Latvian Neorealism in the Films of Laila Pakalniņa
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BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE Article Alternative Networks of Globalisation: Latvian Neorealism in the Films of Laila Pakalniņa KLĀRA BRŪVERIS, University of New South Wales, Australia; email: [email protected] 38 DOI: 10.1515/bsmr-2017-0003 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE ABSTRACT This paper examines the development of neorealist tendencies in the oeuvre of contemporary Latvian filmmaker Laila Pakalnina. Her work is positioned within the global dissemination of cinematic neorealism, and its local manifestations, which, it is argued, develop in specific national contexts in reaction to dramatic societal and political changes. Pakalniņa’s films are examined as a documentation of the change from a communist satellite state to an independent democratic, capitalist country. Heavily influenced by the Riga School of Poetic Documentary, a movement in Latvian cinema that adhered to the conventions of poetic documentary filmmaking, the article analyses how her films replicate and further develop the stylistic and aesthetic devices of the Italian neorealists and the succeeding cinematic new waves. In doing so the argument is put forth that Pakalnina has developed neorealism Latvian style. Due to their size, small nations do not pos- grassroots globalisation is also occurring in sess the economic or political capital to Latvia. More specifically, the Latvian direc- participate in dominant networks of globali- tor Laila Pakalniņa is participating in an sation, which serve the interests of larger, alternative network of cinema globalisation wealthier nations that use global networks by re-appropriating the stylistic and aes- for political or financial gain (Hjort, Petrie thetic tropes of Italian neorealism, which 2007: 8). Thus, small nations and the film- positions her work as part of a broader makers in small nations are often part of global trend in art cinema. This trend is what Arjun Appadurai has called ‘grassroots one of ‘new waves’. James Tweedie main- globalisation’ or ‘globalisation from below’ tains that the new waves, which started (Appadurai 2000: 3). Grassroots globalisa- to develop in different national cinemas tion contests the hierarchical nature of glo- after World War II, engage with, and further balisation that benefits only those who can develop, the tropes of Italian neorealism. participate in or drive neoliberal capitalist Tweedie contends that starting with the free trade. It develops an understanding French New Wave, these art cinemas have or theory of globalisation ‘on behalf of the created what he calls a ‘cinematic network poor’; of social mobilisation and knowledge with a global reach beyond the obvious transfer outside the global processes of example of Hollywood and its worldwide the corporate capitalist and nation-state distribution system’ (Tweedie 2013: 24). system that benefit the wealthy (Appadurai It is the grassroots movement of cinematic 2000: 3). globalisation. Latvia lacks political and financial This paper examines Laila Pakalniņa’s capital and so it is not surprising that films and argues that they should be viewed 39 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE as part of this alternative film community. chini and Sklar emphasise a global neoreal- This is due to her development of a neore- ist style that often evades definition. Never- alist style specific to the Latvian context. theless, a common denominator appears in Pakalniņa uses an alternative global cinema the publications on cinematic neorealism. network to disseminate stories of the Lat- This is the grassroots nature of the style in vian experience to audiences outside of the its many manifestations. A brief examina- domestic market, through films such as The tion of Italian neorealism, the progenitor Shoe (Kurpe, Latvia/Germany/France, 1998) of this style, highlights the development of and Pizzas (Picas, Latvia, 2012), which have this grassroots quality or characteristic. travelled to numerous international film Italian neorealism is generally consid- festivals. Pakalniņa employs well-known ered to be a post-World War II phenomenon. aesthetics often associated with Italian Its development is attributed to the new neorealism and the successive new waves, generation of filmmakers, such as Vitto- thereby becoming part of a larger pattern rio De Sica and Federico Fellini, who were of alternative global filmmaking. However, eager to depict reality and reveal unmasked before acknowledging Pakalniņa’s work as truths. As Lino Micciché asserts neoreal- part of this alternative global cinematic ten- ism was a shared ethical position for these dency, it is necessary to further formulate young Italian directors (Micciché 2002 