{"id":38203,"date":"2019-06-21T04:27:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T02:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/?post_type=novinka&p=38203"},"modified":"2024-11-20T12:36:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T11:36:07","slug":"peter-solan-the-barnabas-kos-case","status":"publish","type":"novinka","link":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/news\/peter-solan-the-barnabas-kos-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Solan \u2013 The Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to his own words, Peter Solan became a film director by sheer coincidence: due to interrupted medicine studies and a post-war cinema in Bansk\u00e1 Bystrica. Later he recalled how he was fascinated by American films by such directors as Frank Capra, John Ford, or William Wyler. In 1949, he began his studies in film direction at FAMU in Prague where Soviet films were very much debated (mainly those by Vsevolod Pudovkin, Grigori Aleksandrov). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1953, Solan started working at Koliba studios in Bratislava where he, at first, had to carry out various compulsory tasks \u2013 making short documentary films, film portraits (Fra\u0148o Kr\u00e1\u013e<\/em>, Railway Track<\/em>), fiction propaganda films (The Man Who Knocks<\/em>) et al. Over the course of his career he mostly worked with two scriptwriters: novelist and playwright Peter Karva\u0161 (The Devil Never Sleeps<\/em>, The Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos Case<\/em>, A Little Survey<\/em>, Seven Witnesses<\/em>), and scriptwriter and novelist Tibor Vichta (The Boxer and Death<\/em>, A Face in the Window<\/em>, Before Tonight is Over<\/em>, Only a Note of the Field Post<\/em>). Together with directors \u0160tefan Uher, Martin Holl\u00fd, Eduard Gre\u010dner, and those of younger generation, Du\u0161an Han\u00e1k, Elo Havetta and Juraj Jakubisko, he became a pivotal auteur figure of Slovak cinema of the 1960s. Personal integrity and effort not to participate in public lies (in faking improved reality) became a common thread running through their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Solan, cinema was a means to his search for uniqueness and non-obviousness of human behaviour, of the process of decisionmaking and mechanics of acting \u2013 whether it is Kom\u00ednek, a boxer who fights for his life in a ring of the concentration camp (The Boxer and Death<\/em>), or a mother who decides about the fate of her disabled child (A Little Survey<\/em>). He cared for openness (discrepancies) of perception of the state of things, for incessant questioning parameters of personal responsibility. One of his main themes was the self-defence mechanism of human dignity. A discrete film direction, developing an unobtrusive \u201dstyle of suspense\u201c and intensification of filmic testimony about strengths and weaknesses of a human being in borderline situations were basic attributes of Solan\u2019s cinematic style. He didn\u2019t rely on pomposity, controversy or trends, he was only making quiet films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos Case<\/em>, the second and last satirical film in Solan’s oeuvre, is based on a short story by Peter Karva\u0161. Initially, the story about triangle player and incapable careerist Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos, was to be made at Barrandov studios in Prague (1954 \u2013 1956). However, the studio dropped the project. The second attempt came in spring 1958. Much too brave and much too critical was this look at incompetence of political interference in artistic work and its management. The project was banned by one of the intentionally targeted \u2013 an inept bureaucrat in charge of the culture management \u2013 director of Slovak State Film Company, Pavol Dubovsk\u00fd. Solan returned to the project in 1963, in a completely different political, cultural and societal climate, and delivered the film a year later. When adapting the short story with Peter Karva\u0161 and Albert Maren\u010din, he drew inspiration from poetics of absurdist theatre and works by Franz Kafka. Karva\u0161\u2019s initial satirical mockery of the Kos paradox (an incompetent person becoming director) was further deepened by Solan and Maren\u010din through depiction of infallibility and exclusivity of overgrown bureaucratic apparatus. Peter Solan made the film about Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos as a case study about invincibility of absurdity. It recalls his years-long struggles for creative freedom (The Boxer and Death<\/em>, 1958 \u2013 1962; Before Tonight is Over<\/em>, 1957 \u2013 1965). As time went by, the voices doubting the Kos Case adaptation as a meaningless anachronism have become louder and louder. However, new cases only confirm the story is still relevant and up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin Ka\u0148uch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PETER SOLAN (1929 \u2014 2013)<\/strong>
Director’s filmography (selection):
1984 \u2013 About Fame and Grass<\/em>
1982 \u2013 Anticipation<\/em>
1979 \u2013 And I\u2019ll Run to the End of the World<\/em>
1970 \u2013 Master Did Not Ask for Anything<\/em>
1968 \u2013 Dialogue 20 40 60<\/em> (the second story in the film)
1965 \u2013 Before Tonight is Over<\/em>
1964 \u2013 The Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos Case<\/em>
1963 \u2013 A Face in the Window<\/em>
1962 \u2013 The Boxer and Death<\/em>
1959 \u2013 The Man Who Never Returned<\/em>
1956 \u2013 The Devil Never Sleeps<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Z\u00e1ber<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos Case<\/em><\/strong>
Out of the Past<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screenings:
July 2 | 13:00 | Karlovy Vary Municipal Theatre
July 4 | 10:30 | L\u00e1zn\u011b III
July 5 | 18:30 | Karlovy Vary Municipal Theatre<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Barnab\u00e1\u0161 Kos Case, the second and last satirical film in Solan’s oeuvre, is based on a short story by Peter Karva\u0161.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32397,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"kategorie_noviniek":[1965,2036,2037,2145,2144],"festival":[2076],"rok":[2172],"class_list":["post-38203","novinka","type-novinka","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","kategorie_noviniek-aic","kategorie_noviniek-english","kategorie_noviniek-news","kategorie_noviniek-prezentacia-en","kategorie_noviniek-slovenska-kinematografia-na-festivaloch-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/novinka\/38203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/novinka"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/novinka"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kategorie_noviniek","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kategorie_noviniek?post=38203"},{"taxonomy":"festival","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/festival?post=38203"},{"taxonomy":"rok","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfu.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rok?post=38203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}