Open AccessLa Fille Mal Gardée: Film Between Artistic Freedom and Selective Memory
Author(s) -
Polona Petek,
Petra Roter
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ars and humanitas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.184
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2350-4218
pISSN - 1854-9632
DOI - 10.4312/ars.13.1.191-204
Subject(s) - consolidation (business) , drama , sociology , collective memory , context (archaeology) , perception , art , aesthetics , gender studies , media studies , history , political science , literature , law , psychology , accounting , archaeology , neuroscience , business
Over the past decade, the social sciences have witnessed an upsurge of interest in explorations of memory as it relates to the consolidation of nations, formation of new states and post-conflict reconstruction. In this context, remembrance is a process based on asymmetric power relations: selected collective perceptions of the dominant community are usually promoted, whereas the memories of non-dominant (minority) communities remain marginalised or they are perceived as opposing, even hostile “others”. This article seeks to broaden the prevailing focus in social sciences by employing an interdisciplinary approach to discuss the controversial Russian film Matilda (dir. Alexei Uchitel, 2017), a costume drama about the love affair between the future Tsar Nikolai II and prima ballerina Matilda Feliksovna Kschessinskaya, and its reception in the Russian Federation and elsewhere. The article focuses on the issue of conflict between artistic freedom and the process of remembrance in the formation and consolidation of the nation and, indirectly, the nation-state, whereby film is taken as a tool for (selective) remembrance of history.