Hesitant Histories on the Romanian Screen

by László Strausz

Overview

This book argues that hesitation as an artistic and spectatorial strategy connects various screen media texts produced in post-war Romania. The chapters draw a historical connection between films made during the state socialist decades, televised broadcasts of the 1989 Romanian revolution, and films of the new Romanian cinema. The book explores how the critical attitude of new Romanian cinema demonstrates a refusal to accept limiting, binary discourses rooted in Cold War narratives. Strausz argues that hesitation becomes an attempt to overcome restrictive populist narratives of the past and present day. By employing a performative and mobile position, audiences are encouraged to consider conflicting approaches to history and social transformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319552729
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	07/20/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	257
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

László Strausz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Film Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 2. Hesitation as an interpretive strategy.- 3. Modernism under construction: films on filmmaking in the Ceaușescu years.- 4. Television as a factory of history: the broadcast of the 1989 Romanian Revolution.- 5. Contesting the canon of the past: state socialism and the regime change in the new Romanian cinema.- 6. Outcasts, fugitives and migrants: mobility and social production of space.- 7. Sanatorium Romania: regulating the body in the hospital, the prison and the convent.- 8. The crisis of masculinity in post-socialist society.- 9. Epilogue: authorial films and genres, festivals and audiences.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Strausz offers an original and sophisticated interpretation of Romanian cinema from state socialism to contemporary times. He argues that film directors such as Lucian Pintilie, Cristi Puiu and Corneliu Porumboiu engaged with their country’s past and present, while being selfreferential. The book is a ‘must-read’ for fans of the New Romanian Cinema and theory-oriented scholars interested in the relationship between cinematic modernism and postmodernism.” (Ewa Mazierska, University of Central Lancashire, UK)

“To many, the celebrated new wave of Romanian cinema seems to have ‘emerged’ out of the blue. Strausz’ meticulous study shows how the new cinema grew organically out of ‘hesitant’ discourse manifested in the audiovisual milieu of earlier periods. This book not only puts the discourse of ‘hesitation’ to productive work, but also provides a prime example of a comprehensive and contextualizing cultural approach in film studies.” (Dina Iordanova, University of St Andrews, UK)

“This book provides an ambitious and long-awaited inquiry into Romanian art-house cinema. Strausz delivers a conceptual framework that deepens the conversation on the historiographic function of film. Hesitation, the central concept of the analysis, sheds light on a perception of history shared by most countries of the former Socialist Bloc, whose twentieth century has been marked by radical political system change.” (Constantin Parvulescu, University of Navarra, Spain)