from 1968 to 1974, i.e. the final period of the Portuguese dictatorship, during which Marcelo Caetano was President of the Council of Ministers. These years coincide with a different representation of the actress on screen from the one that made her famous in the 1950s, projecting an image of purity and candour, especially with the trilogy Sissi, the Austrian Empress. What were the censors’ comments? Was there more openness in the censorship criteria for films, regarding showing naked body images and ethical issues, in these last years of the Portuguese dictatorship? These are questions that we will try to answer, considering the contents of censorship reports. The research presented here was developed in the archives of the National Secretariat of Information and Tourism, namely in the foreign film censorship minutes, which are deposited in the National Archive of Torre do Tombo (ANTT) in Lisbon.