Błażej Szymankiewicz

It seems that the combination of issues concerning Central Europe and Hegelianism is not a new idea, however, in my opinion this concept is extremely reasonable. Hegel's philosophy in a variety of indirect and direct ways (politically and intellectually) influenced the history of Central Europe. After all, this area was the war theater of the great European conflicts, a place of historical changes and processes that we can associate with the Hegelian spirit of history; here, in Central Europe, the intellectual elite and society became the victims of so called „Hegelian bite”¹. And I would compare this spirit of history to a rushing armoured train that destroys everything in its way.

The most important and influential conflict for Central Europe was, of course, World War II. Many Czechoslovak films have referenced this topic, but there is one in particular which, in my opinion, is exceptional and unique. It is Closely Watched Trains by Jiří Menzel that is based on a book by Bohumil Hrabal. This picture won the Best Foreign Language Oscar Award in 1968. It tells the story of a young, shy boy Miloš Hrma who becomes a new station guard at the railway station Kostomlaty during the German occupation. The main part of the film concentrates on his sexual problems (failing to lose his virginity with young conductor Máša), personal issues and a suicide attempt. By accident, Miloš becomes the resistance hero in trying to blow up the German ammunition transport. He dies in a tragic but senseless way.

The viewer can be a little confused – is it a film about war, a war comedy, or maybe story about love? Or simply about sex? Everything is mixed up, but this is a unique feature of Central European films. This kind of cinema often tells a story of an individual, insecure protagonist who is trapped in the machine of history. As Dina Iordanova puts it, many of the Central-European films “(…) can be described as existential”². Although their plots are connected with the historical events, these movies can be also describe as “superb satires about opportunistic individuals overpowered by the irony of history”³. Miloš is that kind of “hero”. Closely Watched Trains is considered to be a masterpiece of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema⁴. But it are somehow exceptional because, in contrast to most of the New Wave films, the action takes place in the past, not present, and the plot is not centered solely on the daily life (and of course it’s not about the problems of the 1960s generation).

Menzel’s film is a classic example of Central European tragicomedy, and its success was to a large extent established in the script. Originally, the Hrabal’s book was going to be even more existential and pessimistic⁵ and historic events did not play an important role in it. But in the Central European culture, especially in the literature and film, the large historic narrative is stirred with small stories, laughter is mixed with death and torment, and for sure the political situation and socio-historical context imply the existential situation of the individual. The sense of ambiguity is a substantial factor of Central European culture and mentality. Dina Iordanova states that: “Faced with the great ironies of history, the small individuals of these important war-themed films continue the tragic-comic view of the ‘burden of history’. So it seems appropriate that this view is described as ‘paradigmatic’ for the discourse on history the unravelled in the region”.⁶

I think that another great example of that type of historical movie will be tragicomedy Divided we Fall by Jan Hřebejk. It continues the tradition of subtly humorous (but also tragic) depictions of small-town war experience as was shown in Closely Watched Trains and in Ján Kadár’s The Shop on Main Street. In this film we can follow the story of a Czech couple (Josef, the protagonist, is portrayed by Bolek Polívka) that is peacefully living next to the Sudeten Germans working for the Nazis, but at the same time they are hiding a young Jew who fled from the concentration camp. Similarly to the plot of the Trains, the whole story is concentrated on their private lives and concerns, such as their inability to have children. And again, they become heroes when the tide of history is turning and the situation changes – shortly after the liberation Josef can prove that he was not collaborating with the Nazis because he was secretly protecting a Jewish man all the time. Hřebejk's film also raises the issue of Jews, their fate and history. The Jewish motive as such is one of the most significant in the Central European history. Divided we Fall presents an attention-grabbing portrayal of the Holocaust mixing it with the everyday life and problems of regular couple and showing it sometimes from a comic, sweet and bitter perspective. Also, one of the final scenes is very interesting: it deals with the “race relations were approached as a multicultural idyll: the Jew fathers a baby for the infertile Czech couple while the German helps deliver it”⁷. It is some kind of utopia that appears simply ironic and amusing in the Central European conditions of the end of the war. In my opinion, Divided we Fall perfectly pictures the twisted Central European fate and history.

There is also another movie that is worth mentioning. It is Alois Nebel, an animated film based on the graphic novel by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír 99 and directed by Tomáš Luňák. It tells a story of the titled protagonist, train dispatcher, who is working on a small train station near the Czechoslovak-Polish border in the late 1980s. He is suffering from strange hallucinations in which the present converges with the dark episodes from the past – the flight and expulsion of the Germans shortly after the WWII, and he, of course, cannot remember that. Needless to say, Rudiš was inspired by Hrabal's and Menzel's works when he was writing the story of Nebel. However, the film is a bit different from the graphic original – it appears to be gloomier and more grotesque, and it strictly concentrates on a mystery from the past that is related to the German expulsion from Czechoslovakia. Nebel is trying to live his own, quiet life, but again, as in the previous examples, the burden of cruel and complicated history is too heavy for him. And the things that happened to Germans after the war are the next important chapter in the Central European history (not only for Czechoslovakia). It is also interesting because the film shows historical events (the end of the War and the end of communism in Czechoslovakia) from the present-day perspective. As I attempted to prove, the history in Czech cinema has always played a major role, even though sometimes it looks as if it remains in the background of the stories. Here is the summarizing quotation of L. Hegyi about the specifics of Central Europe:

“Bitter irony, black humour, morbidness and self-tormenting, almost masochist self-mockery are not only typical phenomena of Central European culture, but at the same time act as paradigmatic strategies designed to make frustration and long-term lack of perspectives more bearable.”⁸

Literature

Iordanova, D. Cinema of the other Europe. The industry and artistry of East Central European film, London 2003.

Škvorecký, J. Jiří Menzel and the History of the Closely Watched Trains, New York 1982.

Czechosłowacka Nowa Fala, red. M. Matla, L. Németh Vítová, Poznań 2012.

Films

Menzel, J. (Režisér). (1966). Ostře sledované vlaky [Film]. Československo: Filmové studio Barrandov.

Hřebejk, J. (Režisér). (2000). Musíme si pomáhat [Film]. Česko: Česká Televize, Total HelpArt T.H.A.

Luňák, T. (Režisér). (2011). Alois Nebel [Film]. Česko: Negativ, Česká Televize, Pallas Film.

Mgr. Błażej Szymankiewicz – absolvent filologicko-historického středoevropského makrooboru na Univerzitě Adama Mickiewicze v Poznani (specializace: komparatistika a literární kritika). Nyní doktorand Filozofické fakulty (Ústav sémiotiky literatury) téže univerzity (obor: Literární věda). Zabývá se především středoevropskou literaturou 20. století ve srovnávací perspektivě, dějinami a kulturou střední Evropy.

Kontakt: szymankiewiczblazej@gmail.com