Directory of World Cinema: East Europe

Description

Part of the Directory of World Cinema series, this title includes contributions from some of the leading academics in the field. It features film recommendations from a range of genres for those interested in watching more cinema from these regions. It also features comprehensive filmography as an index. Given the prevalence of important new wave cinemas across Eastern Central Europe in the post-war, post-Stalinist era (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia), this new volume of the Directory of World Cinema series charts the trends of these national cinemas.

In the decades since the 1970s, the continuing popularity of filmmakers from these countries (including Krzysztof Kieslowski, Béla Tarr, István Szabó and Jiri Menzel), coupled with a recent international surge in the visibility of the cinemas of Serbia, Slovakia and Romania, means that these countries in East Central Europe are a central focus in the directory. Introductory essays of this title establish key players and explore important genres such as war, comedy, surrealism and art cinema while reviews and case studies analyse individual titles in considerable depth. For the film studies scholar, or for all those who love cinema and want to learn more, Directory of World Cinema: East Europe will be an essential companion.

Introduction by the Editor

Film of the Year – Tricks

Actors

Comedy 

War

Art Cinema

History

Drama & Realism

Surrealism & Allegory

Poland

Directors

Yugoslavia

Directors

Hungary

Directors

Czechoslovakia

Directors

Sujets

• Directories
• Película fotográfica
• Reference
• Directory
• Eastern Europe
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Romania
• Serbie
• István Szabó
• Ji?í Menzel
• Béla Tarr
• Krzysztof Kie?lowski
• Film
• Slovaquie

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 19 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841505183
• Langue: English

