Essay Plan for 'The Joke'

Memory and Obligation: 

The Joke’ was filmed in 1969 during a time of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia which allowed it to look much more candidly at political topics that had been otherwise been censored or suppressed by the Soviet Union within the style of the Czech New Wave Cinema which gave them more freedom to express themselves. The term memory can be applied to both the collective and the individual memory and there is a direct contrast to the two in the film. Individual memory is used to describe the personal events that an individual has experienced with their span of years alive whereas the collective memory in basic terms refers to a shared pool of memories, knowledge and information from one social group that is significantly associated with the group’s identity. Memory is not to be confused with history because they have different aims and characteristics- the aim of history is to provide a cohesive and accurate depiction of the past events and that is an element that is missing from the film because it is based entirely on the subjective truths of different types of memories and social groups. The film is told from the viewpoint of a bitter main character who is remembering his past life in the communist party and the subsequent actions that led to him being expelled because he criticized their politics and was deemed an ‘enemy of the state’.

The collective memory in the film saw Stalinism in a positive light because of the cult of personality by Stalin, fierce oppression against those that spoke out and the indoctrination towards the Soviet regime that started from a very young age. These social groups that created the collective memory are therefore biased and subjective- presentation of the social groups? This form of collective top-down political memory used memory as a form of political ideology to control the way their politics was perceived because they wanted the people to support Stalin who was the figurehead of the regime and it became part of their national memory. As one critic suggests “past events are selected, reconstructed, maintained and endowed with political meaning”. Ludvik’s girlfriend is the typical, model communist student who believes strongly in the state but she is naïve and childlike in her wonder and belief. She is totally devoted to the state and is not interested in sex which was seen as dirty by the party or in love because her love for the state comes first. Ludvik’s friends all turn against him when he says negative things about the state- all his classmates slowly raise their hands to vote against him which shows the sheer number of people and even his own girlfriend votes against him which shows that she has chosen her love for the state over him. By raising the hand, they are also visually showing that they are the social group from which the collective memory is taken from and they feel as if they have an obligation to feel that way because they have a duty to the state.

 The collective memory is also applied to the depiction of mass social events. There are scenes of the revolutionary parades that the student would participate in and there were many people in the crowds who were all happy and smiling. These scenes contained the old elements of socialist realism whereby everyone was supporting thr state and everyone was uniformed because they were all marching in time with each other and they were all there to support the same cause. Idealized realism. These scenes could have been taken from any of the other socialist realist films that had been made during the time of Stalin but in this instance, it is used in a sense of mockery because not everything was seen as the same.

Memory and obligation: thoughts

The film was released during a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia that were anti-communist and in the post-Soviet era. Ludvik’s flashback scenes to his time in the labor camps and in the mines because of his disrespect to the party shows that this new political era also brought back the return of the narrative of the ‘repressed’ that had otherwise been deliberately forgotten about under the totalitarian and authoritarian regime of Stalin. Individual memory doesn’t conform to the national obligation or the cult of Stalin that saw him as a universally loved leader but rather suggests there is a return to ‘history’ and Ludvik had an obligation to reveal another side of the Stalinist reality because it is based on personal experiences instead of political ideology such as collective memory and therefore was not influenced by outside forces. Vigilance of Stalinism and ‘enemy of the state’ were supposed to be silenced. ‘hard memory’ because there was no proof of everything that happened- the people that are playing music don’t understand why he has become the man that he has become because his experiences were not part of their memory as they had remained in the communist party. Casting non-professional actors to show a movement away from state manipulations and to give them more freedom- freedom of speech and to express themselves in something that they might otherwise not have had a chance to do so.

