The Construction of Culture in Scottish and Czech
Contemporary Cinema: A comparison of the films The
Winter Guest and O rodičích a dětech
Hana Tomšů
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of MPhil. (R)
Slavonic Studies Section
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Faculty of Arts
University of Glasgow
March 2013
© Hana Tomšů, 2013
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Abstract
This thesis aims to examine the construction of culture in two cinematic works: the
Scottish film The Winter Guest and the Czech film O rodičích a dětech (Of Parents and
Children). It examines the research question of how the two cultures present themselves in
their narratives. The analysis focuses on images of space, identity of the characters and the
structure of the events in these two films. At first, the two films are analysed separately,
then comparatively. The methodological approach of this thesis combines narratology,
semiotics and cognitive science.
The chapter interpreting space in the Scottish film finds that the environment is perceived
as immense and insecure. In the Czech film, the environment creates an impression of
being enclosed and safe. The following chapters focus on the identity of the characters.
The Scottish film shows the female protagonists with a loose relation to their relatives and
people living in their area. The Czech film features male protagonists with strong bonds to
their male relatives but weak relationships to other people living in their surroundings.
Gender issues are examined as well. The analysis of the structure of the events in the two
films reveals an emphasis on interiority in the Scottish film, and a tendency to influence
perception of the self through telling stories of a person’s past in the Czech film. The
analysis also identifies the conceptual metaphors which construct the narratives, mainly the
metaphors seeing life as a journey and the metaphor seeing mental change as a change of a
location. The thesis also discusses the significance of the choice of genre for the particular
image of culture in these two films.
The main findings of the thesis are summarised in the comparative chapter. The thesis has
discovered that images of space participate in creating a social reality for the characters
and they shape the characters’ perception of the world. Therefore, the environment together
with the identity of the characters and with the events creates coherent images of the
cultures in the films. The thesis has identified characteristic features of infinity, freedom,
risk, activity, individualism and uprootedness in the Scottish film and characteristic
features of enclosure, limits, safety, passivity, belonging and continuity in the Czech film.
Apart from these contrasting features, it has been discovered that there are many
similarities in the depiction of social roles and narrative conventions in the two films,
which confirms their common cultural heritage.
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Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................6
2. The Winter Guest .............................................................................................11
2.1 The Immensity of the Seashore: The Space ..............................................12
2.1.1 The Extraordinary Environment .........................................................13
2.1.2 Isolation .............................................................................................17
2.2 My Life is in my Own Hands: Cultural Identity ............................................22
2.2.1 Individualism ......................................................................................22
2.2.2 Social-class Identity ...........................................................................24
2.2.3 Female Identity...................................................................................27
2.3 Narrating the Emotions: The Events ..........................................................35
2.3.1 The Genre on the Edge of Lyric Poetry .............................................35
2.3.2 The Metaphors of Life and Understanding.........................................37
3. O rodičích a dětech ..........................................................................................44
3.1 The Ambivalence of Home: The Space .....................................................44
3.1.1 The Limitation of the Living Space ....................................................45
3.1.2 The Security of the Enclosed Space .................................................51
3.2 Detachment and Belonging: Cultural Identity .............................................57
3.2.1 Story-telling .......................................................................................57
3.2.2 Male Identity ......................................................................................59
3.2.3 The Continuity of Generations ...........................................................66
3.3 Life as a Collection of Stories: The Events ................................................70
3.3.1 The Genre in the Czech Tradition......................................................70
3.3.2 Cultural Knowledge of Social Roles and Metaphors .........................75
4. A Comparison of the Czech and the Scottish Construction of Culture ...........79
4.1 Shared Cultural Background ......................................................................79
4.1.1 The Parents and the Children ...........................................................80
4.1.2 The Conceptual Metaphors ...............................................................82
4.2 Gender Identities – Traditional and Modern Roles .....................................85
4.2.1 Motherhood .......................................................................................85
4.2.2 The Sons ...........................................................................................86
4.3 Contrasting Images of Space – Infinity versus Enclosed Space ................89
5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................93
Bibliography ..........................................................................................................95
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Acknowledgements
Many warm thanks go to Dr. Jan Čulík, a supervisor of this thesis. Mainly, I want to
thank him for his encouraging approach, his advice and critical feedback, as well
as for many hours of his time and for support which I have received from him. Dr.
Čulík inspired me to start working on this research. Since then, his energy and
enthusiasm for his work has motivated me to continue. I am very grateful for the
opportunity to work with him from which I have learned so much.
Also, I want to thank to Dr. John Bates, a joint supervisor, for sharing his
knowledge. Dr. Bates helped me especially in the final stages of the writing
process with his invaluable ideas and comments.
Last but not least, I want to thank Benjamin McCulloch for his support and
patience during the process of this research. He provided me with understanding
and encouragement when it was most needed. Also, I would like to thank him for
proofreading this thesis.
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Declaration
I declare that this thesis contains the results of my own work, that it has been
composed by me and that it does not include work forming part of a thesis
presented successfully for a degree in this or any other University.
..................................................................
Hana Tomšů
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1. Introduction
The aim of this thesis is to find the differences and the similarities in the construction of
Czech and Scottish cultures in two contemporary films. The Scottish film is The Winter
Guest (Alan Rickman 1997) and the Czech film is O rodičích a dětech (Of Parents and
Children, Vladimír Michálek 2008). Every culture has its own features which are not
visible at first sight but they are crucial for shaping the presentations of life in its arts.
Scottish and Czech culture have many common features, but other characteristics make
them significantly different and in some aspects even contrasting. I believe that my sample
analysis of the narratives produced by the two cultures, which I examine in these two films,
will help better to understand their mutual relationship.
This thesis analyses the two films from a cultural point of view. The main research
questions are: How do the two cultures present themselves through the narratives? What
images of the two cultures do the narratives construct?
These two films were chosen for a good reason. They emerged approximately within a
decade of each other and they share a very similar fabula structure. Therefore they provide
not only good material for studying each of the films separately but they are also a good
base for a comparison of the two constructions of cultures. The fascinating level of
similarity suggests that the two cultures might have more in common than we think. The
shared theme in the two films raises the question of how different cultures treat similar
topics in their cinematography.
Umberto Eco (1976) suggests that we should see culture as a semiotic activity. In
accordance with his definition and for the purpose of this work, culture is defined as a
semiotic structure. If we can look at the world around us from the semiotic perspective, we
realise that everything functions as a sign for the human mind as an interpreter. Culture is a
sign structure which communicates meaning to people living inside it. The rituals and
habits, the behaviour, the style of clothing, the food, the architecture, the heroes and values,
these are all part of communication between various members of the culture. According to
Eco, the semiotic point of view of culture means that “every aspect of culture becomes a
semantic unit” (ibid., 27). Every object within a culture carries meaning for the members of
the culture. To be able to approach a culture with semiotic tools we need to accept the
hypothesis outlined by Umberto Eco saying that “semiotics studies all cultural processes as
7
processes of communication. Therefore each of these processes would seem to be permitted
by an underlying system of significations” (ibid., 8). Hence in this thesis, by a culture I
mean the processes of communication which are understood and shared by a group of
people. Various subjects within a culture serve to communicate information to its members
by its culture-specific instruments. For the film analysis in this thesis, Eco’s theory means
that the films are considered as complex culturally specific signs.
Cinema plays with connotations of the signs used, and relies on the cultural codes
understandable to the viewers (Bignell 2002). Everything in film works as a sign and all
these signs are culturally determined. Graeme Turner gives an example of how an image of
a ‘man’ has got strong connotations given the way it is presented:
“A filmed image of a man will have a denotative dimension – it will refer to the mental
concept of ‘man’. But images are culturally charged; the camera angle employed, his
position within the frame, the use of lighting, to highlight certain aspects, any effect achieved
by colour, tinting, or processing, would all have the potential for social meaning” (Turner
1993, 46).
Cinematic narratives as well as any other narratives are significant parts of communication
in every culture. In narratives, cultures create images of themselves which offer
explanations, stabilise conventions or point out stereotypes (Monaco 2000). A cultural
analysis of narratives helps us to understand these mechanisms (Bal 1990). Mieke Bal says
that a cultural analysis of narratives needs to be considered not as the “taking apart of
culture” but rather as interpreting “the way in which cultures take things, people and
themselves ‘apart’” (2009, 227). Therefore when analysing the two films we do not analyse
the cultures but we are trying to understand what the two cultures see themselves as.
Furthermore, Mieke Bal points out the role of focalization in a cultural analysis of
narratives. She suggests that the important question is “not primarily where the words
come from and who speaks them, but what, in the game of make-believe, is being proposed
for us to believe or see before us, hate, love, admire, argue against, shudder before, or stand
in awe of” (ibid., 229). In agreement with Mieke Bal, we need to notice not only what the
narratives say but also what they do not say and what they offer as self-evident facts. It is
the ideology behind the focalization of the narratives what we need to look for.
What this means within Scottish and Czech cinema is another matter which needs to be
clarified. Especially the definition of Scottish cinema seems to create a lot of confusion.
8
For Duncan Petrie and Jonathan Murray, a Scottish film is a film which is made by Scots
and about Scots (Petrie 2000; Murray 2007). Murray further adds that to be considered
Scottish, a film has to have Scottish funding. Despite that, he is aware of how problematic
such a definition is. He finds a film directed by a Scottish director and funded from
Scotland but set in England. Then, he gives an example of a film which is set in Scotland
but its topic is the life of immigrants from their own perspective. Murray (2009) says that
these films need to be considered British rather than Scottish. Petrie also points out that
most of the current films created by Scots and set in Scotland are funded from outside the
country. Sarah Street (2009) in agreement with Petrie emphasises that Scottish cinema is
inseparable from the larger unit of British cinema.
Considering the characteristics of Scottish cinema, the question relevant for this work is
whether The Winter Guest is “Scottish enough” to stand for an example of Scottish cultural
expression. The film is set in Scotland and it features Scottish characters. The director was
born in England as was one of the protagonists (Emma Thompson). The other protagonist
is originally Scottish (Phyllida Law) as well as other actors in the main roles (Gary
Hollywood, Sheila Reid, Sandra Voe, Sean Biggerstaff). The script was written by Alan
Rickman (born in London) and a Scottish playwright Sharman Macdonald. The project
was funded with the participation of The Scottish Film Production Fund. The film depicts
life in Scotland and is made with a significant participation of native Scots. Therefore, as it
portrays Scotland from “inside” it can be considered as a Scottish film. It can certainly be
regarded as part of British cinema as well.
Contemporary Czech cinema is also characterised geographically. It includes films which
are created in the Czech Republic by the creative force of its inhabitants. Furthermore the
Czech language is an important characteristic for the cinema of a culture centrally situated
in the midst of Europe’s interactions. Ines Koeltzsch (2009) points out that since the
appearance of talking pictures, language has been considered as a crucial criterion for
considering a film to be Czech. In his study about contemporary Czech cinema Jan Čulík
includes not only films by Czech directors but also by Slovakian directors who work in the
Czech Republic and make films in Czech and Slovak language. For Čulík (2012), the
important characteristic of a contemporary Czech film is its premiere in the Czech
Republic.
Tereza Hadravová mentions another criterion which is by some required from a Czech
9
film. This characteristic is the “Czechness” of a film which means the extent to which a
film represents the “essence of the Czechs” accurately (Hadravová 2009). While
Hadravová disputes the validity of this characteristic feature, Pavel Taussig (2008) uses it
to criticise contemporary Czech cinema as not “Czech enough”. This criterion is
impossible to define and it reflects a critic’s personal taste. That is why it cannot be useful
for an academic work. But O rodičích a dětech is without a doubt a film which can stand as
an example of Czech cinema. It was made in the Czech Republic, its authors and its actors
with two exceptions are Czech. It depicts life in the Czech Republic and the script is in
Czech, with two characters speaking Slovak.
Recently, discussions about cinema have often operated with the term of “national
cinema”. Jonathan Murray argues that calling Scottish cinema “national” fails to notice the
interaction of Scottish cinema with the cinemas of other parts of Britain. Furthermore,
according to Murray, it fails “to explicate fully ways other than the national in which
Scottish cinema might also be understood” (Murray 2001, 78). On the other hand, he adds
that completely abandoning the notion of “national cinema” ignores its importance for the
establishment of a Scottish identity and cultural diversity within the higher unit of Britain.
He suggests that we should consider the term “national cinema” to be “blurred”. This
would enable us to see the fluid boundaries of nationality.
“It might also point, however, to a partial-sightedness about where the cultural boundaries of
national formations begin and end, an inability to pinpoint the extent to which diverse film
texts and production structures might be described more or less usefully in terms of
competing and fragmented national cultures of origin – or, indeed, in terms all together
different from those of the nation” (ibid.).
In Czech discourse, the notion of “national cinema” is problematic, apart from other
reasons because it has been often used as a measure of quality. A “Czech national film” is
one which deals with an important national topic. “The release of such a film becomes a
celebration for the whole nation”1
(Taussig 2008)2
.
For all the reasons mentioned above, this thesis avoids the term “nation” and “national
1
The original in Czech: “jehož uvedení by se stalo všenárodní poutí”.
10
cinema”. At the same time, though, I remain aware of the cultural specificity of different
film productions. Despite the problematic nature of the concept of “nationality”, I cannot
deny that films rise from different cultural backgrounds and create their own image on the
screen. As Benedict Anderson (2006) defines it, nationalism is preceded by cultural
systems out of which it comes into being. Therefore, Czech and Scottish culture are not
simply interchangable with the Czech and the Scottish nation3
.
My thesis consists of three sections. The first two sections analyse the two films separately,
the third section is comparative. The first section of the thesis is devoted to the Scottish
film The Winter Guest. It contains three chapters. First of all, I analyse the depiction of
space in the film. All the images of the environment are culturally charged and my aim is
to find out how the film works with cultural connotations. The following chapter deals
with the characters in the film, their identities and their social roles. The last chapter
considers the structure of the narrative, the character of its events and the cultural
knowledge featured in the background.
The second section of this thesis analyses the Czech film O rodičích a dětech. Its structure
parallels the structure of the first section of the thesis. It is concerned with the images of
space, the cultural identity of the characters and the structure of the narrative. Analysing
the same features of each of the films enables me to compare them in the third section of
this thesis. In the third section, I compare the two films and the constructions of their
cultures. I have found some aspects which the films share, some others which are similar
and last but not least, I have identified aspects of the two films which put the constructions
of the two cultures into contrast.
2
Unless stated otherwise, all the passages quoted from the Czech sources have been translated by the author
of the thesis.
3
Cultures existed long before the idea of nations appeared. This is why the concepts of ‘culture’ and
‘national culture’ are not interchangeable. Furthermore, for example in Scotland, there are people living who
may consider themselves English, Irish, Indian or of another nationality and still they participate in creating
contemporary Scottish culture.
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2. The Winter Guest
To mediate the life situation of the protagonist, The Winter Guest (1997) depicts the highly
stylised scenery of the Scottish countryside. The story takes place on the east shore of
Scotland, in a small town on the very day when the area is affected by an unusually strong
frost. It tells the story of Frances and her aged mother Elspeth who suddenly appears at the
doorstep of Frances’ house. The protagonist is struggling to find a new stability after her
husband’s death and tries to cope with the unexpected visitor. Frances considers moving to
Australia and changing her life completely. Elspeth is worried that she might end up alone
and so she tries to persuade her daughter to stay. During the day which they spend
together, the viewers witness their complicated relationship as Frances and her mother find
it hard to communicate and to get closer to each other. Frances lives with her son Alex, a
precocious teenager concerned with the well-being of his mother. On this special day he
meets a girl who may return vitality to his life and his mother’s house. This story is intercut
with a story of two old friends from the town who are called Lily and Chloe. They spend
their days together attending all the funerals in the area. And so on this day they travel by
bus to a funeral despite the freezing weather. The last couple we encounter are two school
mates, Sam and Tom, who play truant because their school bus is delayed, instead of going
to school they go to explore the beach near the town. The stories are intercut one through
another and together they create a complex narrative of the film.
At first sight, the main topic of the story appears to be inter and intra generational
relationships, their benefits and difficulties. And certainly this is the case but there are
many more layers of meaning contained within the film. It presents the topic of
relationships with others but also of the complications of perception of one’s self and one’s
identity. It raises questions of independent life, loneliness and a need for intimacy with a
close person. It brings up the subject of a person’s relation to the place where they live and
where their memories are stored as well. As one of the reviews of the film says, “The film
[...] appears at first glance to be about issues of aging. In reality, however, the net is cast
far more broadly. The film is about ambiguity and grace, struggle, and personhood, as
examined in several contexts, both intragenerational and intergenerational” (Longino and
Beswick 1999, 47). Here, in this chapter, the motives constructing the layers of meaning in
the film are examined with emphasis on space, interpersonal relationships and self-identity.
12
2.1 The Immensity of the Seashore: The Space
The exteriors in The Winter Guest show Scotland in an unexpected light. The depicted
countryside is characteristic of one area of Scotland, particularly the peninsula between
Edinburgh and St. Andrews. It is not a common choice of location for picturing Scotland
and therefore it gives us a new perspective on what Scottish landscape and living in it
looks like. “The Winter Guest is set in an isolated corner of the Kingdom of Fife, and as
such represents an altogether different region of Scotland to those typically seen in
Tartanry, Kailyard and Clydesidism [emphasis added]” (Martin-Jones 2009, 111).
The Tartanry and Kailyard are two commonly recognised discourses stereotypically
picturing Scotland. Since 19th
century these two myths determine the images of what life in
Scotland is like. Tartanry is a discourse of Scotland as a romantic culture of brave heroes
fighting for their national rights while Kailyard includes portraits of Scotland as a culture
of humble religious peasants interested only in local gossip (Craig 1982). Clydesidism is
added to those above in the 20th
century as a discourse of working-class narratives taking
place around factories in Glasgow and Edinburgh (Petrie 2000; Martin-Jones 2009; Blaikie
2010). Within the discourse of Clydesidism, the environment depicted is a deprived area on
an outskirt of a city, focusing on street life, factory and tenement housing. In terms of
space, Tartanry creates the cultural geography of “heather, hills and glens, kilts and
porridge, brawny men and cabers, the Highland clearances and Culloden”. On the other
hand, Kailyard is the depiction of the country showing:
“parochially insular, poor, humble, puritanical folk; people concerned with their own
cabbage patch [...] It is mawkish sentimentality which creates a cultural geography based
upon haggis and haddocks, whisky and beer, crofts and wee but-n-bens, and community and
family life” (Aitken 1991, 112).
The representation of Scotland created by The Winter Guest does not fall under any of
these three tendencies in the Scottish arts in full. With a closer look though, some features
of these discourses can be found. The Tartanry heritage is reflected in the picturing of the
countryside as vast, empty and quiet. The dialogue of Sam and Tom hiding behind rocks
on the beach refers to the tradition of Kailyard with its jovial peasants chatting about their
every-day worries. Aside from these references to the Scottish tradition, Martin-Jones finds
another feature of Scottishness in the film. He points out the story’s location as universal
but still clearly Scottish ‒ “Scottish anywhere”: “This is a place without clearly identifiable
13
geographical characteristics, but which is still recognisably “Scottish”, both in its isolated
bleakness, and in the accents of its two youngest characters” (Martin-Jones 2009, 112).
Apart from that, the rocky seashore, the sand dunes covered with dried grass together with
the style of architecture in the town clearly set the story in Scotland.
According to Martin-Jones, what could be extracted from the analysis of space in The
Winter Guest is not information about life in Scotland as a whole but information about life
in the particular area of Scotland, the peninsula between Edinburgh and Saint Andrews.
The area is close to the main Scottish cities but still relatively remote and calm. For this
reason, a lot of professionals and young families move there from the cities. “It is the
region’s quasi-isolation and the consequently privileged life it offers to its more prosperous
inhabitants that The Winter Guest depicts” says Martin-Jones. Besides, Martin-Jones
recognises the interior of Frances’ house as “the interior of the numerous houses which
take part in the Annual Pittenweem Festival (founded in the early 1980s), during which
around thirty local artists open their homes to exhibit their work to public.” Therefore even
the house interior is not of a traditionally Scottish design, it reflects a current trend in a
specific area of Scotland. Paradoxically, this representation of the Scottish culture may be
more telling for the locals than what we are used to considering as Scottish precisely
because it does not serve to the traditional stereotypes but rather reflects current changes in
the specific area.
2.1.1 The Extraordinary Environment
Depicted here, though, is just one face of the area and not a usual one. The fact that the
story is set on the day when land and sea are frozen is an extraordinary situation. Noticing
its abnormality does not need a cultural knowledge, it is pointed out by the characters a
few times in the film. The creators apparently kept in mind an international audience and
remind the viewer that the freeze is not an everyday phenomenon at the place.
Furthermore, the colours of the exteriors are toned down to nearly black and white with
shades of brown completed by the grey cloudy sky. The combination of the toned-down
colours with the shapes of the countryside is rather minimalistic with the snowy fields at
the beginning and the frozen sea at the end. The emphasis is on bird’s-eye view shots
giving us a larger impression of the landscape and confirming our impression from the
closer look. The use of this uncommon portrait of the area attracts our attention and makes
us notice the exteriors as a significant part of presenting the story.
14
The space as described above participates in telling the story together with the characters
and events. The setting plays an important role for the overall meaning of the film. The
space reflects the subjectivity of the protagonists, it shapes the emotional atmosphere of the
story and leads our attention to what the film wants us to notice. It also determines the
rhythm of the story. By the characters’ interaction with their surroundings the scenery
cooperates in the development of the narrative.