Extrait

Volume 8
DIRECTORY OF WORLD CINEMA EAST EUROPE
Edited by Adam Bingham
First Published in the UK in 2011 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2011 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2011 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Publisher: May Yao Publishing Manager: Melanie Marshall
Cover photo: Popi i diament/Ashes and Diamonds, Cybulski, Zbigniew, 1958, Film Polski
Cover Design: Holly Rose Copy Editor: Michael Eckhardt Typesetting: Mac Style, Beverley, E. Yorkshire
Directory of World Cinema ISSN 2040-7971 Directory of World Cinema eISSN 2040-798X
Directory of World Cinema: East Europe ISBN 978-1-84150-464-3 Directory of World Cinema: East Europe eISBN 978-1-84150-518-3
Printed and bound by Cambrian Printers, Aberystwyth, Wales.
CONTENTS
DIRECTORY OF WORLD CINEMA EAST EUROPE
Acknowledgements
Introduction by the Editor
Film of the Year
Tricks
Actors
Zbigniew Cybulski
Comedy
Essay
Reviews
War
Essay
Reviews
Art Cinema
Essay
Reviews
History
Essay
Reviews
Drama Realism
Essay
Reviews
Surrealism Allegory
Essay
Reviews
Poland
Directors
Reviews
Yugoslavia
Directors
Reviews
Hungary
Directors
Reviews
Czechoslovakia
Directors
Reviews
Recommended Reading
Test Your Knowledge
Notes on Contributors
Filmography
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My sincere thanks go to all at Intellect, especially May Yao and Melanie Marshall, who in addition to allowing me the opportunity to organise and oversee this project have provided the practical advice and professional support that has helped to make this a thoroughly enjoyable working experience. Many thanks also to Tony Harrild for his very able early proofreading and his useful suggestions for the editing of reviews, and to contributor Jan ul k for checking tirelessly for the correct use of accents and improving the manuscript immeasurably by doing so. Indeed, each and every contributor has added to the quality and breadth of this manuscript and my thanks to them all for the efficiency with which they worked with me to meet deadlines and to shape and re-shape their material as required - to say nothing, of course, about the expertise they brought to bear on their written essays and reviews. Finally my warmest thanks to those close friends and family who helped more than they could know by seeing me through the rigours of this project. I couldn t have completed it without them.
Adam Bingham
INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR
At the 2007 London Film Festival, to complement the British premieres of Nesf r it / California Dreamin (Cristian Nemescu, 2007) and that year s Palme d Or winner 4 luni, 3 saptam ni si 2 zili / 4 Months, 3 Weeks 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007), a panel discussion was held specifically to discuss the viability of discussing Romanian cinema as a new New Wave movement. Entitled Romanian Cinema: the next New Wave? the participants (including 4 Months director Cristian Mungiu) were reserved and a little sceptical at the seemingly overnight explosion of their country s national cinema. They made reference in particular to the eager critical canonization of a select few new auteur filmmakers on the one hand, and on the other, to the sadly sub-standard industrial infrastructure in Romania that means domestic audiences struggle to see many of even the most acclaimed and internationally successful works.
It is a pertinent point, one that has numerous ramifications for the study of national cinemas and New Waves in general (attendant on which has generally been a distinctly international construction of perceived domestic themes and traits). However, the comments seem to be especially pointed with regard to the various, almost simultaneous, nouvelle vague movements that sprang up in East Central Europe in the decades following the World War II. Beginning with a remarkable new school of Polish cinema in the mid-1950s and thereafter continuing with New Waves in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, these epochal moments in European film-making placed their respective countries on the international map for the first time. Coming from what were closed, insular worlds, these new films offered a revelatory insight into the cultural modes and paradigms of the countries of their production, and were as a result New Waves in the purest sense of the term.
Very few works from any of this region s countries had made any substantial impact outside their domestic borders. Thus, for many in Western Europe, indeed the world in general, the East Central European New Waves that arose at the same time as the French and Japanese nouvelle vague movements opened up the cinematic, indeed artistic practices of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. With the exception of the latter, the respective film industries of these nations had, prior to World War II, achieved stability and a measure of prosperity, especially in Poland where a film-making co-operative established in 1930 by, among others, such significant future directors as Aleksander Ford and Wanda Jakubowska, laid the foundations for the direction of the Polish film industry in the post-war years when it was re-structured as a series of more or less autonomous film-making units, each headed by a senior figure (such as Ford). It was with this structure that the Polish New School came into being on the strength of Andrzej Wajda s Pokolenie / A Generation (1955), which led to the subsequent decade of works that put Polish cinema firmly on the international map. After the first, socially-conscious wave of the New School came the existential concerns of a second wave - directors such as Roman Pola ski and Jerzy Skolimowski. Their work found popular favour, but in the 1970s the old guard of Andrzej Wajda, combined with new talents such as Krzysztof Zanussi and Krzysztof Kie lowski, popularized the cinema of moral anxiety , and once again a stringent engagement with issues of modern Poland predominated. The imposition of martial law in 1981 saw many film-makers careers curtailed or exiled, and many works were shelved, remaining so until after the fall of Communism in 1989 (following which a new climate of audience taste clashed with the works being produced and led to severe problems for the industry).
The cinematic fortunes of Hungary, whilst inconsistent, had begun to turn for the better by the 1940s. The country had been relatively slow on the uptake of feature film production, but numbers had increased throughout the 1910s, culminating in the years 1918/1919 when, under successive short-term revolutionary governments, a record number of features were produced. The 1930s and war years saw another boom in Hungarian cinema (when a quota system in exhibition was introduced), and annual production steadily increased to a peak of more than fifty by 1943, many of which were glossy, formulaic comedies and romantic dramas. Following a post-war slump, the Hungarian industry was nationalized in 1948 (following the Communist takeover); and in 1955 there was a lessening of the hitherto tightly regimented ideological strictures of socialist realism. Following this decisive break, the seeds of the subsequent decade s New Wave began to be sown as major directors such as Zolt n F bri and K roly Makk took advantage of the new liberalized climate to produce challenging dramas with a strong social commitment; whilst the New Wave proper, which is generally regarded to have begun with first-time director Istv n Ga l s drama of several friends trying to come to terms with the death of one of their number, Sodr sban / Current (1963), began to make almost immediate headway in international circles. Many of Hungary s most famous and revered directors began their careers around this time, including Istv n Szab , Mikl s Jancs , M rta M sz ros and others. Their work engaged profoundly with aspects of Hungarian society, politics and its recent history. The 1970s saw another significant development in the so-called Budapest school of quasi-documentary film-making, a group under whose prominent auspices B la Tarr s early features were made; but thereafter a prominence of staid genre cinema and economic difficulties led to several major directors working on international productions or co-productions. More than twelve first time directors appeared in 1990-1991 (Andr s B lint Kov cs 2000: 107); although state investment in a still-struggling industry did not grow or develop for several years and multiplex cinemas did not appear in Budapest until 1996. As a result, alongside continuing attempts at large-scale productions, there emerged a significant trend in low-budget and documentary cinema that has invigorated production and artistic achievement.
In Czechoslovakia, stable film production had begun around 1910, and the country rapidly became the pre-eminent centre of film-making, and especially film exhibition, in the Austro-Hungarian empire, something that was solidified by both international distribution ( Stavitel chr mu / The Builder of the Cathedral [Karl Degl Anton n Novotn , 1920]) and indeed international financing (the very first Slovak film, J no k [Jaroslav Siake?, 1921], was produced with largely American capital). After 1918 and the formation of the independent Czechoslovak Republic, film was viewed as a significant aspect of national culture, and the country saw out the silent period with an above-average 26 films per year (Hames 2009: 54). Subsequently, a number of successes were scored with a series of adaptations such as Jaroslav Ha