ESSAYS IN NOSTALGIA

Film Directors and Film Critics

Critics and film authors often come into conflict (both verbally and physically) over the subject of film interpretation. Branko Bauer, for example, objected attributions of the symbolism of the conflict between the people and the occupier in the scene of the stopping of the German motorbike in the film Don’t turn around, son. William Wyler replied to Bazin that he shot his famous scene with Beth Davis in the Small Foxes with a static camera only because the actress had a spinal fusion.

Babaja, on the other hand, said to the author of this article that the old lady that is always sitting and spinning in his film The Birch Tree does not have any metaphorical meaning since they placed her at the spindle only because she was constantly in everybody’s way and they did not know what else to do with her.

Nevertheless, Petar Krelja reveals that the motive of a similarly presented old man or a lady is rather frequent in Babaja’s films, and they can also be found in Krešo Golik’s film The Girl and the Oak, as well as in Slavko Kolar’s short story that Babaja turned into film. In Babaja’s film director’s procedure assigns particular importance to the old lady who does not pay any attention to the joy and sadness around her.

Considering the uncertainty of the analytical favouring of the author’s intention and the possibility of the strong influence of the irrational laws of art, one could speculate and say that the old lady in The Birch Tree is not a mere surplus, quite the contrary, she is the image of the author Babaja, the same Babaja that so strongly resented the critic’s input of surpluses in his film.

Petar Krelja