Notes from the Underground: The Cinema of Emir Kusturica by Goran s> Gocić (review)

Abstract

746 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 Gocic, Goran.Notesfrom theUnderground. 7heCinema ofEmirKusturica. Directors' Cuts. WallflowerPress, London and New York, 200 I. 196 pp. Illustrations . Notes. Filmography.Bibliography.?42.50; )I 3.99. GORAN GociC's analysisof the film oeuvre of the directorEmirKusturicais an impressivebook which takesthe readerthroughthe most importantaspectsof his aesthetic style, motifs and thematic preoccupations. In each of his films and at each stage of his career the director returns to the same or similar elements which are characteristicof his work as a whole but reworkingthem, developing differentways of linkingtogethercertaincreativestrands,whether they be concerned with film-makingtechniques,particularmotifsor narrative plots. The author traces these distinctive features of his work and their multiple appearances and guises in the main body of his study, for example: the director'sBalkansettings,his fascinationwith charactersfromthe margins of life, recurringmotifs such as water symbolism,his inclusion of animalsand childrenin his narratives,his use of cameraand lighting.He constantlyrelates these parts to one another showing how they contribute to the hugely rich semantic surfaces of Kusturica's cinematic design. The book is rewarding enough in the author'sdiscussionof the films,but he also offersinsightfuland balanced examination of the reception of Kusturica'swork. In his firstchapter Gocic revisitsthe argumentswhich have been used to makeout of Kusturicaa directorwhose politicsareoftenmorallyquestionable. In particular, these charges arise from the reception of his film Underground which was released towards the end of the civil war in Bosnia. The fact that Kusturicawas born and grew up in Bosnia, that he made his earlyfilmsthere, and that some commentators found his statements about the break-up of Yugoslaviaprovocative, have been constructedinto a case which brandshim as a traitor to his own people and an apologist for the worst excesses of Slobodan Milosevic'snationalistpolicies. Gocic separatesout thesearguments pointing to the complexities of community and ethnic loyalties in former Yugoslavia, not least when it comes to individual artistsprofessingto which cultural tradition they belong. These kinds of discussion form the weakest element in the book since the author's attempt at presenting a historicoculturalcontext tends towards brevity and essentialismwith phrases such as 'Balkanschizophrenia'(p. 14) and juncturesof Slavictendernessand cruelty' (p. 17). However, Gocic is a film analyst par excellence, and he knows the manner of his subject.Kusturicahas a loud and inflammatorypublic persona which, one thinks,is partlydeliberateand partlya consequence of a naturally rebellious streak. His films do not offer easy answers, sugary optimism, or idealized beauty; on the contrary, he often exaggerates contradictions, disfigurement and squalor in a distorted world but which is also an unmistakablereference to real historicaland social conditions. In these kinds of discussionGocidis lucid and convincing. At the end of his book Gocidputs Kusturica'sworkin the context of ethnocinema and postmodern poetics, which he regardsas the ambiguousmeeting point between his cinema and the, largely Western, reception of his work. Kusturicahas associationswith film-makingcentres and financialinstitutions in the West, but in the peculiar cultural geography of cinema critics and 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...