in what constitutes this grassroots network. Giovacchini, Sklar 2012: 5). They contested the institutionalisation of cinema by Mus- PAKALNIŅA AND THE solini and the Fascist government in Italy, GRASSROOTS GLOBAL CINEMA which used cinema as a propaganda tool Numerous scholars, such as Saverio during the 1930s and early 1940s (Eades Giovacchini and Robert Sklar (2012), Hamid 2012). Instead, De Sica, Fellini and other Naficy (2012), Laura E. Ruberto and Kristi neorealist directors used cinema to rep- M. Wilson (2007), have argued that the re- resent the ‘brutality of war and its conse- appropriation of the stylistics and themes of quences’ (Eades 2012: 114). As Mira Liehm Italian neorealism constitutes a global style states it was a ‘moral weapon aimed at or global network of alternative cinema. Gio- the artistic conventions of the past’ vacchini and Sklar contend that neorealism (Liehm 1984 in Učník 2007: 54). has become a ‘citizen of the world’ owing to The Italian neorealists reacted against its expropriation by different national cin- local artistic conventions and commercial emas (Giovacchini, Sklar 2012: 11). Naficy Italian films, as well as the glamour of Hol- points out that the conventions of neoreal- lywood (Ruberto, Wilson 2007: 7). Hollywood ism have become predominant in various films were seen as hiding the realities of national cinemas during periods of social ravaged post-war Europe and glossing over and political turmoil (Naficy 2012: 232). the uneven socioeconomic development According to Ruberto and Wilson, neoreal- of a newly modernised Italy (Tweedie 2013: ism provides an aesthetic framework that 11). In opposition to Hollywood and the is an alternative to the Hollywood imports conventions of local commercial cinema that dominate the exhibition market in most the Italian neorealists examined the reper- national cinemas. Tweedie claims that the cussions of World War II and the changing various cinematic new waves, many of which nature of Italian society, with particular base their stylistics on the conventions of focus on the experiences of the underprivi- neorealism, should not be viewed as ‘iso- leged. Whether reacting against the institu- lated events but as a series of interlaced tional propaganda of Italian cinema or the moments’ (Tweedie 2013: 3). glamour of Hollywood films that depicted a The aforementioned scholars agree reality very different from their own socio- that neorealism has been absorbed into dif- political context, their main purpose was to ferent national cinemas with varying results reveal the real and to make people reflect (Giovacchini, Sklar 2012). However Giovac- on reality (Učník 2007: 59–60). 40 BALTIC SCREEN MEDIA REVIEW 2016 / VOLUME 4 / ARTICLE In order to ensure that their techniques that are both entertaining audiences engaged with the social prob- and innovative. lems they depicted in their films the Ital- The deployment of neorealism as a ian neorealists took inspiration from the protest against the ‘artistic conventions of poetic realist experiments of the 1930s. the past’ plays out on both local and global As Luca Caminati argues, the popularity of levels. Tweedie insists that cinematic new Griersonian narrative documentaries such waves should be seen as developing from a as Nanook of the North (USA/France, 1922, need to account for globalisation. Most new directed by Robert J. Flaherty) and Tabu: wave filmmakers depict and document the A Story of the South Seas (USA, 1931, changing political, social, cultural and phys- F. W. Murnau) were influential in the devel- ical landscapes of their nations, which are opment of neorealism in Italy after World brought about by increasing global flows War II (Caminati 2012: 58). In turn, docu- of culture and capital (Tweedie 2013: 6). mentary stylistics came to constitute the Tweedie elaborates, stating, ‘[e]ach of these Italian neorealist style (Učník 2007: 56). cinemas is discovered by an international Neorealist directors often employed non- film circuit at the same time that a domes- professional actors and filmed on location. tic economic revolution signals the society’s Furthermore, the plots of their films were engagement with an emerging system of often loosely structured, open-ended and global markets’ (Tweedie 2013: 18). focused on portraying ‘slice of life scenes’, This is further explained through a where the director depicted ‘contemporary brief examination of the French New Wave. true-to-life subjects’ (Sadoul 1966 in Naficy Directors such as François Truffaut and 2012: 226) completing menial and quotidian Jean-Luc Godard were committed to docu- tasks (Neupert 2007: 60). The protagonists menting Paris as it experienced its ‘second were often members of the working class massive modernisation’ (Tweedie 2013: 18). and used vernacular dialogue (Sadoul This involved