BOOKS

Croatian Film Magazines by Vjekoslav Majcen

A review of a historical study on film magazines in Croatia from 1910-1945 written by the film historian Vjekoslav Majcen.

The book by Vjekoslav Majcen — a single professionally specialized film historian in Croatia — is a result of a competent and conscientious research of specialized film publications (more than 50 of them in that period) in Croatia. Some of the magazines were the »mergers« of film with theater, or with literature, with sport and fashion, but most of them were completely dedicated to film. Majcen’s main historiographical exposition is ordered chronologically, by recognizable periods, and according to the publishing conditions (publishing activities of cinema production companies, independent film magazines, publishing activity of cinema-theaters, pictorial film magazines, professional journalism, releases of foreign companies).

Majcen also investigates a wider cultural context and actual sociopolitical situation of the particular period, and the reaction of the magazines to them. The book is supplied with the index of film magazines; selective bibliography of articles, and a very interesting chrestomathy of original texts of different nature (reviews, essays, announcements of new productions, rank-lists, interviews, information). Majcen’s book is a valuable contribution, a continuation and elaboration of the History of Croatian Cinema (Zagreb 1984) by Ivo Škrabalo. The book is graphically well-designed and well-illustrated. Having in mind the suggestion made by Majcen that the most important film theoretical and critical contributions were made in daily papers and literary magazines, one can only hope that Majcen will continue to investigate in that direction.

Damir Radić