Cult film, classic film, Eastern Europe cinema, FIPRESCI Prize, Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival, Hungarian filmmaker Makk, Bosnian Emir Kusturica, Amour, Papa is on a business trip, The Legend of Paul and Paula, Jo Lemonade, The Day of a Madman, Soviet era, Cold War era, post-communist cinema, film criticism, subjective criteria, cinematic heritage, aesthetic qualities, testimonial value, international notoriety, socio-historical context, communist ideology, political oppression, collective responsibility, film industry, cult status, Czech Republic, Slovakia, GDR, Poland, Oldrich Lipsky, Emir Kusturica, Karoly Makk, Heiner Carow, Jerzy Koterski
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Abstract
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Abstract
This analysis explores the concept of cult and classic films in the context of Eastern European cinema during the Soviet era.
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[...] Heiner Carow, in titling his film The Legend of Paul and Paula, invites us to enter a love story that he wants to be mythical. This work, before its broadcast, experienced a number of vicissitudes: late authorization from Honecker for its distribution, aborted project then taken up by Carow after the death of the director who originally wrote the script, censorship by DEFA which imposed a tragic ending to conform to communist ideology, ban on broadcasting on television. These multiple obstacles did not harm the cult film status acquired in the GDR from its release and probably reinforced it. [...]
[...] Cinema is a matter of reception. Some films transcend this apparent duality and manage to access the status of classic film all while maintaining the prestige of the cult film. Others, on the other hand, will retain a charismatic aura without achieving the status of a cultural heritage work. This is the case of Joe Lemonade of Czech filmmaker Oldrich Lipsky, a cult film in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 1964, the year of the film's release, the reorganization of production favored the flourishing of the most diverse talents. [...]
[...] Makk transcribes the happy moments of the past by inserting in the continuum of the narrative an universe of reverie made of the memories of the characters and photographs of loved ones. The interminable wait for the end of Janos' imprisonment, of which the young wife does not know the date or the outcome, is made manifest by her incessant comings and goings between her home and her mother-in-law's house. The harassment suffered by Luca expresses the oppressive framework of an era where everything is cracking like the facades of the city's buildings. The film's montage is in tune with the characters' emotions and their interiority. [...]
[...] The camera follows for a day the movements of a man suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorders, hallucinations, phobias, and paranoia. Our point of view is that of the camera, we observe the tribulations of this man whose behavior turns to complete absurdity as the day goes by. The insults addressed to the neighborhood and the lewd scenes follow one another and lead us into a zany universe. We are projected into this deranged brain through exacerbated noises. Hallucinations intermittently take over reality. [...]
[...] The shows and debates that flood television screens are inane. If the film has achieved such success in Poland, it is undoubtedly thanks to the escape offered by humor and self-derision. Some scenes, because they are caricatural, become burlesque and spectators laugh at the excesses of this character while identifying to some extent with what makes him angry. By combining oneirism, private drama, and History, two feature-length films from our corpus join this category called the classic films. It is aboutAmour (FIPRESCI Prize at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival) of the Hungarian filmmaker Makk and" Papa is on a business trip (Palme d'Or at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival) of the Bosnian Emir Kusturica. [...]
