It is important to fill this interpretative blind spot for two reasons: on the one hand, Hadžić’s, Relja’s and Čáp’s films are exemplary for the process of genre proliferation and interplay within Yugoslav cinema on the other hand, they rely on a specific ideological matrix which is related to the articulation of the spy genre against a geopolitical position of ‘non-alignedness’ within the Cold War context. In 1961, they were followed by Fadil Hadžić’s Abeceda straha/ABC of Fear.Īlthough these three films largely share in motivic as well as narrative structures, so far they have not been studied as a distinct group within the history of Yugoslav cinema. Already in 1960, two exemplary spy films were produced in Yugoslavia: X-25 javlja/X-25 Reports (František Čáp) and Kota 905/Point 905 (Mate Relja). In the context of this intensive commotion, and with regards to popular culture and genre patterns, the decade’s beginning was marked not only by the two early modernist oeuvres by Hladnik and Petrović, but also by an intensive interest in spy film. However, the decade was not marked solely by auteur film, it was also a period of intensive reception of (mainly American) popular culture in Yugoslavia (Vučetić 2018), a period whose beginnings were marked by a ‘commercialization’ trend (Boglić 1963 Crnovršanin 1963) in the country’s cinema-which reached its peek with the scandalous musical comedy Šeki snima, pazi se/Šeki Is Filming, Watch Out (Marijan Vajda, 1962)-and a period in which the Yugoslav variant of the war film genre-the partisan film-developed into a spectacular form. Already within the 1960s period itself, and almost to the present day, this development was perceived by film critics as beginning with two movies, both appearing in 1961: Boštjan Hladnik’s Ples v dežju/A Dance in the Rain and Aleksandar Petrović’s Dvoje/And Love Has Vanished (Čolić 1967 Munitić 1966 Novaković 1967). In the history of Yugoslav cinema, the 1960s are often described as the ‘golden’ decade (Kirn 2012, 5 Levi 2007, 15), the period when auteur film flourished and consequently led to an affirmation of the national cinema on the modernist world stage. Taking film genre theory as its issuing point, this article attempts at offering an insight into this cluster of problems. The generic structure of the spy film combined with a position of non-alignedness therefore produced specific ideological effects within Yugoslav cinema. Through the spy’s infiltration, this enemy was then represented in ways which cannot be found in earlier war (partisan) films. Consequently, Yugoslav spy films not only systematically (re)turned to the context of World War II, but also, the ‘enemy within’ became the fundamental neuralgic point of their symbolic strategies. On the one hand, spy films witness to a process of ‘genre-grafting’ highly symptomatic of the developments in the Yugoslav cinema of the period on the other hand, however, they also introduce specific problems into this process: with Yugoslavia occupying a nonaligned position in the Cold War context, the metaphor of the ‘Iron Curtain’, largely fuelling the international spy genre of the 1960s, remained inaccessible to Yugoslav spies. What do you think? Are these the kind of espionage flicks you rely on to save your day, or should we have kept our eyes open for more? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check back for more updates on spy movies of the past and future as well as more streaming recommendations here on CinemaBlend.Through an analysis of three films ( X-25 javlja/ X-25 Reports, František Čáp, 1960 Kota 905/ Point 905, Mate Relja, 1960 Abeceda straha/ ABC of Fear, Fadil Hadžić, 1961) the article inquires into roles spy movies acquired within the Yugoslav cinema of the 1960s.
Speaking of, Cavill’s scenery-chewing performance is practically his 007 audition tape. is an invigorating re-ignition of the Sean Connery-era, with sleek gadgetry, hilarious action sequences, and an unbridled sense of elegance that Daniel Craig’s iteration of James Bond chose to ignore. Following the unlikely, Cold War-era partnering of gruff KGB operative Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) with debonair American secret agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill), The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
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I know that I am probably among the odd ones out here, but I would actually put Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the 1960s series of the same name above most of the spy movies released in 2015, including Kingsman.