Socialist realism in Czechoslovak cinematography in the fifties of the twentieth century

My diploma thesis deals with socialist realism. I have demonstrated that the content of this term has been changing regarding the political situation and it was loosely replacing the term folk art in historical texts. I have proved that the opinions of experts on socialist realism differ and a clear definition of the term socialist realism does not probably exist. The lack of definition of socialist realism was used to manipulate the artistic community. The thesis helped me to defend the proposition that the Communist Party has supervised and influenced the operation of the film industry even before the February coup in 1948 by the Ministry of Information, where a communist Václav Kopecký was in the lead. Interventions into films and purges of film workers were made already in the immediate postwar period. The main cultural-political directive on cinematography from April 1950, which should have provided a faster enforcement and obligatory effect of socialist realism, aimed to increase the film production. My thesis has shown that this directive, together with the bureaucratic way of approving films, disputes within the Communist Party, changes in film authorities and slow work of creative teams, contributed to an unprecedented crisis in the film production and to a fatal failure to meet the plan in the following year. In my thesis, I have proved that the film The Emperor and the Golem fully complies with two out of three principles of socialist realism. I have labeled the principle that requires truthfulness and historical concreteness as partly met. From my analysis, it can be concluded that this historical comedy has all the features that are required from the works of socialist realism.