Cinema of Flames: Balkan Film, Culture and the Media by Dina s> Iordanova (review)

Abstract

344 SEER, 82, 2, 2004 Film and Power. On SergeiM. Eisenstein's Artistic TheogyI930-48 is selfconfessedly a 'lightly reworked' version of the author's doctoral thesis. Nonetheless it most emphatically does not have the weaknesses so often associated with such theses. The argument is very clearly structured and lucidly presented, despite the enormous complexity of the task in hand. Examining the centrality of the Grundproblem and Methodto Eisenstein's aesthetic theories of the I930S and I940s, Bohn argues that at the heart of these theorieslay a desireto find a synthesisbetween artand science. Bohn quite rightly bemoans the fact that the haphazard and somewhat fragmentarymanner in which Eisenstein'swritingshave become availablehas hindered a clear understandingof his theories, especially in this later period. Her discussion of this, however, is almost entirely limited to Russian and German editions, which ignores the contributions made in French and (I hope, as generaleditorof Eisenstein'sSelected Works) in English.Bohn hasbeen able to take advantage of the opening of the Eisensteinfiles in the post-Soviet period, so that her sources include the materials that went into the recent Russian publications of both Montage and Method,his diaries, his lectures at VGIK, the State Cinema Institute, and other contextual materials from relatedarchivescoveringthe problemshe encountered in the makingofBezhin Meadowand IvantheTerrible in particular.These sources are comprehensively laid out in an extensivebibliographyand fullydiscussedin the main text of the book. Given the high quality of Bohn's workit is a great pity that it will probably never be accessible to the non-German-speakingEnglish-languagereader. In the present economic climate no publisheris likelyto be willing to subsidizea translationof what ought to be a centralwork in the elucidation of one of the great mastersof twentieth-centuryart. Furthermore,because of the timing of its publication, FilmundMachtcould not include any discussion of the latest round of 'Eisensteiniana' in English, following the round of centenary conferences in i998. So Eisenstein studies continue to be fragmented into separate language-based communities of scholars, each making their own separatediscoveries,insteadof ploughing simultaneouslyin ajoint endeavour. Nonetheless, for those fortunate enough to read German, Bohn has made a majorand enduringcontributionto the Eisensteinliterature. Department ofPolitics& International Relations RICHARD TAYLOR University of Wales, Swansea lordanova, Dina. Cinemaof Flames:BalkanFilm, Culture and theMedia.BFI, London, 2001. Vi + 322 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Filmography .Index. kI 6.99 (paperback). As film in particularand culture more generally have developed as adjuncts of study in politics and associated subjects, on one side, and language and literaturestudies on the other, the usefulnessof books such as this has grown. While the author's strong conviction that 'the Balkans' should be seen as a single cultural-political and therefore filmic area might be a matter for discussion,there can be no doubt that thisvolume fillsa gap. Dina lordanova REVIEWS 345 goes beyond the Yugoslav War in arguing for a Balkans cinema, but that conflict and the cinema surroundingit is clearly the impetus for the book to be understood in its title. This makes the treatment of those films very important.Disappointingly,shedoes not fullygraspthe problemssurrounding Emir Kusturica'smajorfilm Underground. While there is a very interestingand important treatment of the film and of the controversythat surroundedit therewas a majorpublic debate in Franceconnected to its winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes FilmsFestival in the end, thejudgement is uneven. On the issue of the film aspropaganda, the author'sexculpatoryconclusion is that 'nobody cared much [... .] the film was perceived [by critics] as a gargantuan [sic] metaphor of the messy state of Balkan affairs rather than as a finely crafted propagandistic insinuation that would work in favour of one of the warring sides [. . .] In the minds of reviewers, these Balkan nations were all the same'. This conclusion, however, misses the point: that set of messages was exactlywhat the Belgradeleadershipwanted;in the contest forheartsand minds, a circus of confusion would mean no clear judgements and, it was hoped, no stronginternationalaction. However, in the widerdiscussion,there is a slightly awkward but still very useful 'moral' 'Question and Answer' creation to discusswider issues, such as the film'sfinancing and production. Other chaptershave thematicconcerns includingvillains,women, Gypsies. These offer an approach that will make parts of the book of interest to those beyond the Balkans...