For the deconstruction of the relationship of space and story, Stuart C. Aitken describes a
model of juxtaposing ordinary and extraordinary image-events4
. Aitken describes four
options of person-environment transactions in cinema. First, if ordinary behaviour is set in
an ordinary environment, the narrative is relatively eventless. The shift in the storyline is
relatively small and the “audience’s attention is drawn by its ability to relate to habitual,
everyday circumstances” (Aitken 1991, 108). The second case is when the character’s
behaviour is significantly different than habitual and the environment stays similar. In such
case, the audience is focused on the behaviour. In the case of ordinary behaviour in an
extraordinary environment the audience “is drawn to an appreciation of a dynamic milieu
and the nature of human conservatism”. The last case is extraordinary behaviour set in an
extraordinary environment (ibid.). This creates peak points of a narrative. By combining
these four juxtapositions the rhythm of a film is constructed. It needs to be mentioned
though, that what is considered as ordinary and extraordinary is a subject of cultural
knowledge and interpretation of the audience. Also, the four modes of juxtapositions are
not pure types with a strict definition. Rather, they are the opposite poles on the scale of
ordinary-extraordinary behaviours and environments. Therefore, in a film, these modes
may be identified to various extents.
Applying Aitken’s theory to The Winter Guest clarifies the role of space in the unfolding
of the story. The story takes place in Frances’ hometown, which is an ordinary
environment for the characters. They stay in their safe, everyday place, but the
environment changes and becomes extraordinary because of the weather. The space
changes and the characters have to cope with it. The change came suddenly and from the
outside world and that is why the day feels so special. The behaviour of the characters
4
Image-event as Stuart C. Aitken understands it is “an image in motion over time through space with
sequence” (1991, 108).
15
changes due to the weather. It is so cold that the sea has frozen and therefore the bus is
delayed, the streets are nearly empty and people need each other to hold on when they slip
on ice. The extraordinary environment stands behind many events happening in the story.
The weather as an external condition is especially responsible for the developing
relationship of Alex and Nita. Nita throws a snowball to Alex to initiate a conversation,
then Alex rides his bike, slips on ice and Nita comes to help him to fix the chain. Later
Nita is the one who slips on ice when she chases the schoolboys and Alex is there to help
her get up. Then they both walk on the frozen sea and Alex falls in the water with one of
his feet. They are both cold and wet so they go to Alex’s house to get warm. The house is
seen as an extraordinary space for Nita, who has never been there before, and for Alex as
well, as the house is full of the presence of his dead father.
In this case, the environment stands at the beginning of the story as its causation. On the
other hand, the environment is also retrospectively influenced by the story. Alex and Nita
bring life and warmth to Alex’s house. Nita notices that the photos of Alex’s dead father
hang everywhere around and prevent Alex from getting closer to her. He feels like being
watched by his father: “I see more of my dad than I ever did when he was alive”. So Nita
removes a few of the photos. Alex does not like this but he agrees in the end. Alex gives up
on the broken heating and lights up a fire in the fireplace to get the house warmer.
Therefore as a result of their activity the house changes from a cold place filled with
Alex’s dead father’s photos into a warm home prepared for a new beginning of life.
Another example of the story affecting the environment is the stylisation of the space
according to Frances’ emotions. The empty and hostile landscape and the almost
monochromatic colours of the exterior are depicted from her point of view.
The environment in The Winter Guest is used to express a sorrowful space symbolising
emptiness in one’s life and a feeling of isolation. Furthermore, the environment represents
a place where all this may be changed and comfort and new stability can be found. Both of
these tendencies shape the depiction of exteriors as well as interiors. The most significant
exteriors in the film are the flat snowy countryside, the seashore and the frozen sea. The
meaning of the exteriors oscillates between two contrasting tendencies. The open space
reflects the protagonist’s actual feelings and represents despair and emptiness on one hand
and freedom on the other. The same contradictions could be seen in the interiors. The
house is one’s home protecting its inhabitants against the outer world, but on the other
16
hand it stores all the painful memories of the dead husband. The memories of family life
are part of the home and Frances at first feels she is not able to leave them unless she
leaves the place.
The complex role of the interiors and exteriors in the film is important for the main motive
of the story; a mother and her daughter going for a long walk together. When Elspeth
enters her daughter’s house, the door is not locked and anyone can enter. The outside and
the house are easily permeable. As Gaston Bachelard points out, “this absence of a struggle
is often the case of the winter houses in literature. The dialectics of the house and the
universe are too simple, and snow, especially, reduces the exterior world to nothing rather
too easily” (1969, 40). This characteristic applies to the house in The Winter Guest as well.
It plays the same role as the exteriors in representing Frances’ psychic state. It does not
have a contradictory atmosphere and therefore does not need to be protected from an outer
intrusion.
While Frances and Elspeth stay in the house, they struggle to communicate their real needs
and offend each other while trying to defend their personal emotions. Frances wants to
keep her independence while Elspeth wants to feel needed and this contradiction causes the
tension between the two characters. “I don’t need you!” Frances shouts out. Elspeth is
shocked to hear that. “Don’t you ever say that to me. I was a young woman when I had
you. With young woman’s preoccupations you taught me to care, my God.” As soon as
they decide to go for a walk, the change of the environment gives them a chance to express
the essence of their anxiety and gives them an opportunity to open up to each other. Gaston
Bachelard suggests that when we change the space, we change our nature, “by changing
space, by leaving the space of one’s usual sensibilities, one enters into communication with
a space that is physically innovating” (1969, 206). Later, through the eyes of two young
boys, Frances and Elspeth are able to see each other from a different perspective which
gives them the final reconciliation.
During the walk they move from the haven of the house to the rocky, flat landscape. At
this point again, the environment significantly cooperates in the unfolding of the story. The
hostility of the place intensifies the emotions of the characters and leads them to the peak
moment of the film. Bachelard compares the immensity of space to the intensity of a
character’s experience of the place: “the immensity of a desert that has been experienced is
expressed through inner intensity” (ibid., 204).
17
The place for the walk is the grey stony seashore where Elspeth falls over and scratches her
knee. It is not on ice but still it refers to the motive of slipping present throughout the
whole film. Elspeth slips at the beginning of the story, then an anonymous street walker
slips and holds on Lily, Alex falls off his bike, Nita slips on the ice and Chloe loses her
balance at the end of the story. At such moments, all the characters have someone close to
help them up. An exception is Elspeth at the beginning, where she grabs the railings in
order to avoid falling on the pavement. As the film shows, the harder the ground is to walk
on, the more people need someone to hold them up.
2.1.2 Isolation
In both crucial scenes at the beginning and at the end of the film, space puts characters into
isolation. It is visual isolation caused by either a long distance or fog. The spatial isolation
is expressed in many other scenes throughout the film. The town seems to be remote from
other towns and villages so the inhabitants have to rely upon buses to get to school or to a
funeral. In speeches the characters rarely talk about anything happening around them. They
mention events which either happened a long time ago or somewhere far from there.
The first encounter of the audience with an exterior scene in The Winter Guest is a picture
of an old lady rushing across a snow-covered field. She appears on the horizon of endless
frozen fields and she crosses it towards the town. We do not know where she comes from
as there is nothing to see or no place is mentioned. This limits our knowledge of the
outside world and focuses our attention onto what is actually depicted on the screen.
As a sign in reality, this particular picture of an empty, frozen field is a natural sign (Eco
1976, 15) which can be understood as standing for freezing temperatures, the weather at
the moment, the climate and a type of soil and agriculture in the area. Being used in
cinema, the list of its signifieds is much wider. The image appears in the context of other
images surrounding it in the film. First of all, the context of directly preceding and
following images determines its meaning. The first shot of the film shows Frances dozing
in her bed in the early morning. Then an old lady crosses the field. She is in a hurry. We
can see a close-up shot of her face and read her mimics. She looks ahead with her
concentrated face signalling a strong determination. The old lady walks out of the frame
and the camera stays for a while filming the white empty field. There is no sign of where
the woman came from.
18
The image of the field reflects the world of the woman crossing it. The field, empty and
cold, mirrors the psychology of the woman. The empty horizon signals emptiness in life
beyond it. It tells us about the feelings of the character by mediating the experience of it.
The space feels cold and certainly not like a place where one would want to dwell longer
than is necessary. Therefore it makes the impression as if it was the viewer’s own decision
to leave the field behind and focus on where the woman goes. At this point, at the
beginning of the film, the immense exterior represents loneliness and anxiety of the
character. A very similar depiction of exteriors is seen from an entirely opposite point of
view at the end of the film.
In one of the last scenes of the film, a schoolboy called Tom walks on the frozen sea with a
kitten under his jacket. Here the picture of the flat white landscape is used again but this
time in a different atmosphere. Tom is not on his own, he has got the kitten to take care of.
Also the ice is perfectly smooth, unlike the field in the first minute of the film, and so it is
easy to walk on. The impression of peace is enhanced by milky fog. Tom is not in a rush,
he enjoys the mysterious situation of a quiet white dark as all the dramatic events of the
story have passed: “No one has ever been here before, that’s a fuckin’ miracle, aye? [...]
All the time in the world for it.” In the very last scene, Tom’s friend Sam dares to go on the
ice as well and he looks for Tom in the fog. Before, Sam was slightly scared to go on the
ice, but as he can see that Tom is safe, he does not want to stay on the shore on his own.
The adventure is supposed to be shared with a friend. Tom is visually isolated by the fog,
but in fact he is still connected with his friend Sam and with the cat he decides to protect.
The spatial isolation is complemented by social isolation. The freezing cold causes the
street to be empty so the protagonists are not surrounded by a lively town. After the
traumatising experience of her husband’s death, Frances shuts herself off from the outside
world. Her separation is voluntary, she does not try to socialise. At the beginning of the
day, she wants to be on her own only with her thoughts. In the morning, Frances daydreams
in front of a window, then she looks at photos of her husband, while being
immersed in her thoughts. The sudden arrival of the mother in Frances’ house represents
the mother’s intrusion into Frances’ inner world. As soon as her mother arrives, Frances
shuts the bathroom door behind her and separates herself from the mother’s voice by
opening the water taps so that she cannot hear what her mother says. She is offended
because her mother has stepped into her contemplation and her private world. The spatial
isolation helps her to avoid a social contact with her mother. The door helps to save her
19
privacy until she is ready to face her mother and they both go downstairs to the open living
space.
Frances’ separation from life in the outside world is expressed in her work as well. She
shows her mother a set of photographs she has taken. Elspeth looks at the strict lines in the
black-and-white photos of architecture and complains: “you used to have a light in your
eyes! [...] I thought you’d take people”. Making pictures of people serves here as a symbol
of life and connection with life. Taking photos of architecture is solitary work. The
photographs taken by Frances have a counterpart in a painting hanging on the wall in the
living room. It is a big image of dark brown square blocks on a dark blue background. It
refers to the photographs via its shapes and atmosphere. Placing this painting in the scene
causes the strict square lines never to be out of the shot. They are either in the photographs
when the camera shoots Elspeth or in the painting behind Frances when she is in the shot.
Both the art works help to illustrate the feelings of isolation of the protagonist.
The spatial and social isolation expressed in The Winter Guest brings into consideration a
related question of the local community and the relationship to one’s own inhabited place.
Frances does not have strong relationship to the place and she does not seem to participate
in local life. Her situation represents the current life style of many young people who have
moved out of their home town for various reasons. In such a case, no memories are
connected to the area and therefore the relationship to the place and community is
weakened (Blaikie 2010, 165). This brings uprootedness and a lack of participation in the
community life. On the other hand, it brings the advantage of independence and privacy. In
the end, The Winter Guest prefers staying in one’s home and Frances considers changing
her mind about moving to Australia when she says “I’m going to clear out the studio,
maybe paint the front of the house.”
Unlike Frances, the older ladies, Lily and Chloe, have lived in the town for the whole of
their lives. Chloe remembers the last time when the sea froze. They participate in the
community life in what could be seen as a strange way by reading newspapers and
attending funerals of people they know. They interact with the local community by
collecting gossip and being the subject of gossip by others. Therefore Lily remarks on
Elspeth’s old appearance: “Not long for this world”, and Elspeth watching Chloe through a
telescope says “What’s she done to get a face like that?” While Lily and Chloe represent
the social rootedness, Elspeth epitomizes the rootedness in a place.
20
Elspeth is the only character in the film who mentions any real location in Scotland. She
reminisces about the beauty competition in Prestwick which Frances attended when she
was a little girl. Later, Elspeth suggests that Frances should move to Carnoustie rather than
to Australia. She points out that moving out of one’s home place deprives people of their
roots: “If you’re leaving your house and unrooting your son to go somewhere Jamie never
went to, I bet he never went to Carnoustie.” In this dialogue, David Martin-Jones sees a
reflection of a real life on the peninsula: “Frances’ extended dialogue with Elspeth
demonstrates the East Neuk’s struggle with its own diminishing sense of Scottishness,
brought about by the settling of the area by rootless, global, middle-class citizens like her”
(2009, 114). Community life is not idealised, but neither is independent life in separation.
The complex isolation creates an impression of time being stopped. Everything within the
story happens in one day. The characters are kept from doing their everyday activities. Sam
and Tom do not go to school because of the delayed bus which Lily and Chloe have to wait
long for. Alex cannot go to school because he steps into the freezing water and Frances is
prevented from her day-dreaming by a sudden visit of her mother. The spatial, temporal
and social isolation plays a crucial role for the story. The characters find themselves in an
extraordinary environment in an empty time slot. This situation makes them change their
routine and contemplate their life. The contemplation reveals hidden fears and desires and
results in a change and in a newly built stability.
What picture of Scotland does The Winter Guest create in terms of space? As it is focused
on one small area, it refers to the diversity of cultural geography within the country. It does
not represent Scotland as homogeneous culture. It rather accentuates the specificity of
smaller areas and life of an individual. The lack of relationship to the country is
emphasised by the isolation of the town and its inhabitants. The isolation of life expressed
in the film is based on the tradition of romantic fictional stories set in the Highlands
covered by the tradition of Tartanry. The Winter Guest transforms this tendency by
avoiding the romanticism and omitting the national sentiment of the characters. Unlike the
myth of Tartanry, the film creates a representation of Scotland as a country where the
landscape is not beautiful enough to provide comfort and satisfaction and the remoteness is
experienced as negative. The obvious solution may be to move out. Australia is considered
21
as an option given its post-colonial relation to the United Kingdom. It is remote but still
part of the same cultural area sharing its history and language5
.
The Winter Guest points out though, that the isolation is unconsciously created by people
themselves, the point is not the landscape but people’s loss of roots and lack of relationship
with the place. Therefore, moving may not resolve anything. Instead, the story suggests
drawing one’s attention towards the place and working on converting it into a true home.
As Duncan Petrie concludes, “The recurring metaphor of walking out on the ice,
emphasised by the fact that the boundary between land and sea is never clearly defined, not
only alludes to the courage needed for relationships to endure. It also functions as a
subliminal reminder of Scotland’s own peripheral status, a cold country on the edge of
Europe” (2000, 208).
5
This argument could be reinforced by the fact that the modern British literature and arts are indeed marked
with writers/artists coming from different cultures (from Joseph Conrad to Salman Rushdie), as well as
depicting characters whose identity and life stories challenge the limiting borders of belonging to a single
culture.
22
2.2 My Life is in my Own Hands: Cultural Identity
Apart from the use of space, the identity and self-presentation of the protagonists of the
film deserve our attention when analysing The Winter Guest and its relationship to the
Scottish cultural context. Studying the characters raises questions of childhood and
adulthood, national identity, femininity, memories of the past as images able to shape a
personal character, reliability of the speaker and many more. From a closer look at the
characters we can uncover the cultural identity the film creates. The previous chapter has
shown the spatial and temporal isolation of the characters from their closer surroundings.
The isolation is expressed also in the identity of the main character ‒ Frances. She is not
characterised as a member of a community, nor does she seem to have any friends and
social life. Her separateness originates in strong individualism which is her weakness as
well as her strength.
2.2.1 Individualism
In the previous chapter, the motif of spatial and social isolation has been described. The
characters experience it partly due to the environment and partly because of the difficulties
related to the interpersonal relationships. Frances isolates herself because of her grief but
also out of her strong individualism. She is convinced she is able to manage her problems
herself. Elspeth, Frances’ mother, expresses the same individualistic attitude. As mother
and daughter, their behaviour is similar to each other and apparently incompatible. Their
relationship shows the clash between the individualistic attitude and the need for a close,
caring family and friends.
Frances presents herself as a strong and independent individual. She lives in her own house
with her son and when her mother comes to the house, it appears that she is rather
unwanted. Frances sees herself to be the only person who can be responsible for her life
and as an adult individual she does not accept her mother’s guidance. She refuses advice
that she should look more feminine and does not think about her mother’s life when
proposing to move to Australia. Frances unsuccessfully fights for her right to be accepted
as an independent person. It is not sure if she really knows how to manage her feelings and
life and whether she might need help. We can say for sure, though, that she wants everyone
to think she does not need help.
23
Elspeth tries to make the same impression. Scared of her old age, she wants to create at
least an impression of not being an elderly person in need of help. She refuses to take a
walking stick and she runs ahead of Frances to prove that she is physically fit. Elspeth
pretends she can walk in an icy countryside without Frances’ help. She as well as Frances
tries to create an impression of an individual who does not need anyone. Furthermore, in
agreement with the pattern of the mother and daughter relationship, Elspeth wants to feel
needed by her daughter. Elspeth in her anxiety acts selfishly. She rejects Frances’
individualism while she claims individualism for herself: “I can do what I like. If I can’t do
that now when can I do it?”
The individualism of both Elspeth and Frances creates the tension between them. Elspeth
brought her daughter up by claiming independence for herself but she cannot accept the
same behaviour from her daughter. After the death of her husband, Frances tries to
establish a new stability based just on herself and her individuality. In the end, this aim
appears to be unrealistic because to achieve stability Frances has to balance her self-esteem
as well as her relationships with others.
The counterpart to the individualistic behaviour of Frances and Elspeth is the couple of old
ladies called Lily and Chloe. Throughout the day of the story, they support each other and
express their closeness. They do not make a single step without each other and they share
cakes in a café. Sharing food as a symbol of a good relationship is used one more time
when Sam and Tom divide a Mars bar into halves exactly measured with a ruler. On the
contrary, Frances buys two sandwiches for her and her mother and Elspeth at once refuses
to take them. Even though these are just little motifs seemingly insignificant, they illustrate
the overall relationships among the characters rather well6
.
Through the behaviour of Frances and Elspeth the film creates a world where people’s
behaviour is based on individualism. Individuals are responsible for their own life and they
are the only ones to blame if they fail. This results in people acting with little regard to the
others because their own benefit is an acceptable justification. Elspeth shouts out “You
taught me to care” while she does not realise that she herself had taught her daughter to act
6
More about the cultural significance of food and related rituals can be found in Roland Barthes: Elements
of Semiology (1968, pp.27-28) and in Eva Wiseman’s article about the relations of gender identities and food
in British culture (2010).
24
independently to be able to survive in the individualistic culture. Each individual wants to
keep control of the situation. Charles Longino and Zanna Beswick point out that “power
and control games [...] are a consistent source of conflict within the journey of this film”.
They also remark that it is not only Frances and Elspeth fighting over each other for the
control:
“Nita and Alex reject and advance [i.e. refuse one another and move forward towards the
relationship], as do Tom and Sam, enjoying a tug of war with worldliness [i.e. they try to
impress each other with their knowledge of the world]. Chloe explores the issue of power in
their [of the two old women] relationship when she accuses Lily of always taking the bus
window seat and, on the return journey, moves to a window seat of her own” (Longino and
Beswick 1999, 49‒50).
As the story of The Winter Guest implies, though, individualism does have its downsides
and does not guarantee happiness. At the end of the story, characters accept their
dependence and allow the others to gain control over the situation and take care of them.
Frances as well as Elspeth realise that admitting the need of each other and being needed
by one another makes them both much stronger and grounded than trying to ignore their
core mother and daughter relationship and their own weakness.
2.2.2 Social-class Identity
Social topics are frequently represented within the Scottish cultural discourse (Blaikie
2010). The tendency to deal with social issues is seen especially within Clydesidism7
but in
other discourses as well. The Winter Guest does not deal with social problems as a main
topic but even so it inevitably constructs a social identity of the characters depicted. A
closer look at the social situation tells us more about the construction of Scottish cultural
reality in the film.
The main character in The Winter Guest represents a rather innovative social role
compared to the stereotypical Scottish discourses of Tartanry, Kailyard and Clydesidism.
These repeated settings suggest an image of Scots as a working class nation coping with
external rule imposed on them. The first two refer to rural peasantry and they are seen as
7
For the description and the comparison to the discourses of Kailyard and Tartanry see the previous chapter
(p.12).
25
discourses creating an image of Scottish culture as non-progressive and politically and
culturally insignificant (Craig 1982). The third is very specifically focused on working
class men in industrial areas of Scotland. The image of a woman independent artist living
in a small town of The Winter Guest reaches beyond any of these patterns.
As has been said in the previous chapter, Frances represents a life style of a young middleclass
professional. The death of her husband does not bring Frances any economical
difficulties as she is not dependent on him being the breadwinner of the family. She
mourns her husband purely out of affection. She has a creative job as a photographer and a
house with an artistic interior in a nice coastal town. The heating in the house is left broken
but not because it would be too expensive to fix it but rather because Frances is too much
immersed in her thoughts to care about it. The obstacles preventing her from moving to
Australia are just personal, not financial or social. Frances has to work to be able to pay her
bills but money does not worry her. The financial situation is nearly completely left aside.
Partly this is because money is not a daily issue for Frances, partly because the story is
mainly focused on intimate interpersonal relationships and does not directly deal with
general social issues.
The concern about the social situation is more present in the talk of the two schoolmates
Sam and Tom. Their strong accents signal that they belong to the place in contrast with the
more neutral accents of Frances and Elspeth. Considering the connection between a place
and a local variety of the language we would expect an even stronger accent in Lily’s and
Chloe’s talk but their language is rather neutral as well as Elspeth’s. This could be due to
the choice of actors or due to a decision to make an internationally accessible film.
