This book examines the ways in which late twentieth-century European cinema deals with the neglected subject of civil war. Exploring a range of films about the Spanish, Irish, former Yugoslavia, and Greek civil wars, this comparative and interdisciplinary study engages with contemporary debates in cultural memory and investigates the ways in which cinematic postmemory is problematic. Many of the films present an idealized past that glosses over the reality of these civil wars, at times producing a nostalgic discourse of loss and longing. Other films engage with the past in a melancholic fashion. These cinematic discourses articulate contemporary concerns, especially the loss of ideology and a utopian political horizon in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989, a date that marks a significant break in European history and an accompanying paradigm shift in European cultural memory. Filmmakers examined include Trueba, Cuerda, Loach, Jordan, Kusturica, Dragojevic, and Angelopoulos.

This book explores the representation of intra-state conflicts. It offers a distinctive approach by looking at narrative forms and strategies associated with civil war testimony, historiography and memory. The volume seeks to reflect current research in civil war in a number of disciplines and covers a range of geographical areas, from the advent of modern forms of testimonies, history writing and public remembering in the early modern period, to the present day. In focusing on narrative, broadly defined, the contributors not only explore civil war testimonies, historiography and memory as separate fields of inquiry, but also highlight the interplay between these areas, which are shown to share porous boundaries. Chapters look at the ways in which various narrative forms feed off each other, be they oral, written or visual narratives, personal or collective accounts, or testimonies from victims or perpetrators.

World War II irrevocably shaped culture--and much of cinema--in the 20th century, thanks to its devastating, global impact that changed the way we think about and portray war. This book focuses on European war films made about the war between 1945 and 1985 in countries that were occupied or invaded by the Nazis, such as Poland, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, and Germany itself. Many of these films were banned, censored, or sharply criticized at the time of their release for the radical ways they reframed the war and rejected the mythologizing of war experience as a heroic battle between the forces of good and evil. The particular films examined, made by arthouse directors like Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Larisa Shepitko, among many more, deviate from mainstream cinematic depictions of the war and instead present viewpoints and experiences of WWII which are often controversial or transgressive. They explore the often-complicated ways that participation in war and genocide shapes national identity and the ways that we think about bodies and sexuality, trauma, violence, power, justice, and personal responsibility--themes that continue to resonate throughout culture and global politics.

European cinema not only occupies a dominant place in film history, it is also a field that has been raising more interest with the expanding work on the transnational. Euro-Visions asks what idea of Europe emerges, is represented and constructed by contemporary European film. Adopting a broad and wide-ranging approach, Euro-Visions mixes political sources, historical documents and filmic texts and offers an integration of policy and economic contexts with textual analysis. Mariana Liz examines costume dramas, biopics and war films, mainstream co-productions and tales of 'Fortress Europe' by renowned auteurs, showing how films from different European nations depict and contribute to the formation of the idea of Europe. Case studies include Girl with a Pearl Earring, La Vie en Rose, Black Book, Good Bye Lenin!, Match Point and The Silence of Lorna.

In its totality, the “Long Second World War”—extending from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War to the end of hostilities in 1945—has exerted enormous influence over European culture. Bringing together leading historians, sociologists, and literary and film scholars, this broadly interdisciplinary volume investigates Europeans’ individual and collective memories and the ways in which they have shaped the continent’s cultural heritage. Focusing on the major combatant nations—Spain, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Russia—it offers thoroughly contextualized explorations of novels, memoirs, films, and a host of other cultural forms to illuminate European public memory.

Rosalind Galt offers innovative readings of some of the most popular and influential European films of the 1990s, including Emir Kusturica's 'Underground', Lars Von Trier's 'Zentropa', and Giuseppe Tornatore's 'Cinema Paradiso'.

War films have existed since the birth of cinema. This book explores defining films of the genre in sections covering different wars, as well as wars with other worlds. It offers links between the different films, of historical and cinematic worth, and profiles of key actors and directors.