mother’s babe of steel
by
Douglas Messerli
Dušan
Makavejev and Branko Vucicevic (writers), Dušan Makavejev (director) Nevinost bez zaštite(Innocence Unprotected) / 1968
Needless to say, the film was never
released, although some of the film’s figures, which include members of the
original cast, claim that for a short while it was very popular; and its
director proclaims: "Gentlemen, I assure you the entire Yugoslavian cinema
came out of my navel. In fact, I have
made certain inquiries, and I am in a position to state positively that the
entire Bulgarian cinema came out of my navel as well."
The story of the original film is itself
a kind of unintentionally comic drama about a young girl who has fallen in love
with the remarkable performer Aleksić over
the objections of her cruel stepmother who prefers that she should marry a
wealthy bureaucrat. She even punishes her daughter for going out and attempts
to arrange for her daughter’s rape by the businessman, actions which bring
Aleksić flying through the sky on a rope to save her.
Markavejev presents the 1941 film rather
comically, often tinting its frames and coloring the lips of characters in red.
Yet, oddly, his love for the somewhat
ridiculous film, made in opposition to the occupiers, becomes obvious as he
includes scenes of various Serb, Croat, and other Yugoslav based dances with
costumed actors.
Strangely, some viewers of the 1968 film
saw it as pro-Nazi, which is difficult to comprehend given Markavejev’s mocking
of the censorship the original received, just as his own films were often
unofficially banned from Yugoslav screens.
By recontextualizing the original movie
with its stars’ real lives, Markavejev gives the original film that might have
been a new life, and gently puts its hero into the folklore of Serbo-Croatian
culture. The film won Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the 1968
Berlin International Film Festival.
Los Angeles, July
24, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment