The Cinema Of Central Europe

The cinemas of Hungary, Poland and the former Czechoslovakia can each claim their pioneers of early cinema and all attained significant levels of production between the wars. They first attracted international attention in the 1930s, confirming this with a succession of politically and aesthetically challenging films from the 1950s, through the period of Communism and into the post-1989 era. The work of directors such as Andrzej Wajda, Miklos Jancso, Jiri Menzel, Istvan Svabo, Marta Meszaros, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jan Svankmajer and Bela Tarr is discussed with in-depth studies of films such as Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Knife in the Water (1962), The Round-Up (1965), A Shop on the High Street (1965), Closely Observed Trains (1966), Alice (1988), The Decalogue (1988) and Satantango (1994).