 Individual memory influences people’s reactions in their social settings and the power of his memories has turned Ludvik into a bitter and lonely man who is never able to let go off the past trauma that he has experienced- the memory boom meant that the past was being brought into the present because it continued to have political implications. He wants to make his former university student pay for expelling him from the party and starting the chain of events but his desire for revenge is thwarted and the same feelings of bitterness return because he was not able to complete anything. There is no release or catharsis at the end f the film because Stalin was never prosecuted for the actions that he committed. It was an aspect of Soviet history that was rarely spoken about because there were the lasting power of the cult of Stalin and people were afraid of the repercussions if they were to do so- Ludvik never recovers his life after his expulsion from the party which suggests the power of the State.

Presentation of Stalinism:

Stalinism was the means of governing and policies related to Joseph Stalin during the years 1927 and 1950 that gave birth to the socialist ideology and the belief that everyone was to support the new utopia version of the state and those that did not were considered as dangerous. Totalitarian regime and the rein of terror.

·       Absurd humor in their belief of the good in the communist party

The soldier that had been put in the camp said that he would speak to the higher authorities because he believed that it was just a misconduct on a lower level instead of the whole ideology being corrupt- many thought that it was a mistake on their specific case or that the fascists had infiltrated the NKVD and that they were not true communist soldiers. He still believes that the system is perfect and would renounce his own father due to his belief. He is the symbol of an ideological and pure communist and it is ironic that he was put in the camp for being a traitor. It blurs the lines between those that were victims and the oppressors because the lines was so thin and it ever changing as anyone could be convicted- the NKVD that convicted people in the first wave of the purges were themselves convicted of being disloyal in the second wave such was the logic of the terror. The image of him lying in the mud- the people were stricken down by terror and the oppression of the government and they were powerless to help themselves. Ludvik’s girlfriend and the committee that sentence him in the university are the ideal communists. She is more interested in ideology than in having sex with him. Always optimistic about the party and seemed naïve and childlike almost as if she was being manipulated by the state and brainwashed. The leaders are not smart- ref to the scene with the woman which was clearly nude art but they are able to explain it in such a way that it seemed to be in support of the revolution and the leaders are uncertain as to which way they should react- its clearly a joke aimed at them.

Belief in the cult of Stalin thought that it was worth dying for- the extent that the ideological control had brainwashed them 

·       Authoritarian nature of the state which did not tolerate any form of opposition towards their power.

 Invasion of Stalinism with their privacy but no one could fight against them because they always had spies watching them and there was the rein of terror when many people were deemed enemies of the state and sent away to concentration camps. He sends a damning postcard to his lover but even that is not safe because she betrays him and exposes him to the party. It was supposed to be intimate and personal. The naming ceremony of the babies has been replaced from a Baptist ceremony by the Church to a state sponsored event so they have more control over their citizens. They are just babies but they are already being watched. The church was abolished because their power was a threat to their own. Totalitarian regime. He was expelled for saying that “optimism is the opium of mankind” – it is absurd that they find his criticism of the excess of happiness as such a big threat against them that they would send him to the labor camp. Ironic that they claim the people own everything because they are all equal but in reality they own nothing and their biggest supporters later on became bourgeoise and became wealthy. 

·       Collective memory saw the positive aspects of Stalinism vs the individual memory of Ludvik that saw the negative aspects of the policies that he did not argue with.

Collective memory

Individual memory  

Aspects of socialist realism in the cinema through the presentation of the parades that could have been taken out of other socialist movies at the time that supported Stalinism. Everyone was marching in time and they were all happy and smiling. They all looked the same in a big crowd and he was the only one that was skeptical of the events that were happening  

So many people were involved in the issues of 1950’s that it can’t be one man’s fault but rather history’s fault and therein lies the joke of the film because there is no way that a man can run away from their own history. Stalinism was inevitable because that was what had been preordained to happen and there was nothing that they could do to stop it apart from find the different ways that they could survive- some people were luckier than others. Ludvik tried to confront Stalinism and he was banished into a labor camp, there were those that were ideological communists but there was no real merit to their thoughts because the system of communist was corrupt, was not perfect and did not work in the way that it should.