Film of the 1950s - it was the “golden age” of the stabilization of stylistic development, the accelerated maturation of the classical style and the systematic elaboration of different film forms (feature films, documentaries, educational, animated, and commercial films, professional and amateur films)…



The 1950’s were a crucial period in the development of Croatian cinema. This was a period of explicit elaboration and standardization of cinematography. It was a time of accelerated growth in mass urban culture, and film was one of the four main factors behind it, (the others being journalism, radio and architecture). That was the “golden age” of the stabilization of stylistic development, the accelerated maturation of the classical style and the systematic elaboration of different film forms (feature films, documentaries, educational, animated, and commercial films, professional and amateur films). In the second half of the 1950s there emerged, within animated films, ambitious art films, poetic documentaries, and short feature films, a modernist style, which led to a key stylistic cut off that, in the following decade, would almost annihilate the achievements of authors belonging to the classical style. This modernist orientation still dominates Croatian cinematic culture.

The systematic elaboration of cinema during the Socialist regime was stimulated by the same motives as cinema during the time of the Independent State of Croatia, these motives being primarily political, ideological, educational and creative motives. Film was both a powerful propagandistic tool and an art form that had to be ideologically indoctrinated (those elements were present in feature, as well as short and documentary films). Nevertheless, film was still considered an art that needed to capture the viewers’ attention, feed the imagination, and pay tribute to the traditional norms of high art - the norms of the predominant so-called classical style of films made in that time.

Until then, traditional film art and style was rather weak, and was utilized by only a few individuals (such as Miletić, Marjanović, Pregernik, Katić...). Newcomers (who constituted the founders of modern Croatian cinema) had, with their own ideas and ingenuity, to reconstruct steps that were commonly used in other countries.

Under the sovereign thumb of controlled socialism, many films tried to stay in accordance with the ideologically desired routine i.e. they strived to be politically acceptable. Others became more innovative during the somewhat ideologically “loosened” liberal atmosphere of the 1950s (the time of economic reforms and the birth of the idea of self-government). Often film authors inspired by youth, with lucid speed and innovation made great films of the classical style - feature films (Bauer, Belan, Hadžić...), documentaries (Katić, Sremec, Belan, Golik, Babaja...), as well as several poetic postmodernist attempts at feature films (Babaja, and classicist Neugebauer brothers, Dovniković, Petanjek...). In the second half of the 1950s, modernism took over (Vukotić, Kostelac, Mimica...), and amateur film was characterized by proto-modernist poetic pieces (Pansini, Kobija...).

In spite of the many plodding, unimaginative, amateurish and propaganda-driven films made during this period, it was a great era in the history of Croatian cinema, abundant with excellent films by accomplished artists. (Hrvoje Turković)