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IN CONTRAST
Croatian Film Today
Edited by Aida Vidan and Gordana P. Crnković
Published by the Croatian Film Association in association with Berghahn Books
ISBN 978-0-85745-894-0 Pb $26.00/£16.50 Published (September 2012)
"In this first comprehensive anthology, profiles of major films and conversations with prominent directors draw on the political history of this fascinating multi-ethnic region, but no film or filmmaker is reduced to its pressures. The perfect guide to a barely-known world." · Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
"The collection of articles, interviews and reviews presented here by Aida Vidan and Gordana P. Crnković offers an excellent insight into the affairs of contemporary cinema in Croatia…the articles cover a range of media, from animation to feature and documentary, whilst covering a variety of different themes—gender, national identity, industry. The review section is maybe one of the most diversified, both in terms of the selection of contributors and films that has been published in English. The editors have energetically and bravely mastered a tall order and compiled an excellent collection that could become a textbook for teaching Croatian cinema." · Birgit Beumers, University of Bristol
The Croatian film scene has remained largely inaccessible until now. In this first comprehensive volume on the subject recognized scholars explore not only its recent history, since the establishment of the Croatian state, but also revisit its development during the Yugoslav period. By introducing readers to the complex political and artistic circumstances, the authors approach animation, documentary, and feature films, through questions of style and vision, social engagement, industry, national identity, gender, audience, and domestic and international reception. In depth interviews with some of the most prominent Croatian film directors provide insights into their artistic practices while also serving as first-hand testimonials to both socialist and transitional cultural environments. Encompassing a rich selection of films with a broad palette of themes and styles, the review section provides an indispensible guide through a little known world.
Aida Vidan is Researcher in the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature and Instructor in South Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. She is the author of Embroidered with Gold, Strung with Pearls: The Traditional Ballads of Bosnian Women (Milman Parry Collection & Harvard University Press) and co-author of Beginner’s Croatian and Beginner’s Serbian (Hippocrene Books).
Gordana P. Crnković is Associate Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the author of Imagined Dialogues: East European Literature in Conversation with American and English Literature (Northwestern University Press) and Post-Yugoslav Literature and Film: Fires, Foundations, Flourishes (Continuum).
LC: PN1993.5.C87 I53 2012
BL: DS m12/.18056
BISAC: PER004030 PERFORMING ARTS/Film & Video/History & CriticismBIC: APFA Film theory & criticismContents
Introduction: In Contrast: Croatian Film Today
Aida Vidan
Essays
Chapter 1. Croatian Film in the Yugoslav Context in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Ivo Škrabalo
Chapter 2. Institutions, Infrastructure, Industry: Croatian Film or a Battle for Survival
Tomislav Kurelec
Chapter 3. From a Cinema of Hatred to a Cinema of Consciousness: Croatian Film after Yugoslavia
Jurica Pavičić
Chapter 4. The New Croatian Documentary: Between the Political and the Personal
Diana Nenadić
Chapter 5. Croatian Animation, Then and Now: Creating Sparks or Just a Little Bit of Smoke?
Sanja Bahun
Chapter 6. Gender in Contemporary Croatian Film
Mima Simić
Conversations
Chapter 7. A Conversation with Rajko Grlić: Films Are Stories About People, Not About Ideas
Aida Vidan and Gordana P. Crnković
Chapter 8. A Conversation with Vinko Brešan: No Aesthetics without Ethics
Aida Vidan and Gordana P. Crnković
Chapter 9. A Conversation with Joško Marušić: Sending Messages to Unknown Friends
Sanja Bahun
Chapter 10. A Conversation with Nenad Puhovski: Documentarism as a Personal and Social Mission
Diana Nenadić
Reviews
Chapter 11. Dalibor Matanić: Fine Dead Girls (Fine mrtve djevojke, 2002)
reviewed by Marko Dumančić
Chapter 12. Kristijan Milić: The Living and the Dead (Živi i mrtvi, 2007)
reviewed by Nikica Gilić
Chapter 13. Rajko Grlić: Border Post (Karaula, 2006)
reviewed by Vida Johnson
Chapter 14. Ognjen Sviličić: Sorry for Kung Fu (Oprosti za kung fu, 2004); Armin (2007)
reviewed by Hana Jušić
Chapter 15. Antonio Nuić: Sex, Drink and Bloodshed (Seks, piće i krvoproliće, 2004); All for Free (Sve džaba, 2006); Donkey (Kenjac, 2009)
reviewed by Mario Kozina
Chapter 16. Lukas Nola: Celestial Body (Nebo, sateliti, 2000); Alone (Sami, 2001)
reviewed by Bruno Kragić
Chapter 17. Snježana Tribuson: The Three Men of Melita Žganjer (Tri muškarca Melite Žganjer, 1998)
reviewed by Karla Lončar
Chapter 18. Arsen Anton Ostojić: A Wonderful Night in Split (Ta divna splitska noć, 2003)
reviewed by Inna Mattei
Chapter 19. Vinko Brešan: How the War Started on My Island (Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku, 1996); Witnesses (Svjedoci, 2003); Will Not End Here (Nije kraj, 2008)
reviewed by Katarina Mihailović
Chapter 20. Goran Rušinović: Buick Riviera, 2008
reviewed by Nataša Milas
Chapter 21. Goran Dević and Zvonimir Jurić: The Blacks (Crnci, 2009)
reviewed by Lorraine Mortimer
Chapter 22. Krsto Papić: When the Dead Start Singing (Kad mrtvi zapjevaju, 1998)
reviewed by Boško Picula
Chapter 23. Goran Dukić: Wristcutters: A Love Story, 2006
reviewed by Maxim Pozdorovkin
Chapter 24. Hrvoje Hribar: What is a Man Without a Moustache? (Što je muškarac bez brkova?, 2005)
reviewed by Mima Simić
Chapter 25. Zrinko Ogresta: Fragments: Chronicle of a Vanishing (Krhotine — Kronika jednog nestajanja, 1991); Washed
Out (Isprani, 1995); Red Dust (Crvena prašina, 1999); Here (Tu, 2003); Behind the Glass (Iza stakla, 2008)
reviewed by Tomislav Šakić
Chapter 26. Tomislav Radić: What Iva Recorded (Što je Iva snimila 21. listopada 2003, 2005)
reviewed by Petra Belković Taylor
Chapter 27. Branko Schmidt: The Melon Route (Put lubenica, 2006); Metastases (Metastaze, 2009)
reviewed by Zhen Zhang
A Note on Contributors
General Biliography
Filmography
Index