CINEMA OF THE OTHER EUROPE

Cinema of the Other Europe: The Industry and Artistry of East Central European Film is a comprehensive study of the cinematic traditions of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia from 1945 to the present day, exploring the major schools of filmmaking and the main stages of development across the region during the period of state socialism up until the end of the Cold War, as well as more recent transformations post-1989. In encouraging a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of European cinema, much needed for the new unified Europe ‘enlarged’ towards its Eastern periphery, this book maps out the interactions, key concerns, thematic spheres and stylistic particularities that make the cinema of East Central Europe a vital part of European film tradition. In particular, this study explores the social, historical, ethical and industrial contexts of filmmaking of the region, from the innovations of Hungarian Cinema of the 1950s, the international impact of the Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960s and 1970s, the Polish cinema of ‘moral concern’ throughout the 1980s, to the transitional cinema of post-communism and the ‘velvet revolutions’ of the 1990s. The book thus examines the work of directors as diverse as Zoltán Fábri, Wojciech Has, Jan Nemec, István Szabó, Juraj Jakubisko, Károly Makk, Miklós Jancsó, Krzysztof Zanussi, Milos Forman, Andrzej Wajda, Márta Mészáros, Andrzej Munk, Jan Sverák, Béla Tarr and Krzysztof Kieslowski, and considers films such as The Fifth Seal, The Saragossa Manuscript, The Round-Up, Mephisto, Passenger, Ashes and Diamonds, A Blonde in Love, The Dekalogue, Kolya, Goodbye Lenin and Divided We Fall. Cinema of the Other Europe is thus a timely appraisal of Film Studies debates ranging from the representation of history and memory, the reassessment of political content, ethics and society, the rehabilitation of popular cinema, and the rethinking of national and regional cinemas in the context of globalisation.

January 2003
208 pages

978-1-903364-64-2 (hbk)

£45.00

£38.25 with 15% online discount - add to basket

Dina Iordanova is Chair of Film Studies at the University of St. Andrews and has published widely on Eastern European, Balkan and Russian cinema, including Cinema of Flames: Balkan Film, Culture and the Media (2001) and Emir Kusturica (2002).

'With detailed accounts of some remarkable films this book marks an important stage in the reintegration of the cinemas of East Central Europe into our conception of what constitutes "European" film.'
- Peter Hames, Staffordshire University

'An excellent and timely contribution to European Film Studies …This informative and original exploration of cinematic traditions and current trends in East Central European film culture is an excellent and timely contribution to European film studies.’
– Daniela Berghahn, Oxford Brookes University

‘Dina Iordanova’s well-researched book is a welcome update to our documentation on the cinemas of three countries that have become four: the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. It is all here and all the more laudable for being so.’
– John Orr, University of Edinburgh

'Its greatest innovation is the decidedly regional and cross-disciplinary approach, liberating East Central European cinema from the aesthetic-political analysis that traditionally considered these films within their isolated national contexts ... it offers an accessible map to researchers and teachers navigating the complexities of East Central European visual cultures of the last five decades.'
– Anikó Imre, University of Washington