Friday | 11. July. 2014
Pula interviews: Rajko Grlić
Rajko Grlić, selector of the Pula Cinematheque programme
CROATIAN FILM MISSES PATIENCE
As you stated in your announcement of the Pula Cinematheque programme, the selected films and conversations with directors in Pula in 1965 may have given you a crucial push towards filmmaking. Have you watched those films after 1965? What did you think of them later?
Yes, I watched almost all of them again after 1965. I watched some of them a several times. And I had a chance to meet the authors and even develop a close relationship with some of them. It seems to me that Aleksandar Petrović’s film Three has best stood the test of time. Great film. Personally, my favourite of all of his films. Definitely one of the most important films in the cinema of the former Yugoslavia.
Are you going to visit this year’s Pula? Are you going to watch the films you selected on the Brijuni Islands?
I’m coming, but only for two days. I was asked to present the selection of films from 1965 and to lead a round table discussion on the destiny of Croatian film festivals.
We assume that you will then go to Motovun – are you satisfied with the development of “your baby” since you retired as artistic director?
Oh, yes, I am going to go to Motovun. At least for the opening day, if nothing else. With great pleasure and with much enthusiasm. The last year’s edition was excellent. After several years of wandering, the selection of films was much more appropriate in terms of the location and the festival’s reason for existence.
Film screenings on the Brijuni Islands were once – as it is often claimed – crucial for films’ success at the Festival: there, Tito “signalled” whether he was or wasn’t pleased with specific films. Today, at this year’s Pula, instead of terror and fear, the same films are watched in the atmosphere of, so to speak, exclusivity related to travels, leisure and education.
The Pula fest used to play an important role in terms of films’ success at cinemas. That was the reason why there was such intense and fierce competition when it came to awards. And as far as the Brijuni rumours are concerned, it seems to me that they were invented by producers in 95% of the cases. The aim was to promote your own film, eliminating competition at the same time.
In just two or three sentences, why do you find the selected films special?
I’ll try to say a few things about the authors.
Three- Aleksandar Petrović
A great master of direction. He left behind several very important films and died, just like many great cinematic figures, from Sergei Eisenstein to Sergio Leone, not completing his life’s work, in his case “Migrations”.
Man Is Not a Bird – Dušan Makavejev
The most provocative and definitively one of the most lucid film directors from this region. In America treated as one of the great figures of European cinema.
To Come and Stay – Branko Bauer
Personally, the most important figure in Croatian cinema. A gentleman, a maverick, a master filmmaker. It is not for nothing that the Motovun cinema bears his name.
Prometheus of the Island – Vatroslav Mimica
The figure that has left an important mark on animated and feature film. “Kaja, I’ll Kill You”, the film he made two years after “Prometheus”, is a great film, my favourite film of his. One of the best Croatian and former Yugoslav films.
The Girl – Mladomir Puriša Đorđević
An endlessly charming policeman from Čačak whose playful trilogy “The Dream”, “The Morning” and “The Girl” shook up an overly serious and somewhat stiff cinema.
Do you follow contemporary Croatian cinema? What do you think of it?
Since nowadays every fifteen-year-old has better video production and editing equipment than that of Jadran Film when it was most successful, it doesn’t take much to make a film. Add to it the Croatian Audiovisual Centre which really shows understanding for different attempts and the only question you are left with is what to do with the film when it has been completed. The reason I’m saying this is because I think that Croatian film, at least it seems to me, misses patience, patience for the natural process of the birth of film, the time necessary for a project to mature, which in the end distinguishes amateur from professional products. Many filmmakers are in a hurry to make a film and that’s why many good ideas disappear along the way. And the Croatian Audiovisual Centre is one of the rare institutions in this sad culture that is really trying to keep the film production alive. The only thing I think should be done is to work on the concept of “project development”. That is the period when a film is being forged and that is the time when much effort is needed.
What phase is your next film in?
The film is called “The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia”. I am currently redrafting the screenplay together with Ante Tomić. Knock on wood, the shooting phase should start on August 1st, 2015 in Zagreb. The film will be produced by Ivan Maloča and Interfilm.
