Subverting space: Private, public and power in three Czechoslovak films from the 1960s and ‘70s

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on three Czechoslovak films from the communist era: two New Wave features, Ostře sledované vlaky/Closely Observed Trains (Jiří Menzel, 1966) and O slavnosti a hostech/The Party And The Guests (Jan Němec, 1966), plus a key post-Prague Spring film, Ucho/The Ear (Karel Kachyňa, 1970). All three films were banned following the 1968 Soviet invasion. This article argues that the films' subversive content is primarily articulated through spatial strategies. Specifically, the article examines a filmic discourse of political and social subversion, which hinges on the negotiation and appropriation of space. Starting from the notion that space is produced by social agency and interaction, and from Michel Foucault's assertion that ‘we do not live inside a void, inside of which we could place individuals and things […] we live inside a set of relations’, this article will look at the dynamic relationship of the films’ characters to their allotted spatial situations.