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A common grounds among the trenches? European melodramas around ww1 and their impact on Balkan film style

par Nasta, Dominique
Référence Balkan Cinema and the Great Wars: Our Story, Peter Lang AG, page (21-27)
Publication Publié, 2020-02

Partie d'ouvrage collectif

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Résumé :

Most early European melodramas made around WWI establish character, setting and subject matter not only as vehicles for extreme situations and emotions in a given context. They also contribute to a challenging re-contextualization of the pre-war national identities, reframed by quite unusual mise-en-scènes, constantly reminding the viewer that fiction and reality are complementary, not contradictory couples. When dealing with Balkan early films we need to ask how do European history, fiction and genre "irrigate" each other in early films and to what purpose? Paul Ricœur's collection of essays "Time and Narrative" and most specifically his considerations about the dichotomy of narrated time/historical time from an Aristotelian perspective, surprisingly fit the contents and style of several European films from the early teens. Four Western war melodramas: Une mauvaise nouvelle (1915, France), Girl without a Fatherland (aka A Romany Spy) (Das Mädchen ohne Vaterland, 1912, Germany, d. Urban Gad), Maudite soit la guerre (1914, Belgium, d. Aldred Machin), The Unknown Hero (Les Etoiles de la gloire) (1919, France, d. Léonce Perret) are compared with and seen as models for two Balkan war melodramas Duty and Sacrifice (Datorie si sacrificiu, 1925, Romania, d. Ion Sahighian) and In God We Trust (Sa verom u Boga, 1932, Yugoslavia, d. Mihajlo Popovic).