Negative Production Aesthetics in the Latvian Film Industry of the 1990s: Life Course Approach to the Unmade Feature Film Legend about Kaupo (Leģenda par Kaupo)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.2280-9481/23646Parole chiave:
Precarity, Shadow cinema, Eastern European film, Post-social film cultures, Latvian film history, Baltic film historyAbstract
When Latvia regained its independence in 1991, the Latvian film industry had to adapt to functioning in the new country under very different economic and organizational conditions than during the Soviet occupation. State support for the film industry in the 1990s was very low, but filmmakers continued to write projects even when there was no realistic hope that they could be made. Using the example of the unrealized historical feature film Legend about Kaupo by Pēteris Krilovs, I propose to assess the unmade film projects within the framework of the filmmaker`s life course and the life course of the film industry. The aesthetic choices for the project must be situated in two ways: in relation to the changing political and geographical context, as well as in relation to the filmmaker’s agency. All these are circumstances that might make the necessity of the project redundant. Legend about Kaupo was a paradigmatic project of a transition period from the state-socialist mode of film production to the new one in independent Latvia. The explication of the situatedness of unrealised projects removes the atmosphere of melancholy from the discourse of the films unmade. The incorporation of the “shadow cinema” within the film historiography allows for a more complete view of the careers of the filmmakers and of the particular historical period.Riferimenti bibliografici
Beeston, Alix, and Solomon, Stefan (2023). “Pathways to the Feminist Incomplete. An Introduction, a Theory, a Manifesto.” In Incomplete. The Feminist Possibilities of the Unfinished Film, edited by Alix Beeston and Stefan Solomon, 1-36. Oakland: University of California Press.
Dzenovska, Dace (2021). “Existential sovereignty. Latvian people, their state, and the problem of mobility.” In The everyday lives of sovereignty. Political imagination beyond the state, edited by Bryant R., & Reves, 154-174. M. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Elder, Jr., Glen, Johnson, Monica, Kirkpatrick, Crosnoe, Robert (2003). “The Emergency and Development of Life Course Theory.” In Handbook of the Life Course, edited by T. Mortimer and Michael J. Shanahan, 3-18. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Fenwick, James, Foster, Kieran, and Eldridge, David (2020). Shadow Cinema. The Historical and Production Contexts of Unmade Films. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Gaines, M. Jane (2023). “Never”. In Incomplete. The Feminist Possibilities of the Unfinished Film, edited by Alix Beeston and Stefan Solomon, 39-61. Oakland: University of California Press.
Geikins, Ārijs (1991). “Leģendas par Kaupo” autora piezīmes uz scenārija malām. Archive of Pēteris Krilovs.
Gorfinkel, Elena (2018). “Microhistories and Materiality in Adult Film History, or the Case of Erotic Salat”. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 58(1): 147–152.
Hanauska, Annika, Kraus, Martin (2019). “Verhinderte Meisterwerke? Zur Einführung”. In Verhinderte Meisterwerke. Gescheiterte Projekte in Literatur und Film, edited by Bartl, Andrea, Erk, Corin, Kraus, Martin, 1-11. Paderborn: Wilhem Fink Verlag.
Hjort, Mette (2015). “The Risk Environment of Small-Nation Filmmaking”. In European Vision. Small Cinemas in Transition, edited by Janelle Blankenship, Tobias Nagl, Erik Hoops, (Bielefeld: Transkript Verlag), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839418185-003.
Kirsten, Guido (2022). “Studying the Cinema of Precarity. Introduction”. In Precarity in European Film. Depictions and Discourses, edited by Elisa Cuter, Guido Kirsten, Hanna Prezel. Berlin, Boston: DeGruyter GmbH, 1-30.
Krämer, Peter (2015). “Adoption as Exploration: Stanley Kubrick, Literature, and A.I. Artificial Intelligence”. Adaptation 8(3): 372-82. https://doi.org/10.1093/adaptation/apv021
Krilovs, Pēteris (1992). Legend about Kaupo (Leģenda par Kaupo), film’s budget, production deadlines, and costs. Archive of Pēteris Krilovs.
Krilovs, Pēteris (date unknown). Režisora piezīmes projektam “Leģenda par Kaupo”. Archive of Pēteris Krilovs.
