Romantic Nationalism: Search for Old Values - (By Michael Jon Stoil - 1974) - Movies - http://maxpages.com/czechcinema/3_Romantic

The nationalistic celebration of pre-Communist regime history and literature is a form of intellectual rebellion against the Eastern European status quo. During the Stalinist era, such expressions of nationalism were forbidden because they ran counter to the Russian attempts to pattern Eastern European culture to the Russian-Soviet model. Later, as the Soviet cultural bloc in Eastern Europe showed signs of weakness, this form of nationalism became less distasteful to the local Communist regimes, partly because it is not necessarily an anti-socialist force. In fact, for the more independent regimes such as Albania and Rumania, Romantic nationalism can be considered a movement that supports the regime in its announced policy of independent (read non-Russian) alignment. It also serves as a unifying influence in the Balkan multi-nation states. In its most radical form, however, romantic nationalism is a search for alternative values in the past to those of the communist regime.
Romantic nationalism seems to have first appeared in thw works of Czech film-makers, where the largest number of pre-war directors remained active in the industry after the Communist take-over. It found its first expression in screen adaptations of Czech classics and legends, as early as 1947. This trend was first see in a reaction against the oppressive atmosphere of the early 1950's by three directors: Jiri Trnka, Karel Stekly and Vaclav Krska.
Jiri Trnka's life and work can be considered a symbol of the artist against society. Born in 1912, Trnka was, until the Second World War, the director of a well-known puppet theatre in Bohemia, where puppetry remains an accomplished art form. In 1945, he became one of the directors of the Prague Puppet and Cartoon Studio, a position which he held until 1954. In that year, Trnka followed the direction of the first post-1948 film anthology of Czech folk tales with a new film version of "The Good Soldier Schweik".
The story of Schweik has unique significance in the context of Stalinist Czechoslovakia. As H. Gordon Skilling, the Canadian authority on Czech culture, has observed, Schweik's creative gold-bricking is directly opposed to the patriotic industrial self-sacrifice desired by the Stalinist state. A society which demands complete respect and obedience to its institutions cannot accept the sneering, anti-establishment Schweik as a national hero.
Perhaps the authorities found the strongly anti-authoritarianism of Trnka's Schweik objectionable; more likely, Jiri Trnka's other 'traditional' values were equally outspoken and at an odds with the doctrines of socialist realism. Whatever the cause, his subsequent 'retirement' lasted nine years, one of the few cases of probable reprisal against a nationalist artist in Eastern Europe.
Less than a year after the completion of Trnka's "Schweik", Karel Stekly began to participate in the romantic nationalist movement. Stekly, nine years Trnka's senior, was a minor pre-war director who spent the years 1948-1955 creating pro-regime propaganda films such as "Anna the Proletarian" (1952). In 1955, he directed a live-actor version of a Czech folk tale, "The Piper of Strakonice", the subject of a 1932 Czech film. Two years later, Stekly completed a two-part version of "The Good Soldier Schweik". As a result of the inconsistent policy of neo-Stalinism, softened by early de-Stalinization in 1956, Stekly was permitted to continue directing screen versions of Czech literary works until his retirement from active film-making in 1963.
The early work of Vaclav Krska- "The Revolutionary Year 1848", "Mikolas Ales", etc.- and Otakar Vavra's 1957 trilogy on the life of Jan Hus represent most of the Czech involvement in the non-literary side of romantic nationalism. A national history the most celebrated event of which is a 17th-century military disaster is not easily applied to historical romances. Slovak directors, however, have been active in the task of glorifying Slovak national history, particularly the lives of noted Slovak highwaymen. These, of course, have been transformed by Martin Fric and other directors into Slavic Robin Hoods and proto-revolutionaries. Other nations have also developed this form of expression, including the Rumanians, the Poles, the Hungarians and, in their one major feature, the Albanians.
(Copyright - Michael Jon Stoil)

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