Before the Wall Came Down

Presents the proceedings of a conference on the topic of 'Soviet and East European Film Makers Working in the West' held at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, in March 1989, as well as an edited summary of the discussions that took place after each session. The result is a volume that studies both the contribution of particular individuals to Western European and North American film industries over the past two decades and raises questions of considerable importance as to the future development of cinema as a whole. The sessions covered Soviet, Polish, Yugoslav, Czech and Hungarian cinema, with particular emphasis on the films made by Anrei Tarkovsky, Dusan Makaveyev, Milos Forman and Jerzy Skolimowski, both in their native countries and in Western Europe and North America. Topics discussed include: the viability of small national cinemas in an age of increasing standardization and homogenization on the lines of the dominant Hollywood model; the survival of the very concept of 'art cinema' in these circumstances and the relationship between art and commerce in a Hollywood context; and the changing circumstances in the Soviet Union and elsewhere that may see the development of a more market-oriented and commercial film industry in countries that had previously shunned this art.