Nostalgia, Original Desires and Utopia: A study on Jirí Menzel’s Cinematic Aesthetics

Abstract

This study examines the films of Czech director Jirí Menzel, a leading figure of the Czechoslovak New Wave, through the lens of nostalgia, original desires, and utopia. It argues that Menzel’s “pastoral trilogy” constructs a nostalgic aesthetic by reimagining rural landscapes as poetic spaces of escape, compensating for the anxieties of modern society and offering a sense of belonging amid historical dislocation. At the same time, his films repeatedly foreground bodily needs and primal desires, dramatized in playful and carnivalesque forms, which serve both as a release of individual trauma and as an implicit critique of political repression. The construction of utopian worlds—shielded from external intrusion yet subtly marked by political allegory—reveals the deep tension between reality and ideality in Czechoslovak cultural identity. By blending humor, poetry, and desire, Menzel developed a distinctive cinematic language that not only reflects the lived experiences of his generation but also expresses a collective longing for freedom and self-definition.