The film and directorial adaptation of the screenplay Masquerade (Vitomil Zupan, 1969) is a peculiar depiction of a literary work that brought novelty to Slovenian cinema seats: the Slovenian film imbued with the effects of sexual revolution. The cinematic debut of Masquerade (Boštjan Hladnik, 1971) reveals the beginnings of a breakthrough in the hippie movement and an explicit display of eroticism. This kind of cinematic image finds its expression through vitalism and sex, based on the writings of Vitomil Zupan. Both parts can be linked to eroticism, the deification of the physical, which dominates the emotional. The freedom of gender and sexuality represents the clash of generations, the contradiction between conservatism and liberal movements, in the era of the 1970s, when love directly denied war; »make love, not war« (hippie motto). Due to censorship (truncated play time), the film raises many questions from critics. Is it basically a superb creation of two artists or just the way how to elevate their names in the »world of movies«? The question results in a debate about artistic freedom and its limitations, if there are any, and if they should even exist. This is how critical discourse; post festum is created: after Masquerade and between both Masquerades, when Zupan also expresses his disagreement with Hladnik (about film adaptation of the rem modified dialogues, re-casted characters and not following the basic version of the story). Although the two parts are very different, with in-depth insight look we recognize the same elements. After all, they have brought a remarkable result based on a notion of revolutionary in terms of eroticism, sexuality and free sexual orientation.
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