The Most Important Art: East European Film after 1945

Abstract

Lenin's dictum, that film was most important art, is now the title of a new and comprehensive study of the East European film industry in the crucial years after 1945. Given the politically volatile situation in Eastern Europe, Lenin's remark takes on meanings replete with irony and political significance. By chronologically charting the fate of films and filmmakers as affected by the shifting political climate in their respective countries, the authors, at times, manage to create a dramatic tension in what is essentially a historical survey. Occasional subheads introduce new terms (pedagogic realism), genres (urban and rural), women directors, and significant periods and movements in the social and cultural histories of each country. Although some of the more important films are given short shrift, this is hardly to be lamented given the wealth of information on lesser and not easily accessible films the study provides. Well documented by a wide selection of photographs, The Most Important Art is, in lieu of the many films that are hopefully stored in archives behind the Iron Curtain, the best reference guide to one of the major and promising centers of filmmaking in the world.

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