These films were very popular in their time, which shows that at that point Hollywood production had not yet overshadowed international cinema



The eternal attraction of nostalgia is something that this program of foreign films from Croatian Cinematheque, made in 1970s and 1980s, can definitely count on. However, this program is interesting for several other reasons. One of them is their countries of origin. Namely, one decade after the breakup of former Yugoslavia, the audience has rarely, if ever, had the chance to see classic films on the big screen. This situation was somewhat offset by Croatian television, which has systematically shown them on public television. The main reason for the absence of classic films from the theaters was the fact that the former Yugoslavia had only one Cinematheque in Belgrade that showed its films across the whole country. After the break up, all of the film copies stayed in Belgrade and the Croatian Cinematheque was left merely with Croatian titles. This reasoning was often stated in the media until a meeting was held between representatives of all of the former Yugoslavian Cinematheques. It was then concluded that collaboration between Zagreb and Belgrade was actually a good thing. It was also established that Croatia did indeed have several thousands of copies of foreign films which had not been shown recently due to their poor condition. Today this problem is not so great anymore because (especially after its move to the Tuškanac ) Croatian Film Clubs’ Association with its film programs has been covering this area very well. Nevertheless, the fact that Croatian Cinematheque owns these movies on film tape makes us very happy!


The choice of films is very interesting. We will have a chance to see films that were popular in their time, which shows that at that point Hollywood production had not yet overshadowed all international cinema. At the time, French films such as The Savage, Flic Story, My New Partner or An Adventure For Two (which are all shown in this program) were all treated as commercial and stars such as Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon, Jean-Louis Trintignant or Philippe Noiret were equal in stature to American celebrities. British actors Julie Christie and Alan Bates had a similar status. We will see them in the outstanding and very serious film The Go-Between Joseph Losey, an American who made almost all his films on the island becoming a respectable film author because of them.


Another popular actor was Nino Manfredi, who starred in the crowd pleasing film Bread and Chocolate Franco Brusati (who carried on the tradition of one of the most popular genres from 1950s and 1960s - Italian folk comedy). Nevertheless, even more demanding films were more interesting to the general audience than today. Besides Losey, the audience loved Cousin, Cousine by Jean-Charles Tacchelle, Mephisto István Szabó, as well as the adaptation of one of the biggest bestsellers The Name of the Rose by Jean-Jacques Annaud. This film is somewhat peculiar because the author of the novel is Italian, the director French, the countries that were involved in this co production were Italy, France and Germany, and the language spoken in the film is English (with a little bit of Latin). Commercial success was ensured by the two international stars, Sean Connery and Christian Slater. This film was a clear sign that the whole of Europe had become aware of Hollywood’s domination and started to look for ways to survive. However, even though there have been several successful European productions, Hollywood’s dominance has abated. Film programs such as this one evoke nostalgia for times when it was possible to see a much greater diversity of world film. (Tomislav Kurelec)