Moll, Björn (2019). “Phantomliteratur. Theorie und Praxis des Ungeschriebenen”. In Verhinderte Meisterwerke. Gescheiterte Projekte in Literatur und Film, edited by Andrea Bartl, Corin Erk, Martin Kraus, 13-39. Paderborn: Wilhem Fink Verlag.
Pērkone, Inga (2011a). “Latvijas klasiskais kino”. In Inscenējumu realitāte. Latvijas aktierkino vēsture, edited by Inga Pērkone, Zane Balčus, Agnese Surkova and Beāte Vītola, 47-49. Riga: Mansards.
Pērkone, Inga (2011b). “Estētika. 1970/1980. gadi. Etnogrāfija”. In Inscenējumu realitāte. Latvijas aktierkino vēsture, edited by Inga Pērkone, Zane Balčus, Agnese Surkova and Beāte Vītola, 249-257. Riga: Mansards.
Puķe, Ieva (2024). “Filmu māksliniece ar organizatores ķērienu. Ievas Romanovas mūža ieguldījums Latvijas kino”. LSM: https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/kultura/kino-foto-un-tv/05.01.2024-filmu-maksliniece-ar-organizatores-kerienu-ievas-romanovas-muza-ieguldijums-latvijas-kino.a537803/ (last accessed 14-12-2025).
N.N. (1994). “Par Kaupo filmu”. In Lauku Avīze, Nr. 12.
Redvall, Eva Norup (2023). “Failure Studies”. In Produktionskulturen audiovisueller Medien. Neuere Perspektiven der Medienindustrie- und Produktionsforschung, edited by Sefan Udelhofen, Dennis Göttel, Aycha Riffi, 67-84. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Reitere, Elīna (2021). “Kino sociālā vēsture - paaudzes un biogrāfijas.” In Latvijas kinomāksla. Jaunie laiki. 1990-2020, edited by Dita Rietuma and Inga Pērkone, 343-373. Riga: Dienas Grāmata.
Reitere, Elīna (2006). “Teātris birokrātijas gaiteņos”. In Filmu Ziņas Nr. 1, 28-31.
Reitere, Elīna (2020). Interview with Agris Redovičs, archive of the author.
Reitere Elīna (2024). Interview with Pēteris Krilovs, archive of the author.
Rietuma, Dita (1992). “Nauda leģendai un citām filmām”. In Diena Nr. 203, October 28.
Rietuma, Dita (1993). “Latviskas kaislības ap kino naudu”. In Diena, April 14.
Rietuma, Dita (2021). “Latvijas filmu nozare – finansējums, žanri, auditorija”. In: Latvijas kinomāksla. Jaunie laiki. 1990-2020, edited by Dita Rietuma and Inga Pērkone, 31-93. Riga: Dienas Grāmata.
Rušeniece, Līga (1993). “Tā nav dzīve, tas ir kino. Kaupo – filma, pils un fonds”. In: Neatkarīgā Cīņa, Nr. 226, November 23.
Spöhrer, Markus, Ochsner, Beate (2017). “Applying the Actor-Network Theory in Media Studies”, IGI Global Scientific Publishing.
Standing, Guy (2023). The Politics of Time. Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty. London: Penguin Books.
Strandvad, Sara Malou (2017). “Anaphoric Trajectories of Creative Processes: The Case of a Failed Film Project”. In: Applying the Actor-Network Theory in Media Studies, IGI Global, 141-154. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0616-4.ch009
Strandvad, Sara Malou (2013). “Analysing Production from a Socio-material Perspective”. In Behind the Screen. Inside European Production Cultures, edited by Petr Szczepanik and Patric Vondrau, 27-43. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stukuls Eglītis Daina (2002). Imagining the Nation. History, Modernity, and Revolution in Latvia. Penn State University Press.
Szczepanik, Petr (2013). “The State-socialist Mode of Production and the Political History of Production Culture”. In Behind the Screen: Inside European Production Cultures edited by Petr Szczepanik, Patrick Vonderau, 113-134. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Teurlings, Jan (2017). “What Critical Media Studies Should Not Take Form Actor-Network Theory”. In Applying the Actor-Network Theory in Media Studies, IGI Global, 66-88. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0616-4.ch005.
Varga, Balázs (2020). “From Proto Capitalism to Post-Socialism: The Case of the Hungarian Film Industry”. Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 20(3): 365-381. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-71036-9.
Downloads
Pubblicato
Come citare
Fascicolo
Sezione
Licenza
Copyright (c) 2026 Elina Reitere
Questo lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.
