Counter-Godard: On Makavejev’s Anti-formalism

In the article, the author continues his earlier research on interpretations of Dušan Makavejev’s work, based on dualist topography, for which he claims to be the result of certain ideological effects prevailing in cinema studies. Here, by focusing on speculations presupposing the radical difference between Godard and Makavejev, he is veryfying this claim from the perspective of ideological imagination. Applying the methodology of Russian Formalism, which treats the work of art not as a reflection of extra-artistic realms (i.e. philosophical or political), he introduces certain clarifications concerning the interpretations of Makavejev’s work. Firstly, the thesis that the supposed anti-formalism of Eastern European film makers has natural bonds with Eastern European dissidency is at best an ideological and reactionary claim. Secondly, the thesis that Marxism of Makavejev is different from Marxism of Godard is a part of the same theoretical conjuncture reproducing the idea of progressive cinema as a reflection of progressive philosophy. Here especially, he focuses on a very fashionable thesis that Black Wave is a reflection of Praxis philosophy. The main argument of the article is that this imagination of Makavejev’s work as anti-formalist and counter-Godard has silenced many contradictions involved in his filmic practice. This concerns especially the discussions on the relation between the contradictions of self-management socialism and the contradictions of Makavejev’s film-form. The addendum of the text focuses on two concrete examples, suspiciously lacking in discussions on Makavejev; on slogans which were a constitutive part of his practice, and on inherent contradictions of his film-form, as in references to Beethoven.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!