Tom and Sam discuss the social situation of their parents when making an open fire behind
some rocks on the beach:
“You get born, pushed out of the house as soon as look at you. Play school, nursery, learn
this, learn that. What the fuck for, aye? They’re working, you’re working. I don’t see them
happy. I’ve never seen them happy. I’ve seen them laughing, I’ve seen that. I’ve seen my
mum rolling on the floor laughing. It frightened me to bloody death. College, university,
work, work. What the fuck do they have kids for?”
The boys want to take home the kittens which they have found abandoned on the beach,
but they have to wait until school finishes to be able to come home without creating
26
suspicion. Sam’s mother is at home, maybe she is a housewife. The boys complain about
their parents checking up on them and at the same time they blame their parents of not
having enough time for their children. The boys feel overwhelmed with school, homework
and leisure activities like music school.
The topics they chat about and their opinions provide semiotic material for finding out
about their social situation. Their parents work hard spending their days at work or at home
working. Thanks to that they are in a good financial situation and therefore they can
provide their children with music classes, the Boy Scouts and after school math lessons.
From the point of view of the children their parents are always stressed, though. Even if
they have enough money to live on they do not seem to be happy as they spend all of their
time at work. Seeing this, their children are not motivated enough to study and they do not
find good school marks to be relevant for achieving happiness in life. Of course, this
conclusion has to be considered with regard to the fact that Tom and Sam are teenagers and
are of an age when education is on the periphery of interests for most British children
regardless of their family situation8
.
Considering the social situation of the other characters in the film, their lives appear to be
rather trouble-free. The characters do not express any sense of adherence to any social
class and there are no class differences emphasised. Even though there might be social
differences in the town, for example between Frances and the families of the boys, the
differences are not significant for their interaction. No social issues participate in the story
dealing with the topic of death and intimate themes of private life and human relationships.
The Winter Guest takes the point of view which is focused on intimate, personal issues
suggesting that class distinction is a concern belonging to another time and place while in
the isolated world of a small town people are regarded as individuals and social
differences, if they exist, do not affect their daily interactions with others9
.
8
This teenage attitude towards education is caught in a series of British documentary films called Seven Up!
(directed by Paul Almond in 1964 and Michael Apted since 1970), which is a much older example but
nevertheless very telling. Also it is a topic of Bill Forsyth’s film Gregory’s Girl (1981).
9
As a comparison to The Winter Guest, Sarah Street characterises other Scottish films produced during the
same time as being concerned with social issues (2009, 139) and Duncan Petrie characterises Scottish cinema
as much more focused on unsettling social issues since the year 2000 (2009, 167).
27
2.2.3 Female Identity
Apart from the use of space, the female protagonist of the film attracts the critics’ attention
more than anything else. Duncan Petrie points out that the Scottish film tradition is
predominantly masculine. He argues that Scottish culture in the 20th
century fused with the
discourse of Clydesidism and adopted working class masculinity as the representing
perspective. The characters and topics of the film narratives as well as the film-makers
have been masculine. Petrie claims that Scottish society persists in focusing on masculine
issues even in the second half of the 20th
century, “despite displaying a welcome sensitivity
to questions of gender relations, the predominant focus of the works of Alasdair Grey, John
Byrne and Bill Forsyth was still very much on the trials and tribulations of men, with
women still primarily consigned to the realm of ‘otherness’” (Petrie 2004, 64).
Recently the situation has been changing and the female perspective has become more
prevalent in Scottish cinema. The current female Scottish artists work hard to be released
from the tag of femininity seen as otherness. The female perspective is no longer being
seen as something specific and abnormal. The Scottish writer Janice Galloway expresses
this thought when talking about her writing:
“I want to write as though having a female perspective is normal which is a damn sight
harder than it sounds. I don’t think people tend to regard ‘women’s priorities’ as in any way
normal: so-called women’s issues are still regarded as deviant, add-on, extra” (Galloway
1999, 85).
Janice Galloway’s wish seems to have been achieved in The Winter Guest. The film
represents a female point of view created by the screenwriter Sharman Macdonald. It
shows an authentically female perspective rather than a female perspective as imagined by
men. Even though the film was directed by Alan Rickman, he apparently gave full freedom
to his screenwriter and the main actresses to express themselves. That is partly why the
film offers a perspective where female is regarded as normal. The audience is guided to
personally experience Frances rather than watching her from the outside. This is achieved
by using cinematic codes and motifs enabling the identification of the viewers with the
character. First, Frances is on screen most of the time. At a few points in the film the
perspective of the camera merges with Frances’ perspective. This creates the impression of
watching the world through Frances’ eyes. The motif of her watching is integrated into the
story also by the fact that she is a photographer observing the world through her camera.
28
This motif reminds the viewers who is the actual observer of the world depicted. The
protagonist’s perspective is confirmed also by the environment which has been shaded by
Frances’ emotions. For the dominant female perspective and the complexity of female
characters The Winter Guest stands out as an important landmark in Scottish cinema.
Even though Frances’ point of view is the dominant one, she is not the only person
observing the world here. The motive of a female watching is used several times within the
film to interconnect the story with the female perspective. Lily and Chloe watch Elspeth
passing by while commenting on her age, Elspeth then returns the ‘favour’ by watching
them through a telescope commenting on the ‘ugliness’ of Chloe’s face. Nita hidden
behind a wall watches Alex going to school. Later Alex and Nita hide to avoid Frances and
Elspeth passing, Alex hides completely and asks Nita to report where his mother and
grandmother are going. At that moment, he watches the world through her eyes. After
having a bath in Alex’s house, Nita stands in front of a mirror watching her figure and
commenting on it.
The normality of the female perspective is achieved by being dominant as well as avoiding
the contrast with a male perspective. Among the main characters, there is no adult man
who would question the female point of view. There is no man who would pose his point
of view against it and give it the feature of otherness. Simply by not giving an alternative,
the female perspective becomes the only one to consider. Apart from the two schoolboys,
the only man figuring in the film is the nearly adult Alex. It is him who suggests to Nita
that she should come with him to the empty house and then takes her clothes away to dry
them. He is a shy young man though, leaving the women a lot of space to express
themselves. And it is Nita who actively determines the development of their relationship.
Theatre critic Peter Zenzinger says it is the trait of the work of Sharman Macdonald not to
feature any adult male characters in her plays: “Her escape from a male-dominated
Scottish culture shows in the almost complete absence of adult men in her plays” (2003:
135). Considering The Winter Guest as an example, I cannot agree with this. Even though
there is not a male character on the screen, the whole story is about coping with the loss of
a husband. The existence of the man then, even if he is just acknowledged and not seen, is
the central point of the narrative. Losing him distracts the protagonist’s whole life.
Elspeth’s negative relationship with her son-in-law and Frances’s affection for her husband
creates the tension between the two women and the husband’s death is the determining
29
event for the story. The specificity of such a presence of a man is his passivity. He does not
actively participate in the conflict straight in front of the camera. We know him only from
the perspective of the two women and marginally from Alex’s point of view. Therefore, as
has been said above, the presence of the man does not distract the female perspective by
putting it into contrast with his own.
For Frances, her female identity does not commit her to fulfil a social role traditionally
dictated to women. Her individual character shapes her behaviour as a mother and a
daughter. Her motherhood is depicted rather as parenthood in a wider sense. She does not
do what mothers are stereotypically expected to do – spending their days in the kitchen,
making breakfast for their children and keeping their house tidy. Germaine Greer describes
the mother’s role in Euro-American culture in the second half of the 20th
century as
suffering from isolation: “Mother is the dead hearth of the family, spending father’s
earnings on consumer goods to enhance the environment in which he eats, sleeps and
watches television” (1981, 263). Frances is not a core member of a family who would
either hold the family together or destroy it by leaving.
She rejects her son’s attempts to comfort her and does not cling to him more after her
husband’s death. This situation is different from what Simone de Beauvoir describes as a
pattern for mother and son relationship: “she treats her child as a baby. [...] she would have
him of unlimited power, yet held in the palm of her hand, dominating the world, yet on his
knees before her” (1972, 532). Frances and Alex have an unproblematic, although quite
reserved relationship. There is not a single hug between them within the story. This
enhances the isolation of both of them. Elspeth blames Frances that she is not paying
enough attention to Alex and she hopes that now, after the husband’s death, Frances will
give Alex “a chance”. Although given that Elspeth did not like Frances’ husband, we might
cast doubt on the reliability of Elspeth’s strong point of view.
Frances does not take care of her son properly according to Elspeth but Alex is nearly an
adult and he does not seem to be frustrated by this. Frances’ feelings towards him are
demonstrated when she shows Elspeth her photo of Alex laughing, which she really likes.
She knows what he thinks of moving to Australia or of her new hairstyle so we can assume
there is an ongoing dialog between them. Alex is worried about his mother’s wellbeing but
he respects her when she asks him to leave her alone. He is concerned about his mother
meeting Elspeth as he is aware of their complicated relationship. Frances is presented as a
30
caring and sensitive person. Rather than a mother she is a friend to her son needing him as
much as he needs her. “I’ve Alex” she replies when Elspeth tells her to not stay on her own
for the rest of her life. Frances does not identify herself primarily as a mother, she does not
devote her time to her child, but she certainly loves her son and cares for him. As such, she
represents a modern parent who has given up a traditional role while remaining in a good
relationship with her child more as a friend than a parent.
Elspeth, on the other hand, represents a mother of a different kind. She claims she cannot
stop caring for her daughter even after she has grown up. For Elspeth, her motherhood and
caring for Frances is a central role of her life. Simone de sees this motif as a main
characteristic of mother and daughter relationship: “She makes her child’s happiness her
only care” (1972, 533). Elspeth does not talk about anything except her daughter and her
main anxiety is that Frances would move to Australia and she would die alone. She is
anxious to tie her daughter back to herself rather than leave her to lead her own life. She
tries to convince Frances that she needs her mother. At her age, being needed is the only
way to feel alive: “A person needs to be needed and if you don’t need me you could lie”.
Her motherhood clashes with her individualism and callous emotions and therefore results
in a directive and reproaching attitude towards her daughter.
Frances as an adult daughter feels she should be taking care of her mother but because of
communication difficulties she adopts a defensive approach. She tries to protect her
independence, her own memory and her individual identity. According to Beauvoir, this is
a logical reaction to the mother’s devotion that is tyrannical (ibid.). Similarly to Elspeth,
Frances says she does not need the other woman. But unlike Elspeth, Frances sees being
needed as difficult. She knows she should be taking care of her elderly mother as her
daughter. What she wants in return is her mother to admit that she needs her and to become
humble. This reveals a competitive essence of their relationship, the like of which is
commonly attributed to fathers and sons (Segal 2007, 62). Therefore Frances’ behaviour as
a daughter is rather on the level of a descendant without gender specificity.
After the traumatising loss of her husband, Frances does not think about men at all. She
does not try to be attractive and does not look for comfort in a man’s arms. She wears
baggy clothes apparently after her husband, as we can recognise the same coat she wears in
the photos of him. This keeps her in touch with her lost beloved man and also sends a no
signal to any possible boyfriends when she does not want a new partner at all. This is
31
exactly what Elspeth cannot understand and she is trying to persuade Frances to look more
feminine. Elspeth is trying to force Frances to get over her grief and to start a new life
because only then she would be able to find herself a new husband and be happy again.
According to Elspeth, her femininity should help her to establish a new identity: “A happy
woman doesn’t mutilate herself. I’m not talking about the husband that you lost. A woman
is happy in her work. A happy woman doesn’t ruin her own beauty.” Being attractive as a
woman should gain her more confidence: “Wear some earrings, for God’s sake. Let the
world know you’re a woman.” Elspeth cannot understand why a woman would voluntarily
cut her hair short because it does not match her perception of femininity. For her, being
feminine means trying to look young, being attractive for men while keeping her
independence. And being feminine according to Elspeth is crucial for a woman’s self-
presentation.
The hair is not only a sign of femininity but also a symbol of roots, tradition and
connection to the past. That is why Frances has decided to cut it off. She rebels against the
notion of trying to be attractive as the only man she wants is dead. And she does not share
the sweetness of her mother’s memories of the beauty competition in Prestwick which she
joined as a little girl. She wants to forget everything and move to Australia. Elspeth, on the
other hand, does not have positive feelings for her daughter’s late husband and wants her to
keep everything but him in her memory. This is the reason why Elspeth is so shocked
when she sees Frances’ short hair for the first time. For Elspeth this is a statement of revolt
against everything that she finds important for Frances’ femininity. And as has been said
above, for Elspeth acting and looking feminine is the core of a woman’s identity.
Elspeth with her approach to femininity represents the most conventional approach to the
mother identity. She is fully focused on her daughter and emphasises stereotypical
attributes of femininity and the need of a husband (Beauvoir 1972). Her character is more
complex, though. Apart from her statements about femininity Elspeth behaves in an
unconventional manner, she is energetic, active, loud and demanding. Peter Zenzinger
points out that in a narrative uninhabited by adult men such a character substitutes the male
counterpart: “A woman’s bossy mother, whose callousness hides emotional crippling,
generally replaces the ‘hardman’ of the traditional pattern” (2003, 135). Considering
‘callousness’ and ‘emotional crippling’ as conventional “hardman” characteristics may be
questionable. Certainly valid, though, is the idea of a bossy mother who partially fills the
gap of a male character in the narrative.
32
Rather than by emotional skills, the gender roles are conventionally expressed by activity,
energy and reasoning being attributed to men and passivity, patience and emotionality
being attributed to women. Germaine Greer describes the stereotype of a woman: “She is
more body than soul, more soul than mind. [...] her value is solely attested by the demand
she excites in others. [...] virtue is assumed from her loveliness and her passivity” (1981,
67‒71). From this point of view, Elspeth dominantly represents masculine characteristics
regardless of her claims about the importance of femininity. Because of the conjunction of
what she says and what she does, Elspeth appears to be a woman emancipated while still
strongly rooted in her traditional upbringing.
This image of Elspeth as a traditional woman therefore clashes with the stereotypical
portrait of a female. The stereotype of a female role is a passive object in the male world
participating on the building up of a life of a man rather than the woman’s own:
“She takes his name; she belongs to his religion, his class, his circle; she joins his family, she
becomes his ‘half’. She follows wherever his work calls him and determines their place of
residence; she breaks more or less decisively with her past, becoming attached to her
husband’s universe” (Beauvoir 1972, 449).
Therefore when encountering a female character as Elspeth, who is active, independent of
a man and still representing traditional female values in the narrative, the image clashes
with what we have already learned about the stereotypical depiction of a female. One
explanation is, as Zenzinger says, that she substitutes a male character. This answer,
though, does not fit the fact that Elspeth is the character most concerned about her own
femininity. A more suitable explanation is that Elspeth represents a traditional female
character as perceived from a female perspective. From the point of view of a daughter, the
mother appears to be stronger and more dominating than she would be from the
perspective of an adult man. And because a true female perspective has never got much
space in narratives, this is a new and maybe surprising point of view.
Also the other female characters have more complex personalities than just representing
their gender as a counterpart to the males in the story. The full palette of characters is
achieved by positioning the central character Frances in contrast to Elspeth and the young,
vivid Nita in contrast to the old friends Lily and Chloe. Elspeth represents a traditional
female perspective which is concerned about being feminine, about appearance and about
being needed. But Nita does not see herself to be very feminine and claims her body to be
33
boyish. She says this not with regret but with subtle pride. Even though she is not
conventionally feminine, she is pictured as attractive for Alex. Her attractiveness comes
from her mysterious allure of a newcomer, her self-confidence and her surprisingly active
behaviour.
Nita symbolises a determined, energetic young woman distanced from the stereotypical
portrait of attractive young girls as passive, innocent and childish or seductive, curvy
femmes fatales (Monaco 2000). In contrast to Elspeth, Nita also contemplates her
femininity but she does not consider it to be something she should be trying to achieve.
She looks at her ‘boyish’ body and is proud to leave the conservative values behind,
defining a new female identity based on other values than the stereotype. Nita’s place in
the story is not only to seduce Alex but also to bring new life to him and his home. She is
new in the town hence she is not burdened with the shared memory of the dead. Her
presence helps Alex to experience new emotions and to turn his attention towards the
future. She points out that every day has to be lived as if it was the last one: “What if there
is only this one day left to us?” She symbolises a start of a new life in the setting shaded by
grief and death and the new perception of femininity.
While Nita is a strong individual representing vivid life energy, Lily and Chloe are
presented as a joint character preferring the dead to alive people. Nita lives as if she has
just this one day to live, Lily and Chloe plan future visits to funerals with their diaries,
cynically commenting on the death of others. Their relationship counterbalances the
relationship of Frances and Elspeth. There is no strong tension between them and they take
the death of people they know as a natural last step in human life. Unlike Elspeth, they do
not rely on any children they may have or husbands to keep them company. They are fixed
on each other in a firm friendship. In contrast to Nita and Elspeth, these two characters
represent the calm and stable atmosphere of a small-town community. Through them, older
ladies are portrayed as enjoying coffee and cakes, funerals and local gossip, they are
ladylike and quiet while keeping the ability to enjoy life until the end. Lily and Chloe
represent a good-hearted humorous depiction of older ladies’ characters.
What reality does The Winter Guest construct through its characters? Sometimes what is
not present is more telling than what we can see. The characters in this film lack a strong
national identity, their belonging to Scotland is not mentioned and most of them do not
have any local accent. The main topic is very personal and universally human. Instead of
34
emphasising local specificity, The Winter Guest imagines Scots to be undistinguishable
from other people within the wider European culture. The film depicts Scots to be on the
edge of a new identity, less specifically Scottish and more open to the rest of the world. It
shows life in a small Scottish town in a positive, gently humorous light. People like their
local gossip but they treat each other in a good way, they are honest expressing their real
emotions, positive as well as negative, without pretence. Tom is not shy to ask Frances for
permission to touch her hair and to appreciate it. Even though the first impression is that of
naughty school boys, Tom and Sam appear to be kind and sensitive characters. On the
other hand, the community is not strongly tied together and therefore people may feel
isolated and lonely.
The Winter Guest also reflects the current question of women’s identity and indicates a
change in the Scottish discourse. By fully exploiting the female perspective, it raises the
question of what is true female identity. As Frances’ hair is cut, traditional femininity is
questioned and the result is a new image of an attractive woman represented by Nita. In the
end, even Elspeth realizes that it is time for a change: “Time to cut my hair and have a boy
touch it”. As the film shows, the topics of individualism versus caring relationships and
giving more space to females are the issues Scottish culture is dealing with at the present
time.
35
2.3. Narrating the Emotions: The Events
Together with a detailed look into the use of space and the identity of characters, it is
helpful to examine the elements which make up the narrative of The Winter Guest. This
chapter focuses on the character of the events, the way they are presented, motivated and
connected to one another. A narratological analysis of the sequential structure contributes
to the identification of the genre and to distinguishing the features characteristic for the
presented culture. A cognitive approach to the metaphors of the narrative is used in order
to achieve a better understanding of The Winter Guest and its relationship to Scottish
culture.
2.3.1 The Genre on the Edge of Lyric Poetry
The chronological structure of the text takes the viewers straight into the middle of the
story. It starts with Elspeth visiting Frances in her house. There is obvious tension between
the two. This holds the viewer’s attention and raises suspense. The causes of the imbalance
between the characters are to be reconstructed retrospectively from the references in their
dialogue. From the beginning of the film, future events unfold in a chronological order.
The stories of the different characters are intercut so that we know what they are all doing
simultaneously at each moment. The chronological order of the narrated events as in The
Winter Guest is not rare according to Mieke Bal:
“A conventional construction of a novel is the beginning in medias res, which immerses the
reader in the middle of the fabula [emphasis added]. From this point she is referred back to
the past, and from then on the story carries on more or less chronologically through to the
end” (2009, 82).
Considering the chronology of the presentation, The Winter Guest is therefore not in any
way experimental, it follows the conventional chronological pattern of a novel. This is a
simple structure allowing the viewer to focus on the moment, the emotions and
relationships of the characters.
The time period of the story which can be seen on the screen is in fact very short.
Everything that is shown happens within the one day, precisely speaking, it is not even a
whole day, as the story ends before sunset. Mieke Bal recognizes such temporality as a
characteristic way of picturing a crisis: “the selection of a crisis form implies a restriction:
36
only brief periods from the life of the actor are presented” (ibid., 216). During that short
moment of Frances’ life, we find out a lot of information to help us interpret her character
and behaviour. To keep the narrative brief, everything happening outside this one day
appears as short references in the utterances of the characters. No retrospectives or
anticipations are shown directly. And except for the note about the beauty competition in
Prestwick, none of the retrospectives is mentioned in more than a short hint. This keeps the
story of the film focused on the moment shown, avoiding distraction with side stories. It
gives the presented events a compact structure of the crisis genre.
Allowing just a day for the whole story reduces the physical events to the minimum. Lily
and Chloe go for a funeral and back home. Elspeth comes to her daughter’s house for the
purpose of doing their shopping together. Elspeth decides to change the plan and persuades
Frances to take her for a walk with her camera. In terms of physical events, the scenario is
simple. They go for a walk, they meet Sam and Tom at the beach and then go back home.
Alex goes to the bus stop in the morning, spends some time in the streets with Nita and
then comes back home. Although he experiences an exceptional day, meets Nita and the
day is a start of a new life period for him, in terms of the physical world there is no change
between the beginning and the end of the story. Except for Elspeth, all the characters go
back to the place they came from, no one new arrives and no one leaves. Consequently, the
narrative seems to be slow, yet intense. We spend just a single day with the characters but
discover a lot about them. As in a psychological narrative, the emphasis is on the
interiority of the characters. The physical events are in the film in order to define the
characters.
