Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological
Control, International Competitiveness and Technological
Improvement

C 2015

Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological Control, International Competitiveness and Technological Improvement

SKOPAL, Pavel

Basic information

Original name

Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological Control, International Competitiveness and Technological Improvement

Authors

SKOPAL, Pavel (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

First published. New York - Oxford, Cinema in Service of the State: Perspectives on Film Culture in the GDR and Czechoslovakia 1945-1960, p. 89-106, 18 pp. Film Europe, 2015

Publisher

Berghahn Books

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Kapitola resp. kapitoly v odborné knize

Field of Study

Literature, mass media, audio-visual activities

Country of publisher

United States of America

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Publication form

printed version "print"

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/15:00085513

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

ISBN

1-78238-996-2

Keywords in English

co-productions; state socialist cinema; production history; Barrandov Studios

Abstract

V originále

As the analysis in this essay demonstrates, co-productions served a wide range of overlapping goals and purposes, and it is difficult to categorize them simply according to a conservative or a liberal tendency of cultural policy – in some cases, even individual projects themselves were labelled in a seemingly contradictory way. Furthermore, the expansion of the practice of co-production did not occur in parallel with a process of liberalization. Of course, cooperation with Western partners was inevitably related to a certain degree of liberalization in the cultural sphere, whereas the ‘preferred’ cooperation within the Bloc occasionally served the intentions of the Soviets. Nevertheless, the curbing of co-productions at the end of the 1950s by no means signified a final defeat of liberal tendencies, nor did it mark a shift away from direct competition with the West and a return to isolationism. Starting in the early 1960s, co-productions were perceived as a less effective, more expensive, clumsier mode of production that did not conform to the USSR’s offensive ambitions in the cultural sphere – ambitions that were manifested, for example, in the Soviet Ministry of Culture’s move to force Czechoslovak State Film to organize the festival in Karlovy Vary on a biannual basis in order to ‘make a space’ for the Moscow International Film Festival in the alternating years. How the individual national film industries of the Soviet Bloc coped with the situation is another question: Barrandov, for example, participated in an alternative strategy of exchange among film practitioners by providing experienced filmmakers for production at DEFA. In the second half of the 1960s, the Czech film studio resumed co-operation with Western partners on projects that served to supplement the efficiency of the talented representatives of the Czechoslovak New Wave.

Links

MUNI/A/1172/2014, interní kód MU

Name: Česká kinematografie a proces kulturního transferu

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A

Citovat

SKOPAL, Pavel. Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological Control, International Competitiveness and Technological Improvement. In Skopal, Pavel; Karl, Lars. Cinema in Service of the State: Perspectives on Film Culture in the GDR and Czechoslovakia 1945-1960. First published. New York - Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015, p. 89-106. Film Europe. ISBN 1-78238-996-2.

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   author = {Skopal, Pavel},
   address = {New York - Oxford},
   booktitle = {Cinema in Service of the State: Perspectives on Film Culture in the GDR and Czechoslovakia 1945-1960},
   edition = {First published},
   editor = {Skopal, Pavel; Karl, Lars},
   keywords = {co-productions; state socialist cinema; production history; Barrandov Studios},
   howpublished = {tištěná verze "print"},
   language = {eng},
   location = {New York - Oxford},
   isbn = {1-78238-996-2},
   pages = {89-106},
   publisher = {Berghahn Books},
   title = {Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological Control, International Competitiveness and Technological Improvement},
   year = {2015}
}

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TI  - Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological Control, International Competitiveness and Technological Improvement
VL  - Film Europe
PB  - Berghahn Books
CY  - New York - Oxford
SN  - 1782389962
KW  - co-productions
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KW  - production history
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N2  - As the analysis in this essay demonstrates, co-productions served a wide range of overlapping goals and purposes, and it is difficult to categorize them simply according to a conservative or a liberal tendency of cultural policy – in some cases, even individual projects themselves were labelled in a seemingly contradictory way. Furthermore, the expansion of the practice of co-production did not occur in parallel with a process of liberalization. Of course, cooperation with Western partners was inevitably related to a certain degree of liberalization in the cultural sphere, whereas the ‘preferred’ cooperation within the Bloc occasionally served the intentions of the Soviets. Nevertheless, the curbing of co-productions at the end of the 1950s by no means signified a final defeat of liberal tendencies, nor did it mark a shift away from direct competition with the West and a return to isolationism. Starting in the early 1960s, co-productions were perceived as a less effective, more expensive, clumsier mode of production that did not conform to the USSR’s offensive ambitions in the cultural sphere – ambitions that were manifested, for example, in the Soviet Ministry of Culture’s move to force Czechoslovak State Film to organize the festival in Karlovy Vary on a biannual basis in order to ‘make a space’ for the Moscow International Film Festival in the alternating years. How the individual national film industries of the Soviet Bloc coped with the situation is another question: Barrandov, for example, participated in an alternative strategy of exchange among film practitioners by providing experienced filmmakers for production at DEFA. In the second half of the 1960s, the Czech film studio resumed co-operation with Western partners on projects that served to supplement the efficiency of the talented representatives of the Czechoslovak New Wave.
ER  -

SKOPAL, Pavel. Barrandov’s Co-productions: The Clumsy Way to Ideological Control, International Competitiveness and Technological Improvement. In Skopal, Pavel; Karl, Lars. \textit{Cinema in Service of the State: Perspectives on Film Culture in the GDR and Czechoslovakia 1945-1960}. First published. New York - Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2015, p.~89-106. Film Europe. ISBN~1-78238-996-2.

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