Cinema of the Other Europe: The Industry and Artistry of East Central European Film by Dina s> Iordanova (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 747 audiences his films fall into the category of 'third-world'cinema. On the one hand, his dystopic worlds may be viewed as critical or satiric of the Balkan Other, of the kindof primitivismwhich appalsthepoliticallycorrectstandards of a Westernpublic. To Gocic, thisview reflectsa paradoxicalstancein which such expectations are in fact the products of the West's own Orientalizing tendencies ratherthan reactions to a real state of affairs.On the other hand, Kusturicatakesup the cudgels and representsa world on the edge of Western comfortand its imposed sense of order.This worldthrowsback a challenge to that comfortin the only termswhich Kusturicahas at his disposal.The screen which he fills with images and stories is based on thejouissance of instinctive exuberance which conveys the possibilityof a universalunderlyinghumanity. The directorcreatesa magicalworldin which the rationalorderof the Westis shifted to one side, the centre becomes marginalized and an irrationality dominates which represents freedom from the constraints of convention. Kusturicacocks a very creative snoot which is in equal partsproblematicand pleasurable. Gocic's analysis shows that his films deserve their place as a significant force in European cinema, although any recognition leading to canonic statusmay not be appreciatedby the directorhimself. Department ofRussian andSlavonic Studies DAVID A. NORRIS University ofN'ottingham Dina lordanova. Cinema oftheOther Europe: TheIndustry andArtistgy ofEastCentral European Film.WallflowerPress,London andNew York,2003. x + 224 pp. Illustrations.Tables. Notes. Filmography. Bibliography. Index. I4.99 (paperback). DINA IORDANOVA'S well-researched book is a welcome update to our documentation on the cinemas of three countriesthat have now become four: the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungaryand Slovakia.Well over three-quarters of the text is in fact devoted to the period when the four countrieswere three. The study begins with the end of the Second WorldWar and glances much more briefly at post-Communist cinema. Its production figures also reveal Slovakian cinema to exist but only just: an average of two films a year produced between 1994-98, as opposed to twenty or more each in the other three countries. Effectively this is an extensive and scholarly study of Czechoslovak, Polish and Hungarian cinema from I945 to the turn of the century. Whether thisjustifies the title 'Cinema of the Other Europe' is for readersto decide, for it begs the question:what in these Europeancountriesis other, and other to what and where?As EU membershipbeckons, one senses that terminologymight have to be rearranged.Yetin the general sweep of the book, one thing cannot be doubted. The detail and precision are exemplary: Jordanovais both historianand criticand highly adept atblending both styles of writingfor herbroaderpurpose. The book highlights something often lost in anti-Communist rhetoric, the fact thatfilm output in state-socialistcountriesup to I989 was often as high as its WesternEuropean counterparts.Here lordanova's Big Three were clearly in the front line and a paradox presents itself. In Hungary film production 748 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 increased afterthe I956 uprisingwas crushed.In Czechoslovakiait increased afterthe failureof the I968 PragueSpringthatalso signalledthe demise of the Czechoslovak New Wave and in Poland it increased after the declaration of Martial Law. Of course censorship also got much tighter in each case and increased the pain levels, while the issue of qualityversus quantity became a moot one, to say the least. But the regimes, because they inheritedthe Soviet position on the propagandavalue of film, were never cinephobic as such and always offered a tiny window of opportunity. Against that has to be set the soberingfact that movie gems such asJifi Menzel's I969 Larks ona String and RyszardBugajski'sI982 TheInterrogation were buriedby censorshipuntil i990, both victims of Soviet backlashagainst challenges to its imperialpower. The demise of Soviet power in East Central Europe meant that we then did see them and realized how good they were. By that time, however, they were alreadypart of historyand historywas changing fast. In the post-Communist world haphazard capitalism has proved to be a double-edged sword. lordanova points out the competition of well-staffed studios for trade from the West, building on their skilledtechnical base. The two winners have been Babelsberg,benefiting from the unification of Berlin and Germany but also from the increase in European co-production and the extensive Czech studios at Barrandov,profitingfrom a low-cost base...