Disintegration in Frames: Aesthetics and Ideology in the Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema

Disintegration in Frames examines the ways in which national identity and interethnic relations are approached, evaluated, and critically dissected in films by directors such as Dusan Makavejev, Emir Kusturica, and Srdan Dragojevic; subcultural television and musical performances of the Bosnian pop-art movement New Primitivism; amateur video works made by the returning veterans of the Croatian war; political documentaries chronicling the psychological effects of state socialism; and more.

Table of Contents:
@fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgments XXX @toc2:Introduction 1 @toc2:1. The Black Wave and Marxist Revisionism 000 @toc3:New Yugoslav Film 000 Sex and the Socialist Revolution 000 Montage: Praxis 000 The Raw Image 000 Tito and Jesus 000 @toc2:2. Yugoslavism Without Limit 000 @toc3:New Primitivism 000 Sarajevo Surrealists 000 "Sucking the Wooden Pole" 000 From the War-Torn Sarajevo 000 @toc2:3. Aesthetics of Nationalist Pleasure 000 @toc3:The Father 000 An Aesthetic of the Genitofugal Libido 000 Yugoslavism with (Ethnocentric) Reserve 000 The Question of Responsibility 000 Enjoyment as Danse Macabre 000 @toc2:4. Hatred Explained, Hatred Legitimized 000 @toc3:"Inevitable Wars" 000 War Veteran as Filmmaker 000 Collective Belief 000 Croats as Serb Extremists 000 Transvestites, Punks, and (Once Again) New Primitivs 000 Joke, and Its Relation to War 000 @toc2:5. Of Ethnic Enemy as Acousmetre 000 @toc3:Politics and Noise 000 Ogre in a Boar's Head 000 Contra Essentialism 000 @toc2:Post Scriptum 000 @toc4:Notes 000 Bibliography 000 Index 000

About the Author :
Pavle Levi is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Stanford University.

Review :
"Disintegration in Frames alerts readers to the vibrancy and genius of Yugoslav/post-Yugoslav cinema and will make them want to rush to the nearest video store." - CHOICE "Disintegration in Frames foregrounds the politics and aesthetics of Balkan cinema for both an academic audience and a more general readership. Levi's impressive command of contemporary cultural studies - its reading practices and theoretical perspectives - at once deepens and amplifies the work of other contemporary film scholars of Balkan cinema, providing a fresh perspective grounded in historiography." - Catherine Portuges, University of Massachusetts, Amherst "Although the post-Yugoslav war is today half-forgotten, it was never really accounted for: its murderous violence continues to haunt us all. Levi's analysis is one of the few serious attempts at understanding its ideological roots and investments. He does not approach the catastrophe directly, but through its echoes in Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cinema. However, far from using cinema just as an external illustration, Levi provides an immanent analysis at the highest theoretical level, detecting ideological dimensions in stylistic shifts and formal procedures. The results are breathtaking. The complicity and involvement of many Yugoslav cineasts celebrated in the West, Emir Kusturica the first among them, is fully demonstrated. In this book, contemporary cinema has definitely lost its political innocence. A book not only for all those interested in today's cinema, but, perhaps even more, for all who want to understand explosions of ethnic violence - and our co-responsibility for it. There are no innocent bystanders in Levi's book!" - Slavoj Zizek "As Catherine Portugues put it in her evaluation of the book, Disintegration in Frames will find its audience among both academics and curious readers. On the other hand, Levi's volume could be used as a very informative handbook for various types of college courses. On the other hand, the book will allow those who simply enjoy watching the movies that Levi analyzes to begin to see them as a product of the times in which they were made." - Bojan Belic, University of Washington