What is added here compared to the conventional scheme of a psychological narrative is
the change in the psychology of the characters throughout the story. The motivating force
of the story is in the mindset of the characters and so are the crucial events. The change
between the beginning and the end of the story lies in the interpersonal relationships and
the emotional state of the characters. The physical events cooperate on the pivotal events
of mental nature. In other words, unlike in an epic story, where the physical events create
the storyline, here the physical events have the function of visualising the psychological
changes and giving an impulse to the changes in the mentality of the characters. The
German narratologists Peter Hühn and Jens Kiefer Jens Kiefer (2005) recognise mental
events as one of the specific features of lyrical poetry.
37
They analysed lyrical poetry with narratological tools and realised that poetry focused on
the mental state of its subject displays some features of narrativity10
. Narrativity in lyrical
poetry consists of the subject (actor) and a sequentiality of the events. The specificity of
such a narrative lies in the fact that the self-reflexive subject is in the role of a character in
the story and psychological events change the subject’s interiority. That means the
psychology of the subject is set as the initial state and within the ‘story’ of the poem the
psychology changes. This is the principle of the plot in a self-reflexive poem with
sequentiality. Another feature of such narrative is that mental events are expressed through
rich metaphors, tropes and through formal tools of the text.
The Winter Guest resembles the poetry narrative in several aspects. To express invisible
mental subjects, the medium of film uses visual tools such as light, space and mimics,
gestures and all sorts of visual metaphors. The physical events metaphorically stand for the
mental events. The metaphorical meaning of the events is understood through culturespecific
conventions. To achieve understanding, the conventions must be shared by the text
(film) and the intepreter (viewer). The analysis of the used conventional metaphors allows
reconstructing the conventions specific for the culture in which the film was created and
has been interpreted.
2.3.2 The Metaphors of Life and Understanding
The conventional metaphors used in the story help with discovering the cultural rituals
surrounding the perception of life and death. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson discovered
that abstract concepts are visualised through spatial metaphors to help us to understand
them better, or as Lakoff and Johnson say: “Once we can identify our experiences as
entities and substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them, and quantify
them – and, by this means, reason about them” (1980, 25). We use this principle of
understanding especially when reasoning about ontological subjects of life and death. And
as the ontological subjects are so central for every culture, these metaphors are of special
importance for understanding the cultural system. If it is our own culture, these patterns of
understanding are so subconscious they are very hard to recognize until we compare them
10
For more detail about the relation between narratives and lyrical poetry see Příběh v lyrice (The Story in
Lyrical Poetry, Tomšů 2010).
38
to a different culture. In arts, these conventional metaphors are used to achieve
understanding, but compared to the convention, they are elaborated and further extended.
In The Winter Guest, the elaborated conventional metaphors can be recognised in the
background of the narrative. The main plot is the change in Frances’ perception of her life
and relationship to her mother. This is a mental event. Frances tries to cope with the feeling
of emptiness after she has lost her husband. Her plan is to leave her town to be able to
forget. She wants to leave for Australia, a place so remote that she would cut off
everything that constitutes her life so far, including her mother. The leaving is spatial but
when understood metaphorically it stands for a wish for a complete change of her life.
Interpreting the metaphor of leaving a place as symbolising a significant change of one’s
life is so natural because it is a conventional metaphor within the European culture.
Lakoff and Turner identify this as a conventional metaphor of change of state is change of
location. They categorise the metaphors into groups where coherent metaphors create a
whole metaphorical system covering the complexity of the abstract phenomena. The
metaphor of change of state is change of location is part of the system of metaphors seeing
life as a journey and death as going to a final destination (Lakoff and Turner 1989, 8). As
they point out, there may be a combination of various metaphors for the same abstract
subject in one piece of art until they all stay coherent. “Life and death are such allencompassing
matters that there can be no single conceptual metaphor that will enable us
to comprehend them [...] Each metaphor provides structure for comprehending a different
aspect of the target domain” (ibid., 2 and 53). The Winter Guest contains more than one
metaphor for life as well.
In The Winter Guest, life is perceived as a journey in two points. As has been said above,
one of them is the motif of changing a place pictured as changing one’s life. The other one
is the topic of going for a walk. During the walk, we get the most information about
Frances and Elspeth, in their conversation they mention points from all their lives since
childhood until their future deaths. The walk is a visual symbol of their life together. In
conjunction with the metaphor of life as a journey, the film works with the metaphors of
life as a day and life as a year. We spend just one day with the characters and within this
short period of time we get to know them enough to understand their lives. Lakoff and
Turner describe the elements of the metaphor of life as a day; the sunrise is birth and the
night is death. The Winter Guest refers to this metaphor by showing one day as a
39
representation of a whole life, but does not exploit this metaphor fully showing the life
stages associated with the times of the day.
The metaphor more exploited in the film is the metaphor of life as a year. Within this
metaphor “springtime is youth, summer is maturity, autumn is old age, and winter is death”
(ibid., 18). This narrative does not use the whole of the life as a year scheme, it emphasises
one stage depicting the old age. The story of the film is set in the middle of winter. It deals
with the topics of coping with the death of a close person and one’s own. The season
matches the topic, the winter is a metaphorical depiction of old age and death, it weakens
people, disallows them to walk comfortably and reminds them of their own death. The
choice of the season corresponds not only with the older characters but also with Frances’
attitude to her life. She thinks she cannot be happy again in her life. At the end of the film,
her decision that she will clear out the studio and paint the front of the house in the spring
is a symbol of giving life one more chance. By means of the metaphor of “life as a year” at
this point Frances decides to start a new life by referring to her activities planned for
spring.
These and many other metaphors together create a coherent metaphorical system through
which the abstract concepts of life and death are understood. When Frances says: “That’s
all I want, to leave him behind” we do not interpret it in the literal spatial sense but as a
metaphor for the wish to forget. For Frances, leaving means forgetting and that is the
reason why Elspeth is so anxious about it. She refuses to be forgotten both in her life and
after her death.
Other metaphors in the film testify to the importance of not being forgotten. Being
remembered after one’s death is a little victory in the fight against mortality. And there are
various ways of achieving this. In a moment of weakness, Elspeth comes with an idea of
making a solid table: “Maybe I’ll make a table that I can leave behind me. A good strong
table with legs that I’ve turned on a lathe of which you can see ...and when you leave it
there is, solid... bearing witness.” Creating a firm piece of furniture which survives its
creator’s death is the concretization of creating a firm remembrance. People will remember
her every time they look at the table. Frances’ husband also left a remembrance, this time
in the form of photo portraits. And metaphorically speaking, being seen is being
remembered. Viewers do not know anything about his aspiration of being remembered, but
it is Frances who holds the memory. She is the one who wants to keep the memory, or
40
more precisely who wants to turn back time and have her husband back alive. Reminding
ourselves of the dead is a way of expressing our affection for them. Therefore even though
it is painful to keep his picture constantly in mind and Frances wants to “leave him
behind”, she still keeps her house covered with her husband’s photos. As the film shows,
by remembering their dead relatives, people pay honour to them and at the same time they
hope they will be treated the same way and be remembered after death.
Death in The Winter Guest is captured in the traditional Christian way. It is a moment of
leaving this world and going to unknown, from light to darkness as expressed by the
blowing off a candle during the funeral in a Christian church. Lakoff and Turner identify
the metaphors called death is departure and death is darkness which are both plentifully
used in English poetry. The time a person can spend in this world is given to people for a
limited, too short a period of time. That is why Nita wants to live fully through every
moment and why Elspeth demands Frances to stop mourning her husband and start
enjoying her life again.
Frances’ attempt to start a new life is visualised in her having her hair cut. Elspeth is not
happy with that, though, as it clashes with her perception of femininity. The hair stands for
the present life and the memory of the past, cutting it visually interrupts the continuity of
life and gives Frances an opportunity to start again. Elspeth then uses the metaphor of the
haircut for a nostalgic longing for her youth. For her, the idea of cutting her hair stands for
changing her opinionated principles and opening her mind.
The change in Frances’ decision about forgetting her present life and starting a new one is
visualised in another metaphor. Under the newly achieved different perspective Frances
decides to stay and build up her new life on the remains of the old one. She visualises this
decision in the metaphor: “I’m going to clear out the studio, maybe paint the front of the
house”. This metaphor suggests that caring about one’s place means being happily settled
in one’s life. As we found out in the chapter discussing space in this film, the house is a
representation of Frances’ life, therefore caring about it represents her decision of
reconstructing her present life.
The change in fabula and in Frances’ attitude is expressed through another visual
metaphor. Both Frances and Elspeth get an opportunity of seeing through different eyes.
When they are on the way home, they meet Tom and Sam on the beach. Elspeth sits next to
41
Tom talking to him about his girlfriends, in her posture she expresses kindness and care.
Frances looking from a distance suddenly sees her mother in a different light. She takes her
camera and makes a photo. Later she makes one more picture of Elspeth sitting on her own
looking into the open fire. Through the camera Frances sees her mother as an old fragile
lady lost in thoughts and memories. Both the moments which Frances captures in the
photos symbolise her comprehension and coming back to life. She takes photos of people
which, as Elspeth says, is a sign of connection to life. She gives her mother a chance to be
seen as a full personality, not just an elderly mother who needs to be taken care of. Frances
claims that her camera sees “what I tell it. Often and often it will sniff out more. It’ll see
the person if they let it. If I’m lucky it’ll sense their secrets too and lead them out, every
single one.” She uses the camera to see deeper than she can with her eyes. Ironically this
time, not even the camera sniffed the secret of Tom hiding a kitten under his jacket.
Discovering the hidden kitten is a visualisation of the uncovering of new life. This moment
visualises the change in Frances’ mind. It gives her an impulse to focus on life around her
again. She starts observing and looking for people’s real self again and realises that life
still has lots of secrets to be discovered. Seeing through the camera is a metaphor of
understanding. Lakoff and Turner describe this as understanding is seeing metaphor: “what
enables you to see is metaphorically what enables you to understand” (1989, 64).
The same metaphor of understanding through vision is used to express change in Elspeth’s
perception of Frances, she sees her daughter through the eyes of the boy. Tom touches
Frances’ hair and appreciates her eyes. Elspeth sees that what she criticises is appreciated
by someone else, furthermore by a young boy, symbol of life for her. At the point she
realises that her own perspective might be faulty, that she might have been wrong. These
two events of photographing Elspeth and watching Tom touching Frances’s hair are shown
as physical but their meaning lies on the mental level. The physical event of looking carries
meaning of seeing, in other words understanding. By looking, the characters open
themselves to the change of their perspective. The metaphor pictures the change of
perspective as enlightenment, as seeing what has been hidden from one’s eyes.
For the narrative, this moment signals a transformation in the story. Lakoff and Turner
draw attention to the connection between seeing, understanding and change: “Lightning is
instantaneous, and thoughts that are instantaneous do not occur as part of a logical
progression. They are flashes of intuition which may seem to come from nowhere. And
just as lightning can have a force, so ideas can be forceful” (ibid., 94). Mieke Bal finds a
42
similar motive of looking in the narrative of Schindler’s List: “conversion is defined as
seeing, not in a positivistic or in a psychological but in a narratological sense; seeing
differently, and seeing difference turns the fabula around, makes the character different”
(2009, 19). That is what happens in The Winter Guest as well. Seeing, and therefore
understanding leads to the change of the characters and their behaviour.
In The Winter Guest the metaphor of looking is used also for the meaning of controlling.
Portraits of Frances’ husband displayed all over her house picture him mostly looking
straight in the camera with a serious face and ‘hypnotizing’ look. Even though he is dead,
his influence is still present in the house through the photos. That is why Alex feels he sees
his father more often than when his father was alive. While Frances and Elspeth just
metaphorically opened their eyes, Frances’ husband has to close his. He needs to be let go
so that Frances and Alex can move forward. As a visual representation of this, Nita takes
down the photos around the house and stops the dead gazing and controlling the family.
Within these metaphors of looking, photos stand for the people depicted, furthermore they
are believed to capture the true self of the people which might not be seen with bare eyes.
What can we learn from the story and its presentation about Scottish culture? First, as far
as genre is concerned, we have identified features of psychological narrative and lyrical
poetry. This step helps to specify what creates the representation of the culture and what is
genre stylisation. For the cultural analysis, the important subject is the choice of the genre.
The Winter Guest emphasises human interiority, importance of interpersonal relationships
and refers to the Scottish lyrical tradition. Given the choice of psychological narrative and
lyrical atmosphere, the film creates an image of a mental world of a person experiencing
personal and family dramas hidden under the first impression of an idyllic coastal town. In
a serious, dramatic way, the film brings forward bare emotions, fear of loneliness and
death and expects the viewers to share the experience directly with the characters. Ian
Goode recognizes the tendency to focus on psychological topics as prevalent in recent
Scottish cinema: “One of the specific most distinctive and productive characteristics lies in
the ability to express interiority” (2005, 235). As the film constructs a psychology of
Scottish characters, they themselves contemplate their lives sitting on the Scottish seashore
observing the emptiness of the sea, perhaps a realistic experience leading to the popular
focus on a mental world in Scottish narrative art.
43
The metaphors constructing the story speak about the cultural background of the narrative.
They reveal that it belongs to the European tradition by referring to the general archetypal
concepts used for understanding the abstract phenomena rooted in European culture. The
concepts of journeys and paths standing for life and death are inherent to other cultures
outside Europe as well. They are one of the fundamental ways of understanding life for
human culture in general (Lakoff 1987). Some other concepts are more specific for this
region. Metaphors seeing life as a year and old age as winter anchor The Winter Guest to
the area where people experience four seasons. It would be a different story if it was not
built up on concepts of Christianity as the religion in the portrayed area. Certainly the
climactic scene would change if it did not employ the metaphor of understanding as
seeing. This metaphor enables visualising the eye-opening moment as looking at each
other from the perspective of someone or something else. The same metaphor also stands
behind the fact that photos are considered to capture people’s true nature. The ontological
metaphors are grounded deeply in the culture and therefore shared by people in a wider
cultural area. Those described above are common at least within Europe and the English
speaking world. They are not specific for Scotland, but they testify that Scottish culture has
wider European roots.
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3. O rodičích a dětech
O rodičích a dětech (Of Parents and Children, Vladimír Michálek 2008) is a Czech film
constructing an image of Czech cultural reality in the second half of the 20th
century. It is
set in the contemporary Czech Republic but through many retrospectives we are taken
back to Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and 1970s. The narrative is focused on issues
concerned with inter-personal and personal issues and history is reflected in the
background as an inevitable interfering force. The story is relatively simple. An adult man
called Honza visits his elderly father called Ivan to take him for a regular walk. Honza’s
girlfriend Marta, waiting at home, meets Honza’s son Robert who is now grown-up.
During that one day, Honza and his father walk around Prague, stop in pubs for an
occasional beer and discuss their lives. Marta spends the day at home with Honza’s son
Robert. She is unhappy with her boyfriend Honza and therefore, confused by the
resemblance between Honza and his son, she develops an erotic relationship with the son.
The narrative raises questions of coming to terms with aging, of personal failure, of values
and aims in one’s life as well as questions about one’s relation to one’s home.
3.1. The Ambivalence of Home: The Space
This chapter focuses on the presentation and function of space created by the narrative. An
analysis of the use of space and its meaning in the film can tell us about the perception of
people’s surroundings in Czech culture. O rodičích a dětech is set in Prague, a city where
the main character Honza has been living all his life. He visits his father in his flat, helps
him to make lunch. Every once in a while during their walk they stop in a beer garden or a
pub for a pint. The surroundings of the protagonists in this main storyline is just one spatial
layer of the narrative. Other layers are modelled by the retrospectives of Honza’s and his
father’s stories and by Marta’s home.
The unique meaning of the surroundings here lies in its role of creating a visual
representation of Honza’s and his father’s living space. The living space is not meant
physically but rather in a metaphorical sense as an area defining their mental world. It is
not individualised only to one of the characters, rather it visualises the shared features of
the unified personality of father and son. Their attitude to life is analogous, they think in a
similar way and resemble each other in behaviour. Also the topic of children unconsciously
copying their parents is one of the themes of the film. The motif of repeating life patterns
45
in different generations is emphasised several times in the narrative. This ensures that the
difference between the father and the son is mostly in age only. Both the characters of the
father and the son get the opportunity during the walk to express themselves fully, even
though Honza as the central element of the three generations connects the characters to the
one micro world and so his perspective is shown in the greatest detail. The complexity of
the meaning of space refers to a general attitude of the three generations.
3.1.1. The Limitation of the Living Space
The space mapped during the walk creates associations with the archetypal scheme of a
labyrinth. In the European culture, the motif of a labyrinth has been used frequently by
writers and artists as well. André Peyronie recognises two types of labyrinth in European
culture: “those with a single passage (which were the only ones to be represented
pictorially until the middle of the sixteenth century) and those with several passages
containing intersections and offering possibilities for choice, error, etc.” (1996, 685).
Typically, the complex labyrinth scheme contains a character on a journey going through a
labyrinth for a purpose. In a labyrinth, the character has to either find the single passage or
make the right choices to be able to pass. A labyrinth is a closed space containing traps and
threatening the character. In this film, the characters walk through parks, greenery,
children’s playgrounds, along walls and under bridges. Due to a few repeated motifs the
places resemble each other and give the impression that the characters wander about and
walk in circles.
In comparison to this conventional use of labyrinth, the film updates the scheme and
attaches new meanings to it. The effect of twists and turns is achieved by frequent
digressions to retrospectives, dreams and some other stories. Within this updated scheme
of the labyrinth, these retrospectives establish metaphorical chambers where the characters
dwell for a little while, then they come back from the past to the present point where the
retrospective story is narrated. The points in retrospective are often crucial moments of life
which could signal the crossings in the labyrinth of their lives.
The characters do not consider those points as moments of choice, though. In their
narration the events are perceived as part of a natural course of life where they are just
passive objects of the changes, or decisions are made by someone else. For example,
Honza does not know that he has a son until he finds out by coincidence when his son
46
Robert is already twenty five years old. Robert’s mother decided to not tell Honza about
expecting his baby because she did not want to get into more trouble by staying with him.
Honza did not have the opportunity to influence her decision. At another point, Ivan, the
father, is not able to influence the decision of his wife, Honza’s mother, who goes and asks
the five-year old Honza about who he would want to live with if they divorced. Honza,
unaware of the importance of the decision, chooses mother, because he wants to make his
father angry as he had spanked him for the first time that day. Although Honza makes the
decision here, he himself does not see it as a manifestation of his will, because he was a
little boy and did not understand the significance of the situation.
Hence, metaphorically speaking, even though the characters go through the labyrinth of
life, their life in particular is not seen as a labyrinth but rather as a journey chosen for them
by someone else, a journey which they passively accept. The same attitude is imprinted in
the route of their walk. The paths do not give them any choice. The characters never stand
at a road-fork, the way forward is not questioned. They follow the route unconsciously,
perhaps it is a route they have always taken and as a strong habit, they do not even
consider it as something that could be changed.
The journey through the metaphorical labyrinth of O rodičích a dětech does not have any
specific aim. The characters do not have any task to accomplish. The viewers are held in
suspense as it is not clear where the characters are going. Slowly as the story unfolds, it is
obvious that the purpose of the journey is the experience of the journey itself. Honza and
Ivan go for a walk to spend time with each other and maybe also to help to keep the old
man fit. They explain to each other events from the past but generally, there is no better
understanding achieved between them. The last scene of the film testifies that everything
between father and son stays as it has been so far. André Peyronie considers the feature of
aimlessly wandering through a labyrinth to be a characteristic of modern art:
“During the nineteen century, the conviction that there was necessarily a path leading to an
end died out and, in the space left devoid of its sacred aura, the modern wanderings began.
The knights of the Middle Ages meandered through forests under the watchful eye of God,
whereas the modern seekers of meaning run the constant risk of indifferent and meaningless
peregrinations. The collapse of the image of the centre is undoubtedly the reason for the
prodigious development of the theme of the labyrinth” (1996, 719).
47
For Honza, the purpose of the walk as well as the purpose of his life is to live with as much
ease as possible. He avoids conflicts and approaches problems with stoic resignation. The
father summarises his life in a similar way: “I’ve always acted as if someone was looking
over my shoulder. As if I was writing a sitcom about myself, so stupid that even retirees in
a nursing home could get it. So somehow I feel I have kind of screwed up my life.” Honza
answers: “Doesn’t everybody?” “Of course, but one should at least try not to.” As they
walk through familiar places following their usual way, the two characters identify the
same pattern in their lives.
A labyrinth is by definition a closed space which does not allow escape unless you walk
through it to the exit. The environment in O rodičích a dětech is not so strictly closed. The
characters walk through the parks of Prague to escape from the urban environment. For
these two people living in the city this substitutes walking in the countryside and provides
the feeling of free space. The parks are not truly open and wide areas but they stand in
contrast to the enclosure of the urban environment. Commonly, the areas of parks are
considered as places where people connect with nature, they provide an easy escape from
the rush of a city. In the film, the parks represent an escape from the city as well, but not a
fully successful escape. The characters walk on paths constrained by walls, hedges, bushes
and buildings. They never appear in an open place. Therefore this shows that even an open
space as a park can have traits of the opposite.
In this film, Prague differs significantly from the stereotypical image of local postcards and
tourist guides, as well as from the traditional image depicted in literary and cinematic
representations. Some examples of the literary representations of Prague where the magical
atmosphere of the historical centre is emphasised are Jan Neruda’s short stories Povídky
malostranské (Tales of the Little Quarter 1877), Jaroslav Seifert’s collection of poems
Světlem oděná (1944) and Miloš Urban’s novel Sedmikostelí (1998). Some of the
cinematic representations are Těžký život dobrodruha (An Adventurer’s Life is Hard,
Martin Frič 1941) and Musíme si pomáhat (Divided We Fall, Jan Hřebejk 2000).
