HISTORY OF SERBIAN CINEMATOGRAPHY
By Radenko Rankovic MA, Assistant Professor of Film Production
University of Arts, Belgrade, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, email: rsrade@eunet.yu
Serbian Film and Video Directory
The first-ever public film showing in Belgrade, on 6 June 1896, marked the start up of the film industry in the territory of the present FR of Yugoslavia. It was only after the Second World War that as an integral part of national culture and arts, it was equated with the traditional arts, such as literature, painting, music and theatre, and it has been expanding ever since and encompassing the production of all kinds of films, including everything from documentary films, cartoons and popular science films to the feature ones. In the mid-sixties, it clashed with a new medium, the television, and in the late eighties, with the home video recorders/players, resulting in a decrease in the number of cinemas and viewers. By keeping up to date on the experiences of and developments in the international film industry, the Yugoslav film industry endeavoured to become a part of it on an equal footing with the rest. A large number of prizes was awarded at the various international film festivals to both films as a whole and their authors and producers, substantiating thus the existence of a Yugoslav, national film industry.
The basic activities were also paralleled by a number of other film-related activities, such as: actor and personnel training, reviewing, publication of film magazines and books, etc. In that context, particular attention is deserved by the Yugoslav Film Archive, which has become one of the biggest and best-known institutions of the kind in the world.
In the last hundred years, the film industry of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) involved many people, from pioneers to tested authors boasting a significant film opus, as well as institutions, producers and cinemas, not to mention the films made and preserved.
PERIOD OF TRAVELLING CINEMAS AND BEGINNING OF FILM SHOOTING (1896-1910). The history of the film industry in the FR of Yugoslavia began on 6 June 1896, when the agent of the Lumiere brothers, Andre Carr, showed in a Belgrade restaurant almost the same programme as the one shown only six month earlier in the first-ever film show in Paris. This was also the first-ever film show in the Balkans. The first film shows were made in Novi Sad in November of the same year and in Subotica, in May 1897. The first travelling cinema reached Montenegro (Cetinje) towards the end of 1901.
The first film shooting was done by the already mentioned Andre Carr, who shot five films during his second visit to Belgrade in March 1897. Only two of these films were shown in public: A Streetcar Stop at Terazije (Tramvajska stanica na Terazijama) and Workers Going Out of the Tobacco Factory (Izlazenje radnika iz Fabrike duvana). Many other owners of travelling cinemas subsequently shot films in what is now Yugoslavia as supplements to their repertoires, but these films have not been preserved.
The oldest film ever shot in Serbia is The Coronation of King Peter of Serbia (Krunisanje Kralja Petra I Karadordevica), which was made during the coronation ceremonies in Belgrade in 1904 by the Serbian honorary consul in Sheffield Arnold Muir Wilson and his cameraman Frank Storm Mottershaw.
All owners of the travelling cinemas were foreigners until 1900, when they were joined also by Stojan Nanic of Zajecar, who was known as the "first-ever Serbian magician/conjurer . The first semi-permanent cinemas appeared around 1905, when the travelling cinemas began to stay for several months in one place, where two completely new film repertoires were presented each week. One of the first permanent cinemas was that opened by Ernest Bosnjak in Sombor in 1906. Permanent cinemas were opened in Subotica and Cetinje in 1908. In 1908, Svetozar Botoric took over the whole cinema business (acquisition of films and projectors, advertising, etc.). He wanted to expand his film showing business, as the exclusive agent of Pathe, the then biggest and best-known filmmaking firm, by opening for a short while cinemas in Kragujevac, Vmjacka Banja, Nis and some other places. Later on, permanent cinemas were also opened in other towns, so that a very keen competition developed among the cinema owners, their biggest problem being in the fact that they had only one cinema each.
PERIOD OF DOMESTIC FILM INDUSTRY PIONEERS (1910-1914). The start-up of film-making was a big challenge particularly to cinema owners who began to acquisition film cameras and shoot events of current interest. Having opened a permanent cinema in Sombor in 1906, Ernest Bošnjak bought a film camera in 1909 and shot then his first feature film, In the Empire of Terpsichore (U carstvu Terpsihore), which was only 120 metres long. Of the other films shot by him, the best-known is The Unveiling of the Monument to Ferenz Rakoczy (Otkrivanje spomenika Ferencu Rakociju), which was made in 1912 (it is still existent). A similar start was also made by another film pioneer in Vojvodina, Aleksandar Lafka, who after touring the country as a travelling cinema owner for ten years, settled down in Subotica and began to shoot various events. He also made a feature film, A Good-humoured Blacksmith (Raspolozeni kovač) to which he added sound with the means of gramophone records.
