Description
Book Synopsis Contrary to the assumption that Western and Eastern European economies and cinemas were very different from each other, they actually had much in common. After the Second World War both the East and the West adopted a mixed system, containing elements of both socialism and capitalism, and from the 1980s on the whole of Europe, albeit at an uneven speed, followed the neoliberal agenda. This book examines how the economic systems of the East and West impacted labor by focusing on the representation of work in European cinema. Using a Marxist perspective, it compares the situation of workers in Western and Eastern Europe as represented in both auteurist and popular films, including those of Tony Richardson, Lindsay Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard, Andrzej Wajda, DušanMakavejev, Jerzy Skolimowski, the Dardenne Brothers, Ulrich Seidl and many others.
Trade Review “What Mazierska’s invaluable book demonstrates…[is] the importance of expanding our investigations of work into unemployment, leisure and idleness, in order to help us understand the ongoing privileging of precarisation by capital, as well as to help us dismantle the unquestioned edification of today’s ‘labour idols.’” • Studies in European Cinema
“One hopes that scholars like Mazierska will continue to keep pace with developments, not only to provide much-needed analysis and critique, but also to remind filmmakers and film scholars alike about film’s potential.” • Alphaville. Journal of Film & Screen Media
“Ewa Mazierska has written an important book…[it] is original and fascinating scholarship. The range of films is broad, with a special emphasis on British, former Yugoslav, Polish and French cinema, and the book cuts across art house and popular cinema – from cult films to Carry On– all in the name of bringing our attention to one of cinema’s otherwise most notable absent figures: work and working.” • William Brown, University of Roehampton
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1.Homo Faber and the Work of Cinema
Chapter 2. The 1960: In Search of Self- Fulfilment
Chapter 3. The 1970s: Seeking Change
Chapter 4. The 1980s: Learning to Survive
Chapter 5. The 1990s, the 2000s and Beyond: Moving towards the Unknown
Conclusions: Towards the New Cinema of Work and Idleness
Notes
Bibliography
Index
