All is Fair in Love and Politics: Political Comedy and Romance in Late Socialist Yugoslav Cinema

• In Event: South Slavic Film II: Yugoslav Cinema: Ideology, Autonomy and Gender

Abstract

The paper addresses the field of political comedy in late Yugoslav cinema, by examining how the themes of romantic and sexual affairs have been deployed in these films. The 1980s brought a remarkable encounter of political, economic and social issues in film production, including strong criticism of the increasingly bureaucratic nature of political system at the time. Criticism did not address only the economic and administrative deadlocks of the state system, but also the notion of different political inclinations on the part of various ethnic, regional, national and other interest groups. This criticism was often moderated by being intertwined with sarcastic and farcical representation of romance and sexual affairs, so that it was often recognized more as comical plot aimed to entertain people, than clear-cut political subversion. Romantic and sexual scenes often corresponded with so called “western fashion” of representation of romantic involvement, following international trends in displaying sexuality in visual culture. Yugoslav films colored by political comedy could be divided into two groups: films produced and directed by renowned directors such as Goran Marković, Goran Paskaljević, Rajko Grlić, Živko Nikolić, and the others, and films for mass consumption, distributed and recognized as strictly commercial comedies. Both of these groups of films, however, contained various rich elements of social and political criticism. The analysis will focus on the films such as Majstori, Majstori, Ljubavni život Budimira Trajkovića, U raljama života, Čudo Neviđeno, Nema problema, Tesna Koža, Lude godine, etc.

Author

• Marija Grujic, Institute of Literature and Art (Serbia)