On the contrary in O rodičích a dětech the city is seen without the attributes of a magical
place. The city would not be recognisable if the characters did not specify it in their talk.
Instead of architectural monuments, the Prague in which Honza lives is built up from
abandoned factories, ruined houses and tower blocks. Through Honza’s perspective, the
film shows that the life of a Prague dweller is not located in the city centre. It has been
48
moved to the periphery. From the viewers’ perspective, this is a surprising portrayal of the
city which might challenge their previous knowledge about Prague. It shows that despite
the first impression from the city, living in Prague is not any different from living
anywhere else and without references it is actually an anonymous place. Similar
representation of the city is used for example in the film Děti noci (Michaela Pavlátová
2008) which also shows Prague without the illusions of a magical place. Unlike in this
film, though, O rodičích a dětech does not represent Prague as a hostile and dangerous city
but rather as a relaxed, well-known environment.
What further creates the impression of an enclosed space is the mental attitude of the
characters. Their life in the place they live does not give them much opportunity for
choice. This makes them apathetic participants. And so the enclosure of the space is not
something forced on them from the outside, but it is created by themselves in their own
minds. They think about themselves as being led on their way through life regardless of
their own will and if they are able to make a decision they go for the easiest, the most
straightforward option. That is why they cannot step out of the natural unfolding of their
lives. They escape the city into the parks, but they stay within the safe area of the well
known.
The characters’ world is a closed micro world with minimal contact with the outside world.
The father and the son walk along their route through the city, they stay talking to each
other and no one else. The only person who accosts them is a lonely customer in the pub
where they go for a pint. He listens to their dialogue, entertains himself with their petty
argument and wants to join the conversation. Honza refuses, he feels embarrassed, because
the man expressed his surprise that Honza goes for a pint with his own father. As will be
discussed later, going for a pint together is a gesture of close friendship, the pub is a place
where intimate topics are discussed and where people feel comfortable and relaxed among
their friends. Therefore sharing the experience with one’s father is a sign of an unusually
close father and son relationship. Honza does not want to stand out. Among the old men in
a pub, being abnormal is no good and therefore Honza wants to avoid contact with others.
The contrast of the micro world of the two characters and the outer world is accentuated by
the motif of trains constantly present. Honza and his father walk under bridges and across
railway crossings right at the moments when trains pass by. The train as symbol of
travelling is strongly associated with the meaning of journeys, moving, activity and
49
adventure. Travelling by train has got a point of departure and a destination, the time of the
journey is scheduled and the track is clear and well planned, the journey has a purpose.
This represents the opposite of the journey of Honza and Ivan. They do not pay any
attention to the trains, they cross the railway and look down on it from a bridge but it never
enters their thinking or conversation. Their non-interaction with the outer world is
illustrated by their enclosure in the little world which they have created for themselves.
They observe the outer world passing by, the lives of others are moving forward while
these two men blunder about in the same limited area.
We can extract the way the two characters perceive their lives from the comparison of the
environment shown in the film with the conventional concept of the labyrinth. They
wander around Prague and through life as if they walked through a labyrinth. There is no
clear purpose to their journey and so their aim is to go through life as easily as possible. In
the end, the father regrets he did not take more risks and he considers his life wasted as a
result of always trying to play safe. The labyrinth is associated also with the feeling of
enclosed space which the characters have. It is expressed spatially by the delimitation of
paths and mentally by the limitations of the characters’ everyday lives.
The limitation of the living space felt by Honza and his father is evidenced in the
contradictory answer Honza gives about the fact that he has lived in Prague his whole life.
His speech stands out as a kind of screenwriter’s statement put in Honza’s mouth. After
being asked by his father, he gives an elaborate speech which does not seem like a
spontaneous answer. Therefore there is a good reason for us to consider this statement as
one of the important messages of the film. Honza claims Prague to be the only place where
he is able to live because it gives him opportunities and a good level of freedom. In his
opinion, people living elsewhere cannot escape their routine lives. Ivan: “Why would you
want to spend your whole life in Prague?” Honza: “Anywhere else would be worse. Prague
is the only place to be.” Ivan: “Why, have you lived anywhere else?” Honza: “Two weeks
anywhere else and the emptiness would drive me nuts. The blinkered vision that rules these
people’s lives. If you’re a shoemaker, you stay a shoemaker until you die.”
Honza is convinced that living in Prague saves him from a routine, predefined life. The
contrast between what he says about living in Prague and how he actually lives is quite
clear. The limited environment which Honza criticizes in other places is similar to the
environment in which he lives in Prague. He is convinced he can get to know a place by
50
spending two weeks there. The attitude that Prague is the only place to be limits him and
makes him spend his whole life there. His worries that he might have to move make him
live a routine, slightly boring life where the only way of not getting bored is having a
“bitchy” girlfriend. His father has got a similar attitude, but as he gets older, he looks back
on his life retrospectively and regrets he did not take more risks. He sees a comfortable life
spent in a familiar place as not enough for a well-spent life. He cannot change his past so
he pushes his son not to repeat the same mistakes.
Honza is unable to see the limitations of his life, but the viewers are guided to understand
this message. As viewers, we have the advantage of an extradiegetic perspective allowing
us to see what the characters cannot. Honza represents a type of Prague character, a local
dweller who finds everything he needs there. As his aim is to go through life as easily as
possible, his needs are quite modest. He is not motivated to travel anywhere, and if he
does, he experiences frustration from the unfamiliar. Hence he sees Prague as the only
place to be. He represents a safe lifestyle where desire for adventure is satisfied by
occasional sexual affairs. The spatial area the character interacts with symbolises the
mental space of his mind. From the inner perspective of the character, it seems that the area
of Prague is the largest and culturally richest in the country and therefore the least limiting.
From the outer perspective of a viewer, we can see that Prague limits Honza as any other
place would limit him because of his approach to life.
The motif of limitation of life to one place with the meaning going further to the limitation
of one’s mind is a well exploited topic in recent Czech cinema, for example in Tomáš
Vorel’s Cesta z města (Out of the Town 2000) or in David Ondříček’s Grandhotel (2006).
The main plot of these films is a plan for escape from a place where the characters spend
all their lives. In both cases the attempt is unsuccessful. Honza in O rodičích a dětech in
his passive resignation reconciles himself with staying in Prague. As it is “the only place I
know how to live in”, he is satisfied with the situation. Unlike in the other two examples,
he does not even think about leaving and deludes himself into believing his life in Prague
is better than it would be anywhere else. The narrative is aware of Honza’s false approach
and guides the viewers to see the real limits of Honza’s life.
51
3.1.2 The Security of the Enclosed Space
The limitation of the living space leaves the characters passive and resigned. On the other
hand, it has got positive aspects as well. Within their limits, the characters orientate
themselves with ease. They are comfortable in their familiar environment. The enclosed
space creates boundaries through which it is hard to penetrate. On the other hand, the
boundaries protect the inside from an outer intrusion. Within their world, the characters
know every corner, every pub and every plant. They can hardly be surprised. Moving
confidently through the familiar and well known area gives the characters an illusion of
control. It also enables them to pay attention to their memory and imagination and to
occupy themselves with the memories of the past and with their thoughts instead of
focusing on the direction of their journey. Moving within the limits of the familiar does not
stimulate curiosity but enables them to move to a different time in life and linger there for
a moment.
A closed space linked with security is examined by Gaston Bachelard. He associates a
closed, familiar place with a house and a room of one’s own where a dweller finds shelter
and comfort. His contemplation of a closed space leads him to discover immensity in
interiority (Bachelard 1969). When the characters reside in a secure closed space, they feel
safe enough to limit the awareness of their physical surroundings and immerse themselves
in their thoughts. The space found in human interiority is infinite. When a human being
muses, their thoughts move from the present into the past, into overheard stories, dreams,
imagination and emotions. In the centre of a closed space there is a whole world hidden.
The closed world of O rodičích a dětech creates such a place of safety. The characters are
turned towards their insides, they just sporadically refer to their surroundings. Due to that
we are shown episodes from the characters’ past, their dreams and the stories of their
friends. We are shown episodes from their interiority.
The motifs participating in creating the image of a closed, limited space have been
discussed above. At this point we must examine how the complex familiarity and
consequently the impression of security is created since not every closed place is
52
automatically safe and familiar11
. O rodičích a dětech uses various motifs and cinematic
tools to create the impression of familiarity experienced by the characters.
Except for a few retrospectives, the story is all set in Prague. As has been said before, this
place is familiar to the characters, they both were born here and lived here all their lives.
Ivan, a doctor of natural science, recognises every plant in the parks they walk through. His
orientation is faultless until a moment at the end of the story when suddenly because of his
old age he gets confused and cannot recognise where they are. This is seen as abnormal, as
a sign of his age, because he usually knows the place well.
There is another argument for perceiving the representation of Prague as a safe place in the
film. Stepping out of the narrative, the question of choosing a location in the context of
Czech cinematography puts the locality of Prague in the position of a safe option. There is
a strong tendency in Czech cinema to locate the films in Prague12
. The location offers the
advantages of a rich, variable setting and especially for the films and television series
which depict upper class inhabitants it is a natural environment. Considering practical
reasons, in the Czech Republic, Prague is the place where the majority of the Czech film
industry is located and where most of the filmmakers live. Prague as “the place to be”
applies not only to Czech, but also to Slovak filmmakers. Film makers from Slovakia find
more opportunities for work and funding in Prague than in Slovakia. This concentration of
creative forces in the capital of the country is probably responsible for the ubiquity of
Prague locations in the current Czech cinematography. The films reflect the life experience
of the filmmakers. As a consequence, such dominance of Prague in Czech cinematography
creates the impression that life in Prague is a major representation of the life in the whole
country. In reality, the population of Prague constitutes approximately one tenth of the
population of the Czech Republic (see ČSÚ). Therefore the narratives of life in Prague
represent the life of just a fraction of the Czech population.
For the film makers though, Prague is a neutral environment and a different locality is
often depicted in the cases of characters originally from Prague travelling to the
11
Compare the meaning of the motif of prison in Daniela Hodrová: Vězení jako místo přístupu k bytí (1997).
12
The rich mutual relationship of the Czech arts and Prague is examined profoundly in the book of Angelo
Maria Ripellino Magická Praha (2009).
53
countryside13
or the locality is symptomatic for the story and its meaning like in Vladimír
Morávek’s Nuda v Brně (Bored in Brno, 2003). And so if the environment of the narrative
is to be neutral the story is set in Prague14
. These meta-narrative facts further affirm the
representation of Czech culture constructed in O rodičích a dětech. It creates the illusion
that the only place possible to live in is the capital, it is the only place where the creative
force is concentrated and where people have a choice in their lives. People living in Prague
focus their attention inside the city with the impression that there is nothing to miss
outside. The voices from the countryside stay silent.
O rodičích a dětech in its ironic self-reflection is aware of its own limitation in the safe
area and deals with it not by overstepping the limits but by admitting them to the viewers
as a sneer at itself. The protagonist of the film lives in Prague, he complains about how life
elsewhere is boring and predetermined while his life in Prague is in fact not any better. The
film is located in Prague as well and therefore follows Honza’s conviction. The self-irony
is in the fact that the film points out how wrong Honza is when he thinks that living in
Prague saves him from a routine, while the filmmakers stick to the Prague locations as
well. An association can be seen with the cowardly nature of the literary soldier Švejk
(Hašek 2008), commonly considered as a possible representation of the Czech “national
character”. Švejk embraces both sides of the dialectics; he stays in a safe position without
self-reflection while it is unclear whether he is a fool and a coward or whether he is able to
see himself from an external perspective, sneering at his own cowardliness and using it
deliberately to make his life easier. Unlike Švejk, O rodičích a dětech clearly expresses
self-reflection and therefore shows the image of the “national character” in a more positive
light.
What anchors the narrative in a familiar Czech cultural context is also the motif of men
going for a pint to a pub as a significant activity of a good relationship. As they walk, the
two characters stop every now and then in a pub to have a rest. The pubs symbolise places
13
Some examples amongst others are Tomáš Bařina’s Bobule (Grapes, 2008), Bohdan Sláma’s Venkovský
učitel (The Country Teacher, 2007) and Karel Janák’s Rafťáci (2006).
14
A significant exemption is the work of the director Bohdan Sláma, whose films are mostly set out of
Prague, in the countryside, and these places are shown as a neutral environment.
54
where men are safe in a familiar environment with their friends, they are connected by
belonging to the same group. In Czech culture, pubs are of exceptional significance.
Vladimír Macura (1997) argues that during the Czech National Revival pubs were the
place of public discussion in the Czech language. Back then, the Czech language used in
public was associated with a lower class and informal communication. “The guests in a
pub or a café could have chosen which language they want to speak and what they want to
talk about. That created a micro space with different social rules and still publicly
accessible, not private”15
(ibid., 65). Macura then adds that in the Czech cultural context,
pubs are associated with drinking beer which is a symbolic Slavic potion. According to
Macura, the symbols of pub and beer raise ambiguous feelings in Czech culture. On one
hand, there is the pride in the Czech cultural space, on the other hand, the fact that culture
develops in relation to drinking alcohol makes it feel inferior and insignificant.
As Jiří Gruša points out, the pubs serve the aim of talking and narrating stories. “I speak
therefore I am” he summarizes (2009, 52). According to Gruša, Czechs like to go to a pub
and impress others with their stories. This motif is pictured in O rodičích a dětech when
Ivan pulls a book out of Honza’s backpack and starts reading it to the amused drinkers in
the pub. When the father wants to hear about Honza’s newly discovered son, they go to sit
down for another beer. The shared experience of drinking beer makes the talking easier
and having the glass of beer in hand gives the characters the option to ease the tension
between them at that moment.
In the Czech narrative art, the pub is a place where people feel secure but also, as is
common in small groups, it sets the rules of what is normal and acceptable among its
members. Going for a pint together is a symbol of a close relationship. Only good friends
go to pubs, as it includes private talks about personal issues and about women. That is why
the customer in the pub is surprised when he finds out that Honza goes to the pub with his
own father. Sharing intimate topics with one’s father is seen as unusual. Honza feels the
abnormality of his situation and so he refuses to socialise with anyone. Finding his father
entertaining the whole pub with Honza’s book, he cannot bear the attention and rushes
15
The original in Czech: “Hosté v hospodě či kavárně však mohli stanovit poměrně svobodně jazyk, ve
kterém hodlají mezi sebou komunikovat a o čem, vytvářel se tak miniprostor s jinými sociálními pravidly a
přitom veřejně přístupný, nikoli soukromý”.
55
away. The image of the pub situation in the film together with all the behavioural patterns
of the characters involved creates a familiar representation of Czech pub culture.
Apart from the motives of Prague and pubs, the impression of familiarity in the film is
achieved by many other means. The camera often uses medium shots, shots from a medium
distance, creating the effect of being involved in the conversation of the two men. The
story unfolds mostly in the chat of the two characters and is reminiscent of a pub dialogue
which anyone can listen to from the next table. The viewers feel as if they were a third
person on the walk. The lighting is bright as the story takes place on a sunny day in spring.
In the retrospectives, the light is softer and toned down, thus being reminiscent of old
faded photographs. It associates childhood, the period of life in which what is later going
to feel familiar is set up. The retrospective intercuts the presence and emphasises the
feeling that all the childhood experiences connect the character with the place.
These memories being narrated by the characters walking through space create a visualised
mental map of the father’s and the son’s lives and memories. The city works as a blank
space into which the characters imprint their lives. As they walk and tell each other the
stories from their lives, they reveal their mental maps to the viewers. Based on the
principle of mental mapping, the characters “hang” the recollected memories on the places
around the city. The area then becomes a rich meaningful space containing all their lives,
not only physically as they have never moved out, but also psychologically, as it stores
their memory and shapes their experience of life. It creates a strong tie between the
characters and the place. Leaving the place would mean destroying the coherent mental
map imprinted in the space.
The approach to space participates in the construction of cultural representation in the film.
It models the space as a relatively closed area, limited to Prague and its parks. The space
stands for a spatial symbol of life. It has got the features of limitation and security of a
closed space. From the characters’ approach to their surrounding, we deduce their passivity
and reconciliation with their life in the place. O rodičích a dětech creates the impression
that the lifestyle of Prague is the representation of lifestyle in the Czech Republic as a
whole. This way it continues in the tradition of Czech cinema taking Prague as the ultimate
location. There is a strong bond between the people and the place they live in. It is
considered to hold their memories and to participate in building up their identity. It
portrays Czechs as not particularly interested in their surroundings but unconsciously being
56
connected to them by storing all their life memories in the area where they live. The
overall feeling from such a life is something between claustrophobia and comfort.
57
3.2 Detachment and Belonging: Cultural Identity
The use of space is one of the features which construct the cultural background of the film.
Another component carrying cultural meaning is the identities of the characters
themselves. The types, their behaviour and relationships build up a presentation of Czech
society and its cultural identity. This chapter examines the construction of the social roles
and relationships depicted in the film. The characters of O rodičích a dětech represent a
common kind of film characters in Czech contemporary cinema. This has been deduced
from the fact that the reviews of the film do not mention the characters as standing out or
abnormal that would attract the reviewer’s attention. The characters seem to be familiar to
the reviewers and their motivations are quite easy to read (Blažejovský 2008; Peňás 2008).
Therefore it is justifiable to take the characters of O rodičích a dětech as a telling example
of cultural representation in contemporary Czech cinematography.
3.2.1 Story-telling
The identity of the two main characters in the film is partly constructed by the stories they
tell each other. The retrospectives together with the narration of dreams and episodes from
their imagination participate in the composition of the image of the characters. The
function of these insertions is explanatory. The viewers directly witness the episodes and
consequently they are able to reconstruct how the characters experienced the situation. As
the stories are told by Honza and his father themselves, they reveal not only the event but
also their own perspective on it. As the story unfolds, the characters reveal more and more
about themselves and construct a complex portrait of their personalities.
The stories give an epic feel to the situational setting of the walk and give a concrete shape
to the abstract emotions and experiences. They reveal the characters’ tendency to narrating
and shaping the memories from their subjective perspective. The events are presented as
not necessarily true, with emphasis on attractiveness. Behind that lies the effort to impress
by the strangeness of the story. The unbelievable stories on the edge of credibility give the
characters’ life the excitement which they lack in their present reality. Especially Ivan tries
to create an impression of having led a rich life in the past, although he is willing to admit
that his life was actually not very exciting.
58
Telling interesting, partly made-up, stories as a substitute to a rich life experience is
connected with the pub and beer tradition in Czech culture. Sitting in a pub telling
unbelievable stories to fellow customers belongs to a stereotype of Czech culture. In
literature this motif has mostly been employed by Jaroslav Hašek (Švejk, 1921‒1923) and
Bohumil Hrabal (Pábitelé, 1964). In the identity of the characters of O rodičích a dětech,
the tendency to story-telling accompanies the limitations of life space described in the
previous chapter. It also forms the image of the teller in the eyes of the other character. The
teller has an opportunity to rewrite history and create a new memory of his own life. It
needs to be said that they do not always present a positive image of their lives. Seeing it
retrospectively, the self-portrait is often ironic, it points out immaturity and carelessness of
the character in the past. Jan Čulík argues that „This seems to be a confirmation of the fact
that contemporary Czech cinema feels the need to argue over and over again that Czech
men are self-obsessed weaklings” (2013, 244). But in this case, the film shows the men’s
own perspective on their lives and therefore the negative self-perception needs to be
understood as lack of confidence and self-belief rather than a true portrayal of what the
men are really like.
The father and son relationship is caring but also competitive. The stories are instruments
of a power game played by Ivan and his son. When Ivan tells his son a story about a
monkey which escaped from the zoo and was eventually found drunk, he looks at his son
and expects him to be astonished. Honza, his son, is not astonished at all, he has heard that
story many times before in different versions, so he does not even believe it. Then, he tells
his own story to his father. This time it is a story about friends eating human flesh out of
curiosity. His father is astonished but he is not sure whether to believe it or not. If he
believes the story and it is not true, it means his son has won the “game”. The stories work
as instruments to get control over the situation and to get predominance. They are used to
attract attention and to make the impression of a rich and interesting life.
The narrated stories are mostly related to private life and women. They either deal with
sexual relationships or with one’s relationship to his mother. This shows that the
relationship of men to women is one of the main topics of the film. This film shows these
relationships predominantly from the male perspective. As a whole, the narrative is a
subjective testimony of the situation from the perspective of the male characters.
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3.2.2 Male Identity
The topic of the male and female relationships in the film emphasises the differences in
social roles attributed to the different genders. From the male characters’ self-presentation
we understand how masculine identity is understood within the film. In this film, the male
perspective is dominant. Even though women participate in the story, their characters are
presented as seen through men’s eyes. The only female who is not part of the male’s
storytelling is Marta. She offers the female perspective but her role in the narrative is to
participate in the males’ story. Therefore, instead of counterbalancing the male topics in
the narrative, she ensures the focus on them by turning her attention to the male characters.
Jan Čulík sees the narrative as being “a work about men, and about ‘male values’, about
the ‘meeting of the souls’ of two male characters, about typical male characteristics and
male anxieties. Women are discussed, but they do not participate in the debate” (2012,
244) Masculine identity is pictured as neutral. Male subjectivity shapes the perception of
the world and the portrait of identities of men and women as well.
From the dialogues and the behaviour of the characters we can reconstruct their values and
their perception of what it means to be a successful person (man). Within the father and
son power game, Honza’s father is trying to convince his son about the adventures of his
life to get his son’s respect. The stories which are supposed to create a positive picture of
Ivan do not construct heroic narratives of the teller’s past but rather amusing stories of how
he managed cleverly to escape from tricky situations. That is the case when Honza’s father
tells him a story about being at a party with his brother-in-law, the brother of Ivan’s wife,
and a newly married beautiful woman. His brother-in-law asks him to entertain all the
people at the party for a while so that he can have quick sex with the woman. Ivan is proud
to have been able to occupy the people with so much fun that no one noticed that the two
left the room. His story about meeting a beautiful woman in a spa town where he went for
therapy is also a story of an escape. He thinks he was going to stay overnight with an
attractive woman but he realises that she is not what she pretends to be. His reaction is to
run away. We can see that the stories are not heroic but fall into the category of rather selfironic
entertainment.
