"In Singing, life becomes beautiful"

The Stalinist Model of Society in the Hungarian Film (1948–1953)

Abstract

During the 1950s there was no room for the discussiqn of the sphere of private life within the Stalinist societies of Eastern Europe. Public debate was dominated by the rule of the Party. The collectivist ideas of the era where promoted by the Stalinist films of the time. Helped by soviet film-functionaries, Hungarian film-production tried hard to copy the soviet model. The controllability of highly bureaucraticized procedure resulted in the film script acquiring the central role in Stalinist film-making. Society itself was portrayed in a highly schematic way, leaving no room for the presentation of individual, nonconformist behaviour, which was reserved for the roles of either the outcasts of society or the public enemy.