Since Vojvodina was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, the true domestic film production began in Belgrade in 1911, when Svetozar Botoric, owner of the Paris Hotel and Cinema, and Pica-Ilija Stanojevic, a great National Theatre actor, established the Serbian Film-making Company. They managed to make two feature films that year, Karadorde (2ivot i dela besmrtnog Vozda Karadorda) and Ulrich of Celje and Vladislav Hunyadi (Urlih Celjski i Vladislav Hunjadi), as well as a documentary film entitled The Gypsy 8'edding (Ciganska svadba). The films were directed by 6ica-Ilija Stano-jevic, who also acted in them together with his colleagues from the National Theatre. The only foreigner was the cameraman Louis Pitrolf de Beri. In 1912, one more feature film was made in Belgrade, The Poor Mother (Jadna majka), only this time the producers were the Savic brothers (owners of the Modern Cinema).
Although the Balkan wars in which Serbia was involved, stopped the making of feature films, the shooting of documentaries went on. At that time, Boka Bogdanovic, owner of the ICasina Cinema, filmed some Balkan and then First World War stories, which have been preserved largely. Slavko Jovanovic was one of the film camera pioneers.
After the year 1901, the exotic setting of Montenegro attracted mostly foreign cameramen, from Austro-Hungary and Italy. The film In the Black Hills at the Montenegro
Prince's Court (U crnim brdima, na knjazevskom dvoru crnogorskom) was shown in the Urania cinema of Vienna in 1902. The oldest preserved film, The Jubilee Festivities (Jubilarne svecanosti) dates back to 1910 and it relates to the proclamation of the Principality of Montenegro as a kingdom. There are much more preserved films about the events in the Balkan Wars and the First World War in particular.
FIRST WORLD WAR PERIOD (1914-1918). The First World War also attracted a large number of cameramen to the front lines in the territory of present Yugoslavia, and domestic ones were among them, too. Their biggest difficulty was the acquisition of cameras and tape. Towards the end of 1916, when the Serbian Army reorganised itself in Greece following its retreat through Albania, the Film Section was established within the Supreme Command of the Serbian Army. It had three departments: photographic, projectionist and artistic. It was granted a modest amount of money towards purchasing film equipment and tape. A lot of shooting was done and after the First World War, the material thus obtained was used for making several documentaries, such as Breach of the Salonica Front (Proboj Solunskog front) and The Liberation of Belgrade (Oslobodenje Beograda)
Having acquired some experience in acting in Budapest, Vladimir Totovic bought a camera during the First World War and made two feature films in the autumn of 1915: The Rescuer (Spasilac) and A Detective as a Thief (Detektiv kao lopov).
BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS. Many film pioneers never came back from war and others found it dificult to carry on their work. The film production started up in Zagreb during the First World War was continued, but like in Belgrade, it soon became only a sporadic one. It should be noted that before the emergence of new film pioneers, Bosko Tokin, who was to become a distinguished film reviewer and theorist, began to write his first film reviews for the Progres daily.
The State Film-making Workshop was established Belgrade in the framework of the Ministry of Public Health in 1921 on the initiative of Milutin Bata Nikolic, an actor. It lasted until 1923 and turned out a number of health-promotion films, the most important of which was The Tragedy of Our Children (Tragedija nase dece), 1922. Slavko Jovanovic, a Serbian film pioneer, carried on making documentaries. Around that time, another film pioneer, Ernest Bosnjak, founded the Boer Film company and together with a group of film enthusiasts, carried on making newsreels and documentaries relating to the town of Sombor and its surroundings, as well as feature films.
Although several other film companies were established in the mid-twenties (five in Belgrade and one in Stari Becej and Subotica each), only two of them (Novakovic Film owned by Kosta Novakovic, a Belgrade pharmacist, and Pobeda Film, owned by Josip Novak) managed to produce some films.
Although the number of cinemas kept increasing in the then Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) as a whole, the best portions of Serbia and Montenegro were still without any cinemas. At the beginning of 1927, there were altogether 344 registered cinemas in Yugoslavia, of which 44 were in the Belgrade district. After Zagreb, the first American sound films, A Pavement Lady (Dama sa trotoara) followed by The White Shadows (Bele senke) and The Crazy Singer (Ludi pevac) were shown in Belgrade towards the end of 1929.