In his approach to the situations, Ivan reveals what he considers to be a success. He values
his brother-in-law for having been able to have any woman he wanted to. What fascinates
Ivan about his relative is not only his ability to seduce women but also his courage to live
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as he wanted regardless of what people think. His brother-in-law died because he went
fishing while it was recommended to him that he should stay in bed. Ivan is secretly
jealous of his ability to enjoy life, he admires his relative and regrets that he has not lived
his own life to the full. On the other hand, he wants his son to stay in a long-term
partnership because he considers a stable family to be an important value: “I just want you
to stay with Marta. You’re not cheating on her, are you? I’m your father I don’t want you
doing the same stupid things I did!” To sum up, his perception of success is to get the most
beautiful young woman a man can find and have a nice stable family relationship with her.
Honza also wants to have a beautiful young girlfriend, but even though he finally gets one,
it does not give him any credit in his own eyes. His father considers her to be his son’s
success after all Honza’s previous girlfriends: “By the way, if I remember well, you were a
rather handsome man. Although that didn’t help, considering the women you lived with.”
For Honza, his own appearance and success with women is not so crucial, what matters to
him is to be comfortable: “That’s because deep inside, I was in chaos. Now, my face sags
like a monkey’s ass, but I’m comfortable inside, even happy sometimes.” His father finds
this hard to understand and asks Honza why he is happy. Honza replies: “No reason. That’s
just the way it is. I don’t need to comprehend the inexplicable mess of my love life.” For
Honza the highest value is to be comfortable, happiness is an aditional reward. Unlike his
father, Honza makes himself comfortable independently of his relationships with women.
What he needs for his feeling of comfort is not to be bothered by his erotic relationships.
Honza does not express much concern for his own success. He does not have any
aspirations regarding jobs or his private life. As has been said before, his ambition is to go
through life with as little stress as possible.
Honza’s son Robert has his notion of success based on the ability to live his life to the full.
Just as his father, he does not relate his life ambitions to success with women. He is not
trying to build up a career or settle down. He buys a motorbike instead of a flat and for him
this is a symbol of fully lived life. It is not clear whether he has got a job, but he gets his
money wherever possible and spends it on things which he can enjoy. He does not mind
being financially dependent on other people. He comes to his mother for money every
week and he takes three hundred thousand crowns (approximately nine thousand five
hundred British pounds) from his father whom he has just met for the first time in his life.
His aim is to enjoy life. That is the main value for him.
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We can see the shift in values and life aims of the men across the three generations.
Honza’s father Ivan is focused on getting a pretty and a kind wife and on having a nice
family. At least that is what he wants his son to do. He claims people are in this world not
only because of themselves but also because of reproduction. Apart from the traditional
point of view, this claim represents also his interest in biology. He emphasises the role of
reproduction for the evolution of life. His son Honza is resigned, he knows he will not
achieve anything major in his life, he does not feel the need to “spread his genes”. He
thinks his genes are not worth it. He likes women but he does not find them to be a central
part of his life. Honza’s son Robert tries to live his life as one big adventure. He wants his
life to be exciting and rich in experiences. He does not think about money or a family.
The film creates an image of changing values not only between generations but also
between age groups. Ivan did not defend family values when he was younger and Robert,
the youngest, may change his views when he gets older. The film shows the older
generation as people who have sobered up from the excitement of youth and now they are
trying to persuade the young to be more responsible. But the younger generation
represented by Robert is interested only in the present. This portrait of the two generations
is not exceptional within the current images of Czech culture. Both characters stand for a
typical image of their age.
Honza, the middle-aged character, stands between the young and the old and therefore
does not express the attitude of either. He represents the middle generation which is
disillusioned, no longer cherishing the dreams of their youth but still not experienced
enough to be able to maintain a detached perspective and to review their life. Honza has
lost the spontaneity of his youth and unlike his father, Honza thinks that mistakes are
inevitable, because they are not seen as mistakes until they had been made. As a result, he
goes through his life without excitement and without surprise. He represents the feelings
presented in many Czech films from the 1990s (Čulík 2007), where people disillusioned
from the euphoria of the 1989 revolution have slowly realised that the new regime is not
what they expected from democracy before the fall of communism. Jan Čulík summarises
the attitude of these films: “Today is as it is and as it always will be. The situation is
62
immovable. This, what we have now is normal. Nothing will ever change. No other world
is possible”16
(2007, 30).
When analysing masculine identity depicted in the film we need to look at the social roles
attributed to men in the world of the narrative. O rodičích a dětech shows men in the social
roles of partner, son and father as well as a young adult and a retired old person. For Ivan,
his role as a lover and partner dominates his life. He and his wife got divorced when their
son was a small boy. Honza stayed with his mother and this gave Ivan an opportunity to try
to lead a life full of sexual adventures. His own perspective on the marriage is that his
wife, Honza’s mother, was so tensed up and so dominating that it was impossible to live
with her. Even so, it is her who suggests the divorce. This situation gives Ivan full
innocence. He does not take any responsibility for the break-up of the marriage. On the
other hand, it gives him the attribute of passivity. He did not do anything wrong, nor did he
do anything well. Just like his brother-in-law, Ivan considers women to be the objects of
desire, he tries to seduce them actively. Paradoxically, it is the women who control the
situation. His wife files for a divorce and a mysterious lady in the spa town makes a fool of
him.
Honza’s approach to women is similar. He also sees them as objects for sex and
entertainment rather than equal partners. He claims he does not like nice girls because they
are boring, unlike the “bitches”. And he is proud that he manages not to cheat on his
present girlfriend, unlike on all the previous ones. Just as his father, Honza also does not
have any control over his relationships with women. His former girlfriend hides from him
the fact that she was pregnant with him and his current girlfriend Marta starts an affair with
his son while Honza is out walking with his father.
The traditional image of the men-women dialectic where man is the active one and the
woman is a passive participant in the man’s activity (Beauvoir 1972) is used here as well.
In this film though, the relationship is updated by the ironic situation showing that it is in
fact women who are active controllers. The film critically shows the naivety of the men
16
The original in Czech: “Dnešek je takový, jaký je, a bude takový vždycky. Situace je zakonzervovaná.
Toto, co máme v současnosti kolem sebe, je normální. Už se nic nezmění. Jiný svět není možný.”
63
thinking they have got their love relationships under control while in fact they are
controlled by the women. This topic with similar conclusions is plentifully represented in
contemporary Czech cinema. It signals the need to deal with the problem of male and
female roles in romantic and sexual relationships. The traditional roles in these
relationships are not functional anymore but there are no new roles established, therefore
men do not have any alternative to use which would be more successful. The situation is
similar to what Lynne Segal finds in the US: “North America is now apparently populated
by confused, insecure, anxious, ‘makeshift males’” (2007, 109). Czech film makers keep
returning to this topic pointing it out as an important question for which the culture needs
to find an adequate answer.
The theme of people thinking they control their own lives while they are controlled by
someone else is not limited only to male-female romantic relationships. In O rodičích a
dětech, the women are not fully in control. Honza’s former girlfriend Táňa decides to not
tell Honza about her pregnancy because she does not want to get into more trouble by
staying with the young, irresponsible Honza. But even though her son does not grow up
with his biological father, he turns into him and grows up into Honza’s younger copy. He
is selfish and irresponsible, perhaps as much as his father was at the same age. Táňa,
although she tried to avoid Honza’s influence on her son, was not able to prevent what is
biologically determined.
The theme of trying to control while being controlled has been present in Czech narrative
art significantly since Milan Kundera’s Žert (The Joke, 1967). While in Žert it is politics
that affect the main character’s life, in O rodičích a dětech and in other contemporary films
like Štěstí (Something like Happiness, Bohdan Sláma 2005) or Muži v naději (Jiří Vejdělek
2011) control stays in the hands of people around the character. Political and social issues
are sidelined and the focus is on private topics and inter-personal relationships. The
depicted issues are caused and dealt with within a small group of people. This adds one
more dimension to the motif of the enclosed mental space, which has been exploited in
contemporary Czech cinema and which has been discussed in the previous chapter.
Although the portrayal of society is limited to a small private world, the setting within the
small world stands metaphorically for a setting within much broader boundaries. Therefore
the illusion of having control while in fact being controlled is not valid only for private
issues but for political and social issues as well.
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The portrayal of the romantic and sexual relationships between men and women is not the
only important indicator of a wider cultural and social setting. Another such indicator is the
relationships between fathers and sons. Within the three generations of men in the film we
have got two of them in the role of the father and two of them in the role of the son.
Neither of the two couples lived together during the son’s childhood, therefore their
relationships have not developed naturally. Even so, the sons are strongly influenced by
their fathers in both the cases. In the film, it is explained by their shared genes and by the
fact that no one can escape their fate.
Ivan, the oldest man, lived with his son until he was five years old and as it seems he has
never entirely lost contact with him. Even though his son Honza is over forty, Ivan still
cannot stop behaving like his father telling his son what he would like him to do. He
cannot stop caring and being worried. His tendency to care is not intense though, he calmly
advises his son rather than strictly insisting on his opinions. A few times he points out that
he asks all the personal questions and gives his advice because he wants Honza to be
happy. He is the type of father who behaves like a wise, old mentor. For him, fatherhood
means caring by showing that he is interested in his son’s life. His behaviour is not
authoritarian. On the contrary, sometimes he himself behaves like a child in need of care
by his son.
Honza did not have a chance to see his son growing up either. Honza’s former girlfriend
Táňa split up with him without telling him that she was pregnant. Her reason for that is that
she did not want to put herself into more trouble than was needed. She found staying with
Honza to be a complication as he was young and irresponsible. She preferred to raise their
son on her own. From her point of view, the young Honza was not capable of fulfilling the
role of a father. Ivan himself admits: “Christ, I was young and stupid.” These two cases in
the film suggest that when young, men are able to have children but they are still not
mature enough to fulfil the role of a father which means they are incapable of taking care
of their children properly.
When they get older, they are trying to compensate for what they did not do in past. Honza
now when he knows about the existence of his son, feels that he should behave like a father
to him. For him as well as for his father, fatherhood means to take care of his child. The
fulfilment of this role gets complicated as his son is now grown up. Honza finds himself
correcting his son’s eating habits and helping him to sort out his love troubles. He also
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gives his son three hundred thousand Czech crowns, a grant for which he and his girlfriend
were waiting for three years. He claims that “for the first time things made sense”. His
relationship to his son is not based on a long term relationship and long-term love for his
own child. What makes Honza feel his fatherhood is simply the fact that now he knows
Robert is his son. That notion activates what he thinks is a father’s behaviour.
This situation in the film shows the concept of fatherhood as seriously confusing in
contemporary Czech culture. The role of fathers has been changing within the twentieth
century and a new model has not been established yet. Every father has to find his own
way of approaching his new role. The film suggests that this might be difficult for a young
man within his naivety and childishness. Within the films made after the fall of
communism, Ewa Mazierska identifies a trend of single men in their twenties or thirties
who “behave as if they were children themselves”. In agreement with Robert Pynsent
(1994), Mazierska argues that the previous socialist government took over the role of
father of all citizens and consequently “by making their life easy, disrupted their passage
from boyhood to adulthood” (2008, 106). According to Mazierska, in the Czech and
Slovak films young men overcome their boyhood with difficulty and stay childish until
adulthood.
Apparently even after the socialist regime lost its influence, the disruption in the masculine
identity has stayed. In O rodičích a dětech Robert, the youngest man, represents such a
character. He is twenty-five, but does not feel any responsibility even for his own life. In
his case, it is not the socialist regime which would not let him to become an adult. It is
suggested that the reason is the genetics, he is exactly the same as his father Honza was in
the age. Another reason is his restraining mother who is dominating, strict and does not
mind financially supporting Robert. Honza’s mother represents the same type. Therefore
like the authoritarian socialist regime it is in fact the mothers who do not allow their sons
to grow up and become adults responsible for themselves.
Mazierska points out that in Polish post-communist cinema, the character of a man
abandoning his pregnant woman occurs frequently, in Czech cinema, this motif is found as
well. “Consequently, the impression is given, that unlike motherhood that is a woman’s
duty fatherhood is a man’s right, which can be taken an advantage of as he wishes” (ibid.,
122). In the case of O rodičích a dětech, the fathers do not abandon their wives out of
choice. Rather, it is a decision of the women to live without their child’s father. In this
66
film, fathers do not have the choice, they are powerless. That means, from the perspective
of this film, the women are not seen as victims of the irresponsible men, but they are
themselves responsible for their situation.
Mazierska considers the character of father in film to stand for a representation of
authority. Therefore the way the character is presented refers to an approach towards
authority, more precisely the state and the government. She finds authoritarian, faultless
fathers in the socialist-realist films from the 1950s and weak, disoriented fathers in the
films made in 1960s. According to Mazierska, the image of fathers and that of children
approaching their authority tells us about how social authority is perceived in each culture.
O rodičích a dětech features the type of father who is not authoritarian or faultless, nor is
he ridiculous in his efforts to hide his weakness. Here, the fathers are modest, they know
about their inability to serve as a good example, they do not ask to be respected by their
children. They themselves behave like children sometimes. What they want is their
children not to repeat their mistakes and so the fathers advise them from the perspective of
older age. They take care of their children but they do not significantly support them.
When Honza tries to support his son and gives him money for a flat, Robert buys a
motorbike instead and seduces Honza’s girlfriend. The only one, rash attempt for support
is not appropriately received.
The social authority represented by the fathers in the film is perceived as something that
people cannot avoid because they share genes, memories and culture. Contemporary Czech
society, represented by the sons in the narrative, does not take the father’s authority
seriously. Yet society is aware of the social authority’s flaws and approaches it with
leniency. People do not rebel against the social authority’s strict rules as the rules are
evidently weak or nonexistent. People do not rely upon the social authority’s help, they
live independently. As the film suggests, when the social authority tries to help, it does not
go to the right place. Currently, the social authority does not have the power of those social
authorities from the past. It is rather just another fallible subject which is an inevitable part
of people’s lives.
3.2.3 The Continuity of Generations
As has been mentioned above, the father and son relationships of both the pairs in the
narrative are disrupted by the fact that the two men have not had a chance to live together.
67
Despite that, the sons resemble their fathers’ characters. When he meets his own son,
Honza notices that he behaves exactly like his father. Robert lives a similar carefree life as
Honza did at his age and furthermore he makes the same gestures. This motif suggests that
despite of all the effort no one can escape their roots. The continuity of generations is
inevitable. As shown in the film, people make the same mistakes as their parents and
grandparents did and their life is based on the same models despite the fact that the
circumstances have changed. The fatalistic perception of a person’s belonging to a chain of
generations gives the characters an option to evade personal responsibility. It gives them
the feeling that there is no escape from their situation because it is not affected by their
personal decision-making. A son makes the same mistakes as his father even though his
father warns him and tries to prevent his son from repeating the mistakes. But the son
cannot change.
A motif that goes through the whole narrative is the repetition of the same mistakes in
men’s approach to women. Ivan, the oldest, is trying to warn Honza to not cheat on his
girlfriend. Ivan himself apparently used to cheat himself, but he found out that it destroys
the stability of a relationship. The importance of this recognition cannot be transferred to
his son, though. Honza claims he does not cheat on his girlfriend but when he gets to a
night-time bar for a coffee, he starts flirting with a female customer. Another repeated
mistake is paying too little attention to their partners and taking them for granted. In one of
the retrospective insights we can see Ivan’s wife complaining about not getting enough
attention and entertainment from her husband. That is one of the reasons for her filing for a
divorce. A similar mistake is made by Honza. He does not spend any time with his
girlfriend, he does not tell her that he is going to stay overnight at his father’s and he does
not tell her that he has given all their money to his son. As a result, she loses patience with
him and finds a new partner in his son Robert.
Not only generations, but also individuals repeat their mistakes. That is why Honza keeps
dating intolerable girls following his belief that nice girls are boring. His girlfriend Marta
falls in love with Honza’s son because she is disappointed by Honza. She cannot help it
even though she knows that Robert is a very similar character to his father. Marta’s
behaviour refers to Táňa, Robert’s mother and Honza’s former girlfriend. She used to go
out with young Honza and when she got pregnant, she considered it to be a mistake and
decided to rather stay on her own. Through the inter-generational connection between the
two women it is suggested that Marta’s life might unfold in a similar way. From this
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example, it is clear that not only men repeat their mistakes and the mistakes of their
fathers. It is a more general problem concerning everyone regardless of their gender.
Honza is aware of the inevitable fate caused by the fact that he has the characteristics of his
relatives and that makes him resigned and passive. The others, Marta and Robert, have the
illusion of making decisions according to their will but they do not realise that what they
are doing copies the actions of the previous generations. The inevitable connection with a
chain of generations and the subconscious repeating of mistakes is linked to the motif of
the enclosed living space analysed in the previous chapter. The life pattern has got the
shape of a labyrinth where only a limited number of options is possible.
The portrait of cultural identity presented in O rodičích a dětech emphasises the role of the
male subjects. It shows people’s tendency to story-telling as a tool for impressing others.
The film also features an image of different generations, depicting the young as
irresponsible and spontaneous and the old as revising their life in their loneliness. The
middle generation is portrayed as a generation which has lost their illusions and has
become apathetic, thinking that they are not able to change anything. They take reality as it
is and try to go through life with as little difficulties as possible. The film sees male
identity as constructed on the male’s success with women. Even so, there is a weak
connection to females, even to a man’s closest ones. Mother is ignored or even destroyed
in a man’s imagination. Women are needed by men to define themselves by sexual success
with them, but women are not a part of the men’s world. On the contrary, the narrative
presents men as strongly connected to their male relatives. That gives a man a feeling of
belonging to a group giving them security as well as limitations. Within the male group,
they are all caring and understanding. The film shows the males as alienated from their
female relatives. Partly due to this, the men cultivate their bonds with other men. From the
perspective of this narrative, the traditional male family roles in current Czech society are
disintegrating and new roles have not been stabilised yet.
The film shows Czechs as living under the illusion of having control over their own lives.
From the point of view of the film, the Czechs deal with disillusionment and failure by
hiding the disappointment behind their self-ironic stories. When people realise that their
life is not in their own hands, they react with passivity and apathy. The image of Czech
culture created by the film shows a society enclosed in ever-repeated patterns and at the
same time protected by the continuity and stability of the same patterns. O rodičích a
69
dětech does not offer any way out of this situation. The final scene brings a conclusion
showing that harmony and serenity comes when a person accepts their fate and finds
reconciliation with their past.
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3.3 Life as a Collection of Stories: The Events
The analysis of the film O rodičích a dětech has so far been focused on the subjects of
space and the identity of the characters. Another dimension needed for cultural analysis is
the construction of the narrative itself. In this chapter, the events and their sequentiality are
examined. This helps to identify the features of the genre and the features creating a
presentation of the culture. Narratological analysis is combined with a cognitive approach
which allows us to see particular features of the narrative as culturally determined mental
patterns. O rodičích a dětech is a narrative rich on events, the main story line is cut through
with the retrospectives and episodes which take place in the character’s imagination. At the
same time, the viewers watch events happening simultaneously during the walk and in
Marta’s flat.
3.3.1 The Genre in the Czech Tradition
O rodičích a dětech is advertised as a “poetic comedy/drama” (see ČSFD). However,
viewers might be disappointed if they expect a poetic story. The notion of a poetic
atmosphere is evoked only by the fact that the main story line of the father and the son
during their walk unfolds quite slowly, without any major events. The emphasis is on their
mutual relationship, their emotions, their memories of the past and the ways of dealing
with the world around them. Nothing significant happens in the physical world they walk
through. But, on the other hand, the intercut other storylines and the storyline of Marta and
Robert are rich in events, even dramatic ones. These parts justify the label of drama. Just as
many other contemporary Czech films, O rodičích a dětech also uses features of comedy to
lighten the atmosphere of the dramatic moments. The overall impression is then bitter-
sweet.
Journalist Irena Hejdová (2008) compares the film to several famous American and
German films. In her view, the Czech film seems to be nearly as “good” as the American
and German films, but still not as “good” as the others. Such a comparison makes the
controversial assumption that Czech culture should be trying to emulate other cultures.
This approach is fully in line with the feelings of constrained existence, expressed in the
film, when the author says that Czech culture has to be considered with regard to its
limitations and, within the limitations of Czech culture, the film is good enough.
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“The film O rodičích a dětech is in fact a road movie. More precisely, a walking road movie
in the (better) Czech tradition. While the characters in an American movie moved off in a
fancy sports car, the characters in Czech films go on a slow ride in The Ride. While in Lola,
life was at stake, in the Czech film Děvčátko (The Little Girl) [emphasis added] life slowly
flows among blocks of flats”17
(ibid.).
Perhaps a more sensitive comparison is suggested by Angelo Maria Ripellino. He
identifies a tradition of Prague walkers in Czech culture. Inspired by Komenský’s
Labyrinth (first published 1631) the motif of a walker has been common to Czech art and
literature for centuries. And walking around Prague seems to be one of the beloved
activities of Czech poets. Especially, in the early 20th
century, Czech poets found much
inspiration in their walks (Rippelino 2009). O rodičích a dětech follows the Prague
walking tradition of the Czech artists. In the light of the local cultural context, the film
simply is not just a weak version of an American or a German road movie. It reveals its
contextual inspiration. It anchors its roots in Czech culture.
