Page 166 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 166
from walter benjamin to the end of cinema
ed the idea of identity in a form of an unanswered question: “Who am I,
and who I am not?” Very often, these characters were representatives from
some marginal social stratums.5 The erotic aspect and ways of representing
it in films distinguished these films from the film-making in the past in a
manner, which was recognised as many films’ contribution to a rebellion
against the traditional patriarchal morals and as an illustration of the so
called sexual revolution. Lautner‘s film Galia (1966) with a “paradigmatic”
role of a liberated woman, who was impressively impersonated by Mireille
Darc, is a very good example of this trend.
There are some typical topics, which can be found in the European
cinema of the period. The motive of youngsters, who were delinquent or al-
ienated or lost, is probably the clearest presentation of problems of identity
as the central element in the modernist period in Europe. Truffaut, starting
with his 400 Blows (Les Quatre cent coups – 1959), contributed a whole se-
ries on a character, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, whom he named Antoine
Doinel. Truffaut signalled the traumatic aspect of this character by pointing
out the historical and social context: “A short time after the war there was a
fresh upsurge of the juvenile delinquency. Juvenile prisons were full. I had
known very well what I showed in my film…” (Truffaut, 2004: p. 26) The
environment of the socialist societies proved not to be at all that different
as soon as some film directors started to work on themes of so called daily
life, which almost in a manner of aesthetics of home movies differed from
the ideologically marked “reality” of the political and economic context of
societies with the one political Party rule. So another well remembered ad-
olescent character was Milos Forman‘s Black Peter (Černý Petr – 1964). For-
man made a point on incomplete identity also in his film A Blonde in Love
(Lásky jedné plavovlásky – 1965). Of course, we shouldn’t miss also Andrzej
Wayda‘s Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje – 1960), which deals with
the topic of the “alienated youth” and ads quite daringly, considering the
times and the catholic socialist environment of Poland, an anthological ex-
plicit erotic sequence of a strip poker game. Ingmar Bergman‘s film, which
addressed the young proletarian frustrations, and at the same time brought
up a new focus on female characters, Summer with Monika (Sommaren med
Monika – 1953) should be “classified” as an early case among such films.
On the other hand a giant of the European modernist cinema Michelan-
gelo Antonioni with his sophisticated, doubting, intellectual communica-
5 The marginalisation as a critical and sociological concept that also addressed the
problem of identity of individuals in the context of the social order has been devel-
oped then.
164
ed the idea of identity in a form of an unanswered question: “Who am I,
and who I am not?” Very often, these characters were representatives from
some marginal social stratums.5 The erotic aspect and ways of representing
it in films distinguished these films from the film-making in the past in a
manner, which was recognised as many films’ contribution to a rebellion
against the traditional patriarchal morals and as an illustration of the so
called sexual revolution. Lautner‘s film Galia (1966) with a “paradigmatic”
role of a liberated woman, who was impressively impersonated by Mireille
Darc, is a very good example of this trend.
There are some typical topics, which can be found in the European
cinema of the period. The motive of youngsters, who were delinquent or al-
ienated or lost, is probably the clearest presentation of problems of identity
as the central element in the modernist period in Europe. Truffaut, starting
with his 400 Blows (Les Quatre cent coups – 1959), contributed a whole se-
ries on a character, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, whom he named Antoine
Doinel. Truffaut signalled the traumatic aspect of this character by pointing
out the historical and social context: “A short time after the war there was a
fresh upsurge of the juvenile delinquency. Juvenile prisons were full. I had
known very well what I showed in my film…” (Truffaut, 2004: p. 26) The
environment of the socialist societies proved not to be at all that different
as soon as some film directors started to work on themes of so called daily
life, which almost in a manner of aesthetics of home movies differed from
the ideologically marked “reality” of the political and economic context of
societies with the one political Party rule. So another well remembered ad-
olescent character was Milos Forman‘s Black Peter (Černý Petr – 1964). For-
man made a point on incomplete identity also in his film A Blonde in Love
(Lásky jedné plavovlásky – 1965). Of course, we shouldn’t miss also Andrzej
Wayda‘s Innocent Sorcerers (Niewinni czarodzieje – 1960), which deals with
the topic of the “alienated youth” and ads quite daringly, considering the
times and the catholic socialist environment of Poland, an anthological ex-
plicit erotic sequence of a strip poker game. Ingmar Bergman‘s film, which
addressed the young proletarian frustrations, and at the same time brought
up a new focus on female characters, Summer with Monika (Sommaren med
Monika – 1953) should be “classified” as an early case among such films.
On the other hand a giant of the European modernist cinema Michelan-
gelo Antonioni with his sophisticated, doubting, intellectual communica-
5 The marginalisation as a critical and sociological concept that also addressed the
problem of identity of individuals in the context of the social order has been devel-
oped then.
164
