In focus
Croatian Film Premieres
A review of three films to have had
premieres in the last three months of 1998. J. Sedlar’s Agony,
The Three Men of Melita Žgajner by S. Tribuson and
M. Juran’s Translatlantic.
Agony.
Jakov Sedlar, a filmmaker
inclined toward experimentation and (often provocative)
pioneering ventures (Have You Been to Zagreb, Mister
Lumiere? In the Middle of My Days, Croatian Sacral Art,
Gospa, Fergismajniht),
has filmed (with the scriptwriting help of Georgij Paro)
an adaptation of Krleža’s Ibsen-Strinbergesque drama In
Agony. By preserving the original text, Sedlar, in
his adaptation, focuses mostly on those characters and
events with which he could satisfy his urge for provacativeness,
with an emphasis being put on two questionable Russian
noblewomen marked by decadent hedonism (Nives Ivanković,
Zoja Odak).
The attractiveness and suggestiveness of the
drama’s text, undiluted by Sedlar and Paro’s additions,
good actors (Božidar Alić in the role of down and out nobleman
with autodestructive urges, Ena Begović in the lead female
role and first-time Krleža interpreter Sven Medvešek),
and correct, functional direction make Agony a respectable
addition to this year’s Croatian film production.
The Three Men of Melita Žganjer.
Snježana Tribuson (author of the TV genre films Mor, The Dead Point,
and Recognition), the writer and director of the
film The Three Men of Melita Žgajner, has shown
herself to be an interesting and inventive filmmaker. This,
above all, refers to the film’s composition and it’s narrative
complexity, as well as to its use of a Latino-American
television soap opera which the filmmaker, in the form
of a film within the film, utilizes as an integral factor
that, at the same time, enriches the structure and serves
to achieve moments of high comedy in the film.
The film’s shortcomings can be found in its slow and
lethargic rhythm, and in its uneven design. There was also
a surprisingly weak performance by actor Ivo Gregurević
(flawed performances were also given by Mirjana Rogina
and Sanja Vejnović), but good roles were created by Suzana
Nikolić, Ljubomir Kerekeš, Filip Šovagović, Ena Begović
and especially Goran Navojec.
The Three Men of Melita Žganjer is
a strong film, and it is evident that
Snježana Tribuson is on the right film
path that could lead to some very praiseworthy
results.
Transatlantic.
Mladen Juran has conceived his debut film about
the phenomenon of Croats emigrating
to the United States on the eve of
the signing of the Treaty of Versailles
as a poetic epic with an emphasized ethnographic note interwoven
with a genre-based political background. The first part
of the film which takes place in Dalmatia, is fairly consistently
played out in a poetic or lyrical key by Juran. He has
shown himself equal to the task, with the very proficient
cinematographic assistance of Goran Trbuljak, of using
some basic lyrical-poetic or poetic-realist techniques
to, above all, create short and abruptly edited scenes
that are distinguished by the impression of a peculiar
poetic subtlety. However, the translocation of the story
to American soil completely changes the stylistic expression
of the film.
The stylistic contrast between the first and
second parts of the film seems awkward, even if the atmosphere
of the American urban past isn’t, in itself, devoid of
a certain amateurish charm. Through a series of characters
and storylines, or rather fragments, with which he fills
the second part of the film, Juran was not able to carry,
i. e., he greatly complicated his job by reducing the duration
of the film.
In conclusion we can assert that Transatlantic is
a multifarious amalgamation of the epic-lyrical both in
content and form, and that its author sometimes shows a
certain dose of creativity, but he loses himself too often
in heavy-handedness (narrative organization) and dilettantism
(ethnographic digressions, the use of leitmotivs).
Damir Radić |