The main storyline of the walk serves as a frame for the stories hanging on it. It is focused
on the dialogue of the father and the son where they answer various questions about their
past and present to each other and to the viewers. The situation of the walk contains very
few events. It is the most “poetic” part of the narrative. The events in this part of the film
take place in the mental world of the two male characters. If the stories which the
characters tell were put aside, the events would mostly involve a changing dynamic
between the father and the son constantly competing with each other in terms of who
understands the world better. Dominance switches from the father to the son and back
throughout the story creating an oscillating dynamic between the two characters.
The peak event changing the dynamic takes place when the father, Ivan, accuses Honza
that he has never been able to like anyone. Honza just stares unbelievingly at his father.
From the following events it is clear that Ivan was slightly out of his mind when he
claimed this. Just a few seconds later he asks Honza where they are because he cannot
recognise the city. This point releases the tension between the two men. Honza forgives his
17
The original in Czech: “Film O rodičích a dětech je vlastně roadmovie. Konkrétněji pěší roadmovie v (té
lepší) české tradici. Kde se v americkém filmu vyrazilo v nadupaném sporťáku, u nás se konala spíš poklidná
Jízda, zatímco Lola běžela o život, české Děvčátko volně plynulo mezi paneláky [emphasis added]”. This
72
father, takes care of him and helps him to get back home. Even though this is the
culmination of the film, it is not depicted in a very dramatic way. The tension does not
accumulate before and Honza does not react in any charged way. The culmination event
matches the slow pace of the walk by not being dramatised.
The whole film takes place during a single day. Within such a time frame, the narrative can
assume two contradictory extremes. On one hand, it can be dramatic and eventful, as in the
genre of crisis, within a single day the whole life of a character is turned upside down. On
the other hand, the narrative can be rather slow and lyrical, poor in events, the focus being
on experiencing every moment to the full. O rodičích a dětech is closer to the second type.
The events happening during the walk are not numerous. Despite that, the narrative of the
whole film is rich in events. These events all take place at different times or different
places beyond the walk. The images are intercut into the walk and so the viewers see the
stories told by the characters. Also the story of Marta and Robert is intercut into the walk
so that we know what all the characters are doing at the same time. This technique creates
an illusion of the day being a long period of time uncovering a whole life. On the day when
the narrative is set, the main characters are not present during the events. That gives the
impression of the father and the son living in a “bubble” of slow, calm life, while changes
happen at a distance from them or have already happened in the past.
The intercut stories add an epic feel to the walk and give a concrete shape to the abstract
emotions and memories experienced by the characters. They reveal the characters’
tendency to narration which is associated with the term of “pábitel” (palaverer) invented by
Bohumil Hrabal for his literary characters. “Pábitels are characters from the periphery of
society who are overflowing with stories from their lives. With pleasure they tell the
stories to anyone who is willing to listen. The stories are exaggerated, muddled up, recast
with the use of inspiration”18
(Galík 1994). On the official web pages devoted to Czech
literature Radim Kopáč discussed the book O rodičích a dětech, which the film is based
on:
assertion is not even true, Děvčátko (Benjamin Tuček 2002) is a horror movie about loneliness and it also
features the death of an important character.
18
The original in Czech: “Pábitelé jsou postavy z okraje společnosti přímo nabité událostmi svého života, jež
se značným potěšením sdělují všem, kdož jsou ochotni poslouchat – zveličené, zpřeházené, přetavené
diamantovým očkem inspirace”. See also the original book by Bohumil Hrabal: Pábitelé (1964).
73
“While the purpose of Hrabal’s palavering is a search for the poetic ‘pearls of the deep’,
extraordinary, stunning events in everyone’s life, a total realist Hakl [the author of the novel
and of the film script] presents the confession of a person who admits sceptically that he is
often at his wits’ end. Hence he simply has no time to look for the ‘pearls of the deep’”19
(Kopáč 2010).
What is valid for the narrative of the novel on which the film is based applies to the
narrative in the film as well. Honza and his father comment on life without any illusions.
They do not express excitement about variety of life and about hidden gems in peoples’
characters. For this reason, they may be closer to reality story-telling which is associated
with spending life in pubs, drinking beer, listening to stories and telling them further. In
such a situation, the purpose of such story-telling is simply to keep contact and fill the
time, or alternatively to impress one’s fellow drinkers with one’s extensive knowledge of
the world. No philosophical purpose such as looking for hidden, fascinating facts within
the human soul is involved.
The cultural presentation which this film creates is that of Czechs’ living a slow,
unexciting life which is balanced by telling exaggerated stories of a person’s past. The
Czech soft spot for epic stories is indicated also by the choice of the genre. The walk itself
is apparently considered as not sufficient for a film narrative. That is why the stories are
not only told by the characters but they are further emphasized by being directly shown on
the screen. Also the simultaneous storyline of Marta and Robert’s love unfolds like the
beginning of a dramatic love story. This is not to say that the discourse of pub story-telling
is specific for Czech culture. Certainly people sitting together telling stories for no other
reason than entertainment purpose are a common feature everywhere in the world. What is
significant in Czech culture is the use of this model in the arts. Its existence in
contemporary art has been pre-determined by the literary tradition. The reason pub talk is
so popular in the Czech art context might be that Czech culture has always been connected
19
The original in Czech: “Zatímco však smyslem hrabalovského pábení je hledání a nalézání poetických
„perliček na dně“, totální realista Hakl předkládá čtenáři zpověď člověka, který s moudrým odstupem
skeptika uznává, že si sám se sebou mnohdy neví rady, tuze často zakouší pocit, že „život nám ujíždí pod
zadkem jako autobus s řidičem, raněným mrtvicí...“a na hledání ‚perliček na dně’ mu tudíž jednoduše
nezbývá čas”.
74
to the pub environment, which has always been seen as a place of unrestricted Czech
discourse20
.
The main characters of Honza and Ivan slowly walk reminiscing about their lives, while
the main event of the day is taking place in Honza’s flat. In accordance to what has been
said above, this event takes place where the main characters of Honza and his fathers are
not. Robert comes uninvited to the flat which Marta shares with his father Honza. He
comes to return a book and have a chat with his father. Instead, he finds here sleepy Marta,
who is at first on her guard, but quickly becomes friendly and relaxed. The change in her
approach takes place when Robert manages to fix her laptop. This event puts him in the
role of a friend instead of a stranger intruding into her private space. When he tells her
about getting money from his father and using it for buying a motorbike instead of a flat,
this discovery does not change Marta’s perception of Robert, but makes her angry with her
boyfriend Honza because he did not tell her he was going to give their shared money to his
son.
These two events of Marta befriending Robert and her estrangement from Honza prepare
the ground for the climactic event of the narrative. Marta decides to leave Honza. Honza
receives a phone call from Marta that he should not come back home again. When he finds
out, his eyes fill with tears and he is immediately depressed. In the final scene, though, he
goes for another walk with his father again, as if nothing has changed. The narrative
suggests that regardless of what happens in our lives, we can come to terms with it. This
notion of life which is predetermined, of acceptance of everything which makes it easier to
live, seems characteristic for Czech culture:
“Of Parents and Children [emphasis added] is a Czech film through and through; it is cosy
like a den, at times it is as dark as the Koněprusy cave. It may make us sad or angry, but we
will not become different. Michálek has managed to help us to come to terms with it at least
for a moment”21
(Hejdová 2008).
20
For a closer insight into the connection of Czech culture with pubs, see the chapter analysing space in O
rodičích a dětech here (p.53) and also the relevant chapter of the book Poetika míst by Vladimír Macura
(1997, pp.63-71).
21
The original in Czech: “O rodičích a dětech [emphasis added] je film proklatě český; útulný jako pelíšek,
občas přitom temný jako Koněprusy. Může nám z toho být smutno, může nás to štvát, ale jiní už nebudeme.
Michálkovi se aspoň na chvíli podařilo nás s tím trochu smířit”.
75
The genre of a bitter-sweet intimate comedy combined with a series of dramatic moments
seems to communicate this message rather well. The choice of the genre helps to create
particular presentation of Czech culture. The genre refers to the traditions of walking and
story-telling as traditional ways of communicating messages in Czech art. However, a walk
would not be eventful enough for a whole film and so it needs to be intercut with the
episodic events and a secondary storyline. The film expects viewers to like stories and
fulfils their expectations. The genre also presents a tendency to lighten serious topics by
self-ironisation and by humour.
3.3.2 Cultural Knowledge of Social Roles and Metaphors
The description of the event structure and temporality moves us closer to the question of
what shapes the events to fit the forms they have in the narrative. The events are based on
the contrast between what is the expected behaviour of the character types in certain social
roles and how they behave in the narrative. The expectation is partly based on cultural
knowledge of people’s social roles in reality. According to our culture, we have a notion of
what is common behaviour of each participant in a social situation (Holland and Quinn
1987; Schank and Abelson 1995). We learn this throughout our lives. Every culture
accepts certain regulations for the inter-personal relationships of its members. These
regulations are constantly challenged by the individual needs of people. The narratives
steeped in a culture examine the situations of when the regulations are overstepped by the
characters. This creates the plots of the narratives. What the regulations are and how they
are overstepped tells us more about the cultural system. The film works with this
knowledge and surprises us by not meeting our expectations. If our expectations were
different, the motivations in the narrative would be incomprehensible. The viewers without
relevant cultural knowledge might find it hard to understand the plot because they lack
background knowledge. It is possible to read what the expectations are on which the film
relies and therefore what the background cultural knowledge is.
Our understanding of the main events of O rodičích a dětech depends on the viewers’
cultural knowledge. Primarily, the meeting of Marta and Robert unfolds in an unexpected
way considering the fact that their social roles are those of Honza’s girlfriend and Honza’s
son. The narrative plays with the fact that the viewers know what is appropriate for their
roles. Their relationships to Honza should prevent them from seeing each other as potential
sexual partners. The situation is more complicated though, as Marta is much younger than
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her partner and Robert is an adult without a strong bond to his father. The notion of their
relationship to Honza lies at the back of the characters’ and the viewers’ minds and gives
the encounter its feeling of strangeness. Later the strange encounter transforms into a close
friendship and subsequently into a sexual relationship. Different aspects of the social roles
are emphasised at different moments. The main point is that Marta and Robert step outside
the expected behaviour suitable for their roles in their culture.
Robert as Honza’s son is expected to respect Honza’s girlfriend, he should not see her as a
source of sexual attraction. On the other hand, he finds himself in a room with a young
woman who is apparently unhappy in her relationship. His role of Honza’s son is easily
forgotten as he has only recently met his father for the first time. For Marta, the situation is
more difficult. Her relationship to Honza has got a stronger base. In her role as his
girlfriend, the cultural model tells her that Honza is the only sexual partner for her.
Therefore she feels uncomfortable when she is attracted to Robert. What allows her to step
across the line is the fact that Robert is physically very similar to her boyfriend and his
own father. He looks like Marta’s lover and he behaves like Marta’s lover. In a certain
way, Marta chooses Honza again, but she goes for the one who is young, who is present,
who pays attention to her and who talks to her. The narrative creates a dramatic situation
where the characters are confused by their contradictory social roles given to them by the
culture they live in. To be able to understand why the relationship is not a happy love
story, the viewers need to share the knowledge of the attributes which are carried by the
characters’ roles.
The same principle of unfulfilled social roles lies behind the event of Honza killing his
mother in his imagination. Both he and his father are traumatised by the character of
Honza’s mother, Ivan’s former wife. In their memories, she is a cold, strict and dominating
woman. After she had divorced Ivan, little Honza lived with her. In his dream she stands in
their living room looking out of the window. Honza, now grown up, smokes at a coffee
table. When he wants to use an ashtray, she does not even look at him before she tells him
to use a different ashtray because this one is freshly washed. At that point, Honza loses
patience and hits her on the head with a big metal toy penguin: “I realise I do not feel
anything. No sorrow, no compassion, no anger. [...] All I see are all the years of dusting
and vacuuming and watching the dumbest TV shows from the 1970s and the 1980s”. In his
mother he kills her conformist lifestyle in the communist regime but also his anger that his
mother was the opposite of what a mother is expected to be like.
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Honza’s mother is strict and serious, she is emotionally cold. She cannot cook but she
keeps the flat scrupulously tidy. From the point of view of the two men, a mother is
expected to be caring, gentle and forgiving, they do not find her tidiness to be a relevant
quality. Honza in the role of her son is expected to be loving and respectful. When he tells
his father this story, the father is naturally shocked that Honza has got such feelings
towards his mother. This is because the mother and son relationship is disrupted by the
mother’s character: she did not fulfil her role of mother as defined by the culture.
Apart from the cultural knowledge of the role models, the narrative is based also on the
viewers’ knowledge of the metaphors employed in the culture to visually express
ontological topics which cannot be seen or described. These metaphors are in common use
within the culture. The knowledge of them is shared by all its members. They are
employed in the arts and in poetry, where we are used to encountering metaphors, but also
in everyday communication. This is because they are not specific to figurative language
but they reside in people’s thinking about the world. According to George Lakoff and
Mark Turner “we know unconsciously and automatically many basic metaphors for
understanding life” (1989, 5). Thanks to our knowledge of the metaphors we are able to
understand poetry which uses them in a peculiar way. The metaphors are given to us by
our culture and therefore are understandable only by those with the particular cultural
knowledge.
In this film, the metaphors participate in the form of the narrative. Primarily, we can notice
the connection between the trail of the walk and the lives of the characters. Lakoff and
Turner identify the metaphor as life is a journey. They find it in various modifications in
English poetry as well as in everyday language. In O rodičích a dětech, the metaphor
allows the depiction of the life of the two characters as a walk. During the walk, we get to
know all about their lives. They occasionally stop on the way and similarly, they
occasionally stop their conversation in dramatic moments of their lives. The one day walk
is based on the metaphor of life is a day. The characters meet in the morning, the father is
old but still keen minded. During the day, they unfold various moments from their lives. In
the evening the father is getting tired and after dark he loses his sense of direction and he
needs help to get back home. The knowledge of the metaphor of life as a day makes the
connection of a whole life story told within one day perfectly natural.
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Another moment in the narrative based on a commonly used metaphor is the situation of
Robert and Marta saying goodbye. They are both sad that Robert has to go because they
have had a nice day together. At the moment when he is about to leave, standing on the
threshold he looks deeply into her eyes. Nothing is said or done. The next shot shows
Robert in his underwear back in Marta’s living room and Marta half-naked sitting in her
armchair looking at him with reproach. As viewers we are supposed to figure out what had
happened in between these two moments, namely that Marta and Robert have slept
together.
To be able to find this out, we need to read the signs in the right way. The fact, that the
characters are half naked afterwards is quite straightforward, but the motivation in the
situation before the not shown sex scene might stay hidden if we did not have the cultural
knowledge. The event is based on the metaphor of knowing is seeing and seeing is
touching (Lakoff and Turner 1989). By looking at Marta one more time on the threshold,
Robert realises that he is in love with her and he does not want to leave. What is presented
as him looking into Marta’s eyes is a metaphor of him figuring out that he wants to be with
her. The act of looking metaphorically stands for the act of touching. We see Robert
looking into Marta’s eyes, then her, sitting in her armchair without her tee shirt on. We do
not see Robert touching her but together with him we can see her half-naked body. Seeing
is a metaphor of touching. Instead of direct presentation, the main event is gently suggested
through metaphors. Without our ability subconsciously to understand these metaphors it
would be hard to understand the sudden change in the fabula.
The analysis of the narrative construction reveals underlying metaphors which belong to
its wider cultural background. We have seen how the events participate in creating a
construction of Czech culture. It signals its belonging to the Czech literary tradition by
using the motifs of a walk and of story-telling. In accordance with many other
contemporary Czech films, the narrative of O rodičích a dětech uses humour to lighten the
serious atmosphere and it adds narrative features to the lyrical topic. The film presents a
cultural understanding of some social roles. It emphasises that caring and understanding
are the most important characteristics of motherhood. It also shows that caring about one’s
partner’s feelings and being faithful are the most important characteristics of a successful
relationship in Czech culture. Failing to fulfil the expected social norms creates feelings of
disappointment and confusion and prevents people from having close relationships with
others.
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4. A Comparison of the Czech and the Scottish Construction of Culture
The previous chapters discussed the two films The Winter Guest and O rodičích a dětech
separately as works of art constructing images of their cultures. This chapter puts the two
films together and compares them. In the analysis of The Winter Guest and O rodičích a
dětech we have already noticed a few aspects which are possible to compare. We have
discussed the representations of space and their meanings for the films. Also we have
analysed the social roles and the constructions of identities of the film characters. We have
also dealt with the specific principles on the basis of which the narratives are constructed.
In the comparison of the two films, more features will stand out as not as natural as they
might have seemed when they were discussed separately, but rather as culturally specific.
The significance of this is that via the comparison of the films we are able to compare their
constructions of their cultures. Subsequently this chapter raises the questions of the
relationship of the Czech and the Scottish culture and their constructions in these two
films.
4.1 Shared Cultural Background
In case of these two films, the film-makers chose the topic of a parent and child
relationship and used fabulas which share their central features. This signals that the Czech
and Scottish cultures have got much in common. The fact that the same topic appears in
Czech and Scottish cinema within a decade means that in both the countries there was a
need to deal with the questions raised by this topic. The films testify that contemporary
narrative art in both cultures deals with intimate and personal issues. They both focus their
attention on problems which are part of people’s daily lives and towards the importance of
the family. They present the issues of loneliness of old people in today’s Czech and
Scottish society as well as the confusion of the middle-aged adults who lack guidance and
support in their lives. Both depict the characters as isolated from their local community.
Both films raise the question of who should take care of elderly people when they need it
and whether people have got the right to completely separate from their parents. The two
films also deal with the problems of how to behave to one’s own children when they
become adults.
The two films agree on a similar conclusion. An adult person does not have the right to
leave their parents alone. Both films suggest that relationships can be in harmony if the
80
adult children take care of their elderly parents and if the elderly parents respect their adult
children as grown-up, independent personalities. According to the films, healthy family
relationships help people feel happier. A family based on healthy relationships is able to
support its members in difficult moments of their lives. In the two narratives, this
conclusion is achieved in different ways. The Winter Guest suggests that everyone can
make things better by trying to see the true nature of the problems while O rodičích a
dětech proposes coming to terms with the existing social conditions and personal
circumstances, which cannot be changed.
Both films have many features in common. Evident are the similarities in the narrative
motifs such as the family roles of the characters: the parent and the adult child, as well as
the technique of intercutting the main story line with the secondary story lines. What is not
so evident at first sight is the shared concepts on which the structures of the narratives are
based. As has been said in the previous chapters, the narratives are based upon certain
mental concepts and metaphors which are used as an instrument to understand abstract
topics. These metaphors are used subconsciously and they are transferred from generation
to generation. As they constitute the base for our understanding of the world, they are very
stable within each culture. According to George Lakoff and Mark Turner (1989), the
metaphors which we have identified in the two films are common to all the European
cultures which have historically been in close contact and therefore share the same
influences among themselves.
4.1.1 The Parents and the Children
At the first sight the roles of the protagonists ‒ the adult persons and their elderly parents ‒
are the same in both films. Both films keep the narrative intimate and focused on the
protagonists and a few other characters and on the close surroundings of the protagonists’
home. The similarities in the understanding of parent and child relationships signal that in
the background the films share the same general concepts. Even though they are based on a
biological foundation, the parent and child relationships are culturally shaped. Anna
Wierzbicka (1992) points out that these basic family relationships are understood
differently in different cultures and the only part of them which remains universal is the
concept of a person’s biological mother and father. Apart from the biological relationship,
everything else that we attribute to the concepts of mother and father is culturally specific.
Therefore what we can see in the two films are these relationships as understood by the
81
cultures. The fact that we are able to understand the conflicts between parents and children
in the films means that we either share the same concept of the relationships between the
parents and their children or we have become acquainted with the concept valid for the
particular culture.
The questions the two films raise about the parents and children relationships are
comparable. The main issue for both of them is the clash between a strong relationship and
personal independence. They both deal with the problems of how parents approach their
children when they become adults and how the adult children treat their parents. The
situations in the films show what parents expect from their children and vice versa. The
clash is between caring for the other while remaining an independent individual. The fact
that the two films share the same attributes of the parent and child relationships signals that
they both share some cultural background.
The Scottish and the Czech film show that for parents, the patterns of behaviour adopted
when their children are small are nearly impossible to change. The films present the
parents as weakened by their age but still behaving like parents to their children. Being a
parent in these films means taking care of their children’s well-being, being worried about
their happiness but also controlling them. In the Czech film one more attribute of parenting
is added and that is the financial support of adult children by their economically active
parents. The frustration of the parents comes from the inability to fulfil the parental role
any more as the children are adults now. As expressed in both films, being an adult means
taking responsibility for one’s own life. It means being economically but also emotionally
independent of a person’s parents. It does not mean, though, that an adult can become
completely independent. As the films show, adulthood reverses the roles of parents and
children after people become adults, they are expected to take care of their parents.
As the films present it, in both Scottish and Czech culture adults are expected to be
responsible for their behaviour and a young person is no longer required to be obedient to
their parents once they have reached adulthood. The parents, though are not required by
society to stop caring. This situation reflects the combination of the Christian tradition and
modern Euro-American individualism. Christianity stands behind the concept of respect
for a person’s parents. Even though the knowledge of Christianity is slowly vanishing from
the daily lives especially of young people, the concepts are still present in the patterns of
social behaviour. Frances as well as Honza find it hard to stand up for themselves against
82
their parents’ reproaches and advice because they have been brought up to respect their
parents and also because they love them. Both Frances and Honza feel they have the right
to lead their lives the way they want. This approach is characteristic for the individualism
prevalent in current European cultures since the rise of Protestantism and the
Enlightenment (Rapport 2010, 298‒302). This individualistic attitude brings the advantage
of freedom as well as the burden of responsibility. The interesting point is that the
reactions of the protagonists to these contradictory tendencies are significantly different in
each of the films.