The government showed interest in financing and organising the national film industry and established the Jugoslovenski prosvetni film (Yugoslav Educational Film) enterprise in Belgrade in 1931.
The enactment of the Film Distribution Law on 5 December 1931 was of great importance for the Yugoslav film industry. Although its title relates only to film distribution, that law also regulated the other two film industry segments and it was particularly favourable for the film-makers. According to that law, all cinemas in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had to have in their repertoires at least 5% of "cultural films' (that is what the short feature films and documentaries were called), and what is even more important, 7% and 15% of domestic feature films initially and as of 1933 respectively. Thus, 326 cultural and documentary films, newsreels and domestic feature films were shown in the cinemas of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1932, which was more than produced until then in all of the Balkan countries. In order to abide by that law and avoid being fined, the cinema operators had in their repertoires a lot of old domestic films or those made in great haste, so that they were inferior to foreign ones. Consequently, the cinema audience and income decreased. This aroused the dissatisfaction of both local cinema owners and American distributors, who threatened to withdraw their films from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, so that already in 1993, the clause about the compulsory quota of domestic films was rescinded.
The Film Distribution Law activated the domestic film industry enterprises. Adrija Nacional Film, which was run by film directors Ranko Jovanovic and Milutin Ignjacevic, produced two notable films, Through Storm and Fire (Kroz buru i oganj), 1930, and At the Gate of Orient (Na kapiji orijenta), 1932. One of the best films made between the two world wars was In God We Trust (Sa verom u boga), 1932, which was directed by Mihajlo Al. Popovic, the owner of MAP Film and a well-known cameraman. Many companies closed down after 1933, while the remaining ones stagnated, making documentaries and films on order from time to time.
According to the files of the State Film Authority relating to 1935, Serbia proper, i.e., without Vojvodina and Kosovo, had 53 cinemas in 29 towns, and 48 of these cinemas were provided with sound film projectors. The most dense cinema network was in Vo-jvodina, where there were 87 cinemas in 65 places (68 cinemas equipped for sound-film showing). There were only seven cinemas in Kosovo and Metohija. Hollywood-made films prevailed in the repertories.
Montenegro had no film production of its own, but its exotic setting got foreign producers to make films in Montenegro or about Montenegrin topics. For instance, Vladimir B. Popovic, a minister in the former Kingdom of Montenegro, was the chief instigator of the production of the film No Resurrection 8'ithout Death (Voskrsenje ne biva bez smrti), 1922, in Italy by Sangro Film of Rome. Mirko M. Dragovic of Cetinje, a film enthusiast, took part in the shooting of a feature film about blood feuds, The Black Hills Law (Zakon crnih brda) which is better known as The Durmitor Phantom (Fantom Durmitora), 1932. This film was made as a German-Yugoslav co-production.
On the eve of the Second World War, in 1940, there were nine cinemas in Montenegro.
SECOND WORLD WAR. The film industry carried on its activities in keeping with the circumstances brought about by the war.
The demonstrations of 27 March and the bombing of Belgrade on 6 April 1941 were filmed by professionals and amateurs alike, but not much tape has been preserved. Films were distributed by Jugoistok Film, an enterprise established by the occupying forces, which shot stories from time to time for the newsreel of the German UFA.
The most important project in this period was the domestic feature film Innocence Without Protection (Nevinost bez zastite) directed by Dragoljub Aleksic, an acrobat, who also played the chief role in it. Its premiere was staged on 15 February 1943 in Belgrade and although it got bad reviews, it was well-received by the public, which is best corroborated by the fact that it was seen by more than 60,000 people. (This film was forgotten after the Second World War and it was brought to light again in 1968 by Dusan Makavejev in a film having the same title and supplemented with various library tapes, as well as recollections of Dragoljub Aleksic and Stevan Miskovic, in addihon to other authors.)
In the German-occupied Serbia, 128 cinemas were operated, of which 26 were in Belgrade alone. Besides the pre-war films approved by the German censors, the repertoire included German films mostly, as well as some from Italy, Spain and Hungary. The best-watched film was The Golden City (Zlatni grad) directed by F. Harland, which was watched by more than 100,000 people in Belgrade alone.
The end of the Second World War was covered in the territory of Yugoslavia by allied film reporters, particularly those from the Soviet Union and Great Britain.
Film shooting did not begin in the Yugoslav National Liberation Army before late 1944, because there were no conditions for that earlier. The roots of the modern Yugoslav film industry are in the Films Section of the