A Future Archive of Identity. Stories and Tropes of Contemporary Slovak Nonfiction Cinema (original) (raw)

“Cool XXL”: Slovak millennial films in the context of postsocialist sensibility of Slovak cinema

Literatura i Kultura Popularna, 2019

The title of this paper is inspired by an eponymous review of one Slovak millennial film. 1 Entitled simply as "Cool XXL", the review was written in 2003 by Martin Šmatlák, a film historian and back then also a critic, who concluded it with a highly symptomatic attempt to define the Slovak millennial sensibility of "coolness": "'Cool' means not only cold or chilly, but also calm or indifferent. It is in this very aspect that this film [It Will Stay Between Us] is so absolutely insurmountable. […] It is so deeply preoccupied with itself that it does not establish any relationships. It is so deprived of emotions that it's being heartless. It creates a reality without facts, stories or interpretations. It is a sign without meaning, a scaffolding without a building, a 90-minute 'video clip'. It is so detached from life that it is completely lifeless. It is 'cool XXL'". 2 There would be nothing special about this review, if Martin Šmatlák (in this case signed simply as a "film critic") had not been significantly involved in the process of the re-establishment of what 1 Namely, Zostane to medzi nami (It Will Stay Between Us, dir. Miroslav Šindelka, 2003). 2 M. Šmatlák, "Cool XXL", Domino forum 42, 2003, p. 26. All cited fragments were translated from Slovak by the author.

Contemporary Slovak Film : A Symptom of the Times or a Representation of Society ?

2015

The phenomenon of Slovak cinema after 1989 is often linked with metaphors of absence and sterility. There are many reasons why this can be stated, and they are to a great extent closely connected with the reckless transformation and denationalisation of cinema which almost ruined it in the 1990s. On the one hand, cinema is no longer controlled or supported by the state; on the other hand, it is still financially dependent on it. (Until 2009, the ministers of culture are still responsible for the division of film funds, and frequent changes in the volume of available funds or the state’s preferred subject matter have resulted in a number of projects that received short-term funding but have never been finished.) The focus is no longer on the middle class; therefore, there has been a decrease in cinema attendance and box office success. However, films are still reflecting some social changes and specifics as well as the position of Slovakia in a certain “global” world order. This arti...