4.1.2 The Conceptual Metaphors
In O rodičích a dětech and The Winter Guest the metaphor of life as a journey (Lakoff and
Turner 1989) stands behind the central motif of the walk. In both narratives the characters
meet in the morning at home, where they stay for a short while before going out for a walk.
During the walk, their dialogue reveals the core moments of their lives and the nature of
their relationships. The moments from the protagonists’ lives are “hung up” on the places
through which they walk. Due to the metaphor, moving in time is understood as moving in
space and the surroundings reflect the character’s feelings about their lives. Due to the
background metaphor commonly understood in both cultures the connection of going for a
walk and presenting one’s whole life during it appears natural.
In both films, the walks start from one of the characters’ flat or house. As Gaston
Bachelard (1969) says, a person’s home is a reflection of their soul. Therefore both the
walks start by delving into the character’s inner world. Then the images of the environment
in each of the walks unfold differently. In The Winter Guest, the walk takes the characters
to an empty sea shore where the dramatic atmosphere of the argument between mother and
daughter is emphasised by the hard stones and ice in their vicinity. They walk to a place
with no shelter or greenery. In comparison, the walking track of O rodičích a dětech
adheres to inhabited areas. There are pubs on the way and the walk goes through lush
green parks. The surroundings are much more hospitable. Both the walks end back in the
home town when the characters are reconciled with each other and harmony is restored. At
the end of the story of O rodičích a dětech, the relationship of the father and the son reverts
to the same state where it was in the beginning and so the walk through their lives is a
circle rather than a line. The Winter Guest, on the contrary, moves the relationship of the
mother and the daughter to a different stage.
83
The understanding of life metaphorically as a journey together with other influences leads
Frances to the thought of moving to Australia after her husband’s death. She perceives the
place of her home as a stage in her life from which she can move on to another one. On the
other hand, Honza in the Czech film is happy in the place where he lives and wants to stay
there for the rest of his life. The pattern of the walk indicates that the metaphor of life as a
journey is present in the culture, but there are other influences due to which the journey of
life takes place within a character’s well known area. According to the conventional
metaphor understanding a change of state as a change of location, Frances wants to change
her situation and therefore move away while Honza, comfortable with his life, wants to
stay at the same place.
Another metaphor that can be identified behind both narratives is that of understanding life
as a year. Although the same metaphor informs each film, each of them employs it in a
different way. The Winter Guest depicts the winter stage of the year associated with old
age and death. The open space of the stony sea shore, grey sky and ice emphasises the
feeling of cold emptiness. The depiction of the environment corresponds to the topic
discussed by the characters. In comparison, O rodičích a dětech takes place during a sunny
spring day. The environment is in direct contrast to the attitude of resignation the
characters express. This contrast between a spring environment and, the ‘autumnal’ mood
of the characters emphasises their detachment from the world. Compared to The Winter
Guest, the environment here participates in creating a relaxed, leisurely atmosphere which
corresponds to the aim of the walk: a refreshing activity cultivating the father’s and the
son’s relationship. It also emphasises Honza’s new-found comfort in life.
The turn in the fabula of both films is expressed through the metaphor which visualises
knowing as seeing. In O rodičích a dětech, the turn takes place in the story of Marta and
Robert. When Robert takes a long look into Marta’s eyes the situation metaphorically
implies that he realises he is in love. In this case, seeing means that Robert became aware
of his own emotions towards Marta and has decided to act accordingly. In The Winter
Guest the metaphor of knowing as seeing stands behind the climactic event. Frances sees
her mother through the camera and Elspeth sees her daughter through the eyes of the little
boy. In this case, seeing means a change of perspective and therefore a better
understanding. In the Czech film, the situation of seeing the true state of Marta’s and
Robert’s relationship can be predicted from their flirtatious behaviour prior to the climax.
In the Scottish film, the situation where both women change their attitudes is not
84
anticipated by any motifs. While in the Czech film this situation makes the characters more
confused and worried in their relationships, in the Scottish film it leads to a new
harmonious state. The narratives unfold in different directions but the metaphors in the
background are the same.
85
4.2 Gender identities ‒ Traditional and Modern Roles
Even though both the films were created within the relatively small region of Europe
where the cultures have a lot in common, the comparison of the depicted gender roles
reveals similarities as well as differences. The specific way the gender roles are
approached in the films not only shapes the narratives but also contributes to the cultural
constructions created by the films. Both the films present males and females in various
social roles and in various age groups. The character identities in the narratives create
complex signs which present gender identities in the two cultures.
4.2.1 Motherhood
Both narratives include the character of mother and in both mothers have several
characteristics in common. The shared features are found in the characters of Elspeth in the
Scottish film and the characters of Honza’s and Robert’s mothers in the Czech film. The
Winter Guest features two mothers who play significant roles within the narrative.
According to the classification of Kath Woodwarth (2003), the two mothers represent two
opposite types of mothers present in “Western” media discourse, one traditional and one
modern. The Scottish traditional mother as presented by Elspeth in The Winter Guest is
fully focused on her children, predominantly concerned about their well-being. She
considers femininity to be an important value for the life of a woman. Apart from that, she
is also concerned about trying to make her daughter stay with her, so that she does not get
old on her own. This concern is depicted as selfish and as preventing her daughter from
leading her life independently. According to this film, the mother does not have the right to
demand her child’s presence. Her concentration on what would benefit her is seen as a
“bad mother’s” characteristic.
Frances stands for the opposite type of mother. She lets her son indulge in his own interests
and focuses on her work, she does not demand anyone’s participation. She does not keep
the house in perfect order and does not prepare her son’s breakfast the way a traditional
mother would. She also does not care about presenting herself as feminine. Despite the fact
that she is not a traditional “good” mother, she is portrayed in a positive light and with
understanding. The film evidently supports the modern type of mother protecting a
person’s right to live according to their own wishes regardless of their gender.
86
On the other hand, in O rodičích a dětech the mothers are in subsidiary roles, perceived
through the eyes of the male protagonists. They both represent one type of mother which is
quite similar to the one represented by Elspeth in The Winter Guest. Just as Elspeth, they
are both pictured in a negative light as overbearing. They both care about their feminine
appearance. Unlike Elspeth, though, the mothers in the Czech film are anxious to live their
lives properly, they both require their families to observe proper manners. Compared to
them, Elspeth is a rather wild tempered person. Both Czech mothers fulfil the requirement
that they should take care of their families. Honza’s mother expresses this through her
impeccably clean flat, Robert’s mother does this by providing money to her son. Despite
that, both the mothers fail to create emotional bonds with the members of their families.
From the point of view of the male protagonists, being kind and warm-hearted is
considered to be the most important value for a “good” mother. Lack of kindness ruins the
protagonists’ relationships with their mothers. All the other things that the mothers in the
Czech film do for members of their families such as providing food and money is taken for
granted.
Both films offer portraits of imperfect traditional mothers. The imperfection lies in them
being emotionally reserved. The Scottish mother furthermore is portrayed as making
selfish demands on her child while the Czech mothers are seen as requiring extreme levels
of cleanliness and good manners. The Czech film does not feature any alternative portrait
of motherhood while the Scottish film depicts an alternative type of mother who does not
care about the tidiness of her household but is tolerant and emotionally warm.
4.2.2 The Sons
Not all the gender roles in the two films are comparable but apart from mothers, the
characters of sons appear in both films and offer an interesting comparison. The sons are
very different from each other and by comparing them, we can find out what constitutes
the images of young men in both cultures and how these images are seen from the
perspective of either of the films. Alex in The Winter Guest is much younger than Robert
in O rodičích a dětech. Neither of them has a father around. Alex has just lost his while
Robert has his discovered just recently. Therefore their mothers are the only ones who treat
them like sons. During the narrative, Robert finds out about his father and so he gains a
missing parent while Alex loses his father and so he suddenly has to become more of an
87
adult. While the personality of Alex is perceived in a positive light, Robert is pictured with
some reservations.
In The Winter Guest, Alex, the son of Frances, is a teenager. He lives with his mother in a
small coastal town. He seems to be rather shy, quiet and mature for his age. He is
approached by a girl who secretly fancies him. In the development of their relationship she
plays the active role. He does not have any friends around and so spends time on his own.
On the other hand, he is not completely introvert and is not shy to stand up for himself
when necessary. He seems to be relatively confident and balanced. He does not rebel
against authority or try to dominate people around him. His personality is between that of a
boy and a young man. He overreacts when his feet get wet in the freezing sea but at the
same time, he is caring and thoughtful. He supports his mother and tries to protect her from
any further emotional distress. He offers Nita a hot bath when she is cold and, being a
gentleman, does not use this opportunity to seduce her. He is seen as a serious and
responsible young man. His masculinity is signalled not only by his mature body but also
by his behaviour towards women around him, towards whom he is caring and protective.
After his father’s death, Alex partly takes over the role of taking care of his mother. He is a
“good” son, subtle and attentive, he does not demand anything for himself. Being closed
up and introvert gives him a mysterious allure which attracts Nita.
Robert from O rodičích a dětech is a very different type of young man. He is in his midtwenties,
he lives on his own but he is still financially dependent on his mother. He meets
her every Friday to get some money from her. He is a spontaneous, playful and careless
type. He lives in the present and he is not worried about the future. His concerns are how to
get more money and how to understand women better. Rather than understanding them,
though, he tries to impress them. His attention is focused on himself. He does not take care
of his mother and he talks about her with contempt. His masculinity is signalled by a
number of stereotypical attributes characteristic for a “tough guy” in Czech culture22
. He
has got “tough guy’s” hobbies like playing in a metal band, riding a motorbike or playing
shooter computer games. Also he is better than Marta when working with computers23
. His
22
This concept of a “tough guy” is particularly well represented by the images of the members of the most
popular Czech rock band called Kabát (see Kabát).
23
In Czech culture IT is commonly seen as a “men’s world” (Sokačová 2007; Kristová 2008).
88
life’s success – just as the life success of his father – is based on his success with women.
He is not portrayed in such a positive light as Alex, his behaviour is shown as immature
and irresponsible but he balances the negative traits by being fun company. That is also
why he succeeds in seducing Marta. Although she can see his faults, he impresses her with
his computer skills, his jokes and a vitality which her partner Honza has lost.
Honza, the protagonist of O rodičích a dětech is also in the role of a son. Compared to his
own son Robert, he is much more caring and understanding towards his father than Robert
is towards his mother. As he himself says, it is because of his age. Unlike in The Winter
Guest, in this film, being caring and protective is related to being mature. According to this
film, a young person is not expected to care about others24
. While in the Scottish film the
young son presents a stable point, in the Czech film the young son is a destabilising
element.
The Winter Guest portrays the young Scot as fully-fledged member of society who has got
responsibility and independence. His attempts to stabilise the world of the adults does not
prevent the young man from starting a relationship which helps him to overcome his
problems. O rodičích a dětech features a type of the young Czech who is at the stage of
“emerging adulthood” (Arnett 2004; Macek 2007). According to sociologists, this stage of
life is characteristic for people in European cultures.
“The combination of specific life conditions, lifestyle, and key personal issues in this life
stage is expressed by other significant characteristics of this period such as self-focused age,
the age of identity exploration, the age of instability, and the age of possibilities” (Macek
2007, 445).
Robert is an adult but he is still dependent on his parents and at the same time he is not
taken seriously as an independent, mature personality. That is why he achieves selfrealisation
through a childish rebellion against his mother. The narrative depicts this
phenomenon recently emerging in Czech culture and shows how problematic this stage of
life is for all the people involved.
24
In comparison, a sociological survey among young Czechs proved a different opinion: “Our research does
not have a representative character, and its result cannot be generalized. Nevertheless, in the replies of
emerging adults the fact that the opposite point of view, that adult children and their parents should look only
after themselves, did not appear is, in our opinion, very interesting” (Macek 2007).
89
4.3 Contrasting Images of Space ‒ Infinity versus Enclosed Space
The complex of features which puts the two films into contrast is the most visible in the
depiction of the environment in the two narratives. As has been said in the previous
chapters where we have dealt with the images of space, both films use the environment to
complement the characters’ mind-set. In this chapter, the meaning of the surroundings will
be put into the context of all the other aspects of the narrative. In this connection, we will
see that the images of space participate in creating coherent sets of cultural characteristics
expressed in the narratives. These sets of cultural characteristics stand behind the main
differences between the two narratives.
The most evident is the contrast on the scale of infinity ‒ enclosure of the space depicted.
The Winter Guest takes the characters to the seashore and leaves them unprotected in an
open area of flat stones with the sea on the horizon. But the walk in O rodičích a dětech
leads through parks, bushes and along walls creating an enclosed area similar to a
labyrinth. At the first sight, these differences may be due to the different geographical
conditions of the two countries. The matter is not so simple, though. The seashore could be
depicted as an enclosed place, located between impassable rocks and the sea. Parks can be
depicted as an open area in contrast to the enclosed space of the city. Geographical
characteristics certainly participate in shaping the culture and its constructions but this is
just one of the factors involved, apart from contacts with different cultures, historical
influences and other aspects.
In both narratives, the surroundings function as visual signs denoting various aspects of the
inner lives of the protagonists. The enclosed space of O rodičích a dětech emphasises the
boundaries of the protagonists’ life options. The surroundings illustrate the limits which
the protagonists establish for themselves. The open space of The Winter Guest, on the other
hand, associates the unlimited number of choices a person has in his or her life. The
protagonist claims the right to do what she wishes to do in her life. Her mindset is
influenced by the post-colonial heritage of her country. She considers some faraway
countries as a possible home. These countries, once ruled by the Empire, adopted its
language and culture and have a shared history. Regardless of the distance, for Frances,
these countries are close to her cultural identity. On the contrary, without such “imperial”
heritage, the protagonist of O rodičích a dětech would feel foreign anywhere outside the
90
Czech Republic, more precisely outside Prague as his microcosm. The characters in these
films experience freedom and limits. These are connected respectively to the infinity and
enclosure of their surroundings.
The meaning of freedom in The Winter Guest is associated with the need to take risks. In
this narrative, freedom brings responsibility for one’s own decisions and therefore requires
risk. None of the life choices is ideal and no one can foresee the future consequences of
their decisions. This is seen as a burden related to the freedom of living according to a
person’s own wishes. That is why Frances hesitates whether she should or should not leave
for Australia. She is not sure whether moving is the right decision. Compared to the
situation of Frances, the limited living space of O rodičích a dětech is connected with the
feeling of safety. Honza knows his surroundings and the way of life of the place. He does
not think that he could benefit from leaving. He is comfortable and safe in his home place.
The meanings of risk and safety are further associated with the contrasting features of
infinity and enclosure in the two narratives.
The features of freedom and risk in The Winter Guest imply the characters’ activity. The
present situation can be changed only by a person acting. That is why Frances feels that
she needs to move to be able to change her life. Elspeth is actively trying to persuade her
daughter to stay and Nita decides to take action and remove the photographs of Alex’s
father from the walls of his house. In comparison, the limits and safety of O rodičích a
dětech imply passivity. The characters take their lives as they come and they achieve
happiness by coming to terms with what they have.
These meanings are developed further by attaching the features of individualism and
uprootedness on one side and belonging and continuity on the other. Freedom and risk
taking is associated with individualism and uprootedness in The Winter Guest. Both
Frances and Elspeth claim the right to focus on themselves and to do what benefits them.
Because they feel responsible for their own lives, they want to make independent
decisions. They do not feel connected to their relatives and the local community. The
notion of individual responsibility makes the characters act selfishly. O rodičích a dětech,
on the other hand, emphasises that people belong to a chain of generations. The characters
cannot avoid repeating the mistakes of their parents and grandparents. The notion of fate is
present, although it is unarticulated. Honza and his father feel they belong to the place
where they live. Even so, they do not participate in community life, as they do not feel
91
connected to the people in their environment. They only feel connected to their male
relatives and the place where they live. The belonging to one’s home place and a bond with
one’s parents and grandparents cannot be avoided.
Another feature distinguishing the two narratives from each other is the difference in the
genres. The main motifs and the structures of the fabulas are very similar, but the film
makers have chosen quite different genres. The Winter Guest is a psychological narrative
close to the genre of crisis. Problems are approached seriously. The characters behave in a
dramatic way emphasising how emotionally upsetting their relationship is. The narrative
has got a lot of lyrical features, it sidelines physical events and highlights the emotions of
the characters. The fabula-turning event takes place in the mental world of the characters
when Frances and Elspeth change their perception of each other. Frances, as the
protagonist, is depicted as a brave and independent woman, she only claims what she has a
right to require. The narrative features positive characters, mainly Alex, who brings hope
to the whole situation and lightens the dramatic story by heart-warming moments. There is
subtle humour to lighten up the atmosphere in a few moments. The humour, though, is
almost completely assigned to the subsidiary characters, the schoolboys and the old ladies.
O rodičích a dětech creates a different impression. Its emphasis on story-telling and
episodic stories breaks the lyrical atmosphere of the walk. It unfolds like a chain of short
stories framed by the situation of the walk. The protagonists do not experience their
problems directly at the moment, which makes the problems less acute. The protagonists
do not talk earnestly, they joke about their troubles and present their past in an ironic, selfdeprecating
way. These features shift the narrative towards the genre of comedy. The
narrative of O rodičích a dětech does not feature any character who could be seen in a
positive light. Unlike Jan Čulík, who sees this film as “again” dealing “with the
relationship between an “impossible” man and a practical sensible woman” (2013, 244),
this analysis proves that in this film, the “impossibility” is more of a general problem
concerning everyone regardless of their gender. The film suggests that no one is ideal. Men
are seen as selfish and ignoring their partners, mothers are seen as too dominating and
oppressive and the young woman in the film is portrayed as slightly naïve and easily
manipulated. In comparison to The Winter Guest, O rodičích a dětech emphasises epic and
comedic features above the dramatic and lyrical features prevalent in the former film.
92
The features which have been described above create coherent sets of meanings presented
by the films. We can see the features of enclosure, limits, safety, passivity, belonging and
continuity in O rodičích a dětech, together with the preference for epic and comedic
features in the narrative. On the other hand, The Winter Guest is characterised by infinity,
freedom and risk taking, activity, individualism and uprootedness with the emphasis on the
lyrical and dramatic features in the narrative. It needs to be said that each of the films is a
complicated structure and contains features from both ends of the scale. For example, the
Czech film features characters who are mostly active as well as those who are mostly
passive. However, the point of this comparison is to identify features which are dominant
in the two films.
93
5. Conclusion
In this thesis I have examined one Scottish and one Czech film, The Winter Guest and O
rodičích a dětech. The aim of the analysis was to interpret the construction of the culture
which each film offers. These two particular films were chosen because they share their
main topic. This enabled me not only to analyse each of them separately but also to ask
how the two films which rise from two different cultures depict a similar topic. More
precisely, the research question was how Czech and Scottish culture depict the topic of
adult children and their elderly parents conducting a dialogue about their lives and their
mutual relationships. A related research question was whether the Scottish and the Czech
cultural constructions in these two films have anything in common. In other words, the
question was whether the images of culture which the two films create are similar or
different.
My methodology has combined semiotics, narratology and cognitive science. My semiotic
approach was based on the theory of Umberto Eco and on Jonathan Bignell’s application
of semiotics on the media. I have also used Mieke Bal’s narratological approach. Mieke
Bal uses narratology for cultural analysis. I have also found inspiration in George Lakoff’s
theory of conceptual metaphors and in the theory of culturally determined cognitive
patterns of Roger Schank and Robert Abelson. The combination of these three approaches
has allowed me to examine the films from various angles. It has provided a theoretical
background needed for identifying the cultural content of various aspects of the films.
My analysis of each of the films revealed features participating in the construction of
Czech and Scottish reality. In the last section these features were compared. The main
findings of this thesis are discussed in detail in this comparative section. Based on the
analysis of the two films, I have found out that Czech and Scottish cultures are strongly
rooted in unconscious mental patterns shared throughout Europe. This is not a surprising
finding but I decided to point this out in order to be able to separate these features in the
films from some other, more culturally specific features. It is also useful to notice what
aspects in the films perceived as natural are in fact culturally specific. I have shown that
the same conceptual metaphors are present in both Czech and Scottish cultures. The
cultures also share the same system of narrative genres and their attributes. Both films are
about the relationships of adults and their elderly parents. Both cultures find this problem
94
topical and in these two films they are trying to find appropriate answers within their local
discourse.
In the next part of the comparative section I have described some features which are
depicted in the films as similar both in Czech and in Scottish. These features are mainly
related to the gender identities, social roles and interpersonal relationships. The films
suggest that especially the gender roles and the social expectations are changing in both
cultures. That is why the films are so concerned with the differences between generations. I
have found that both the Scottish and the Czech film depicts the traditional women’s roles
in a similar way. Also the depictions of the middle-aged generations share some attributes.
Some other features of the films appear to be contrasting. This applies especially to the
images of the environment. The ways the films depict the environment were linked with
the mind-set of the characters. I have found that the images of the environment participate
in creating a complex picture of the characters’ approaches to their lives. According to my
findings, the choice of genre also participates in creating contrasting images of Scottish
and Czech cultures in these two films.
So far, not much research has been done in the field of cultural analysis of contemporary
Scottish cinema. Even less has been done on contemporary Czech cinema. This thesis is
concerned only with two films and therefore its conclusions cannot be taken as statements
of general validity. This thesis needs to be considered as a first step, which raises more
questions than it answers. In further research it would be fruitful to analyse a number of
films from each of the two cultures to be able to reach some more general conclusions.
Considering films from different eras would tell us how the images of cultures have
changed with time. Also, comparing the cultural constructions in the films with other
materials such as literature, visual art or theatre would bring interesting results. Another
related question is the issue of the cultural background of the researcher and its impact on
the work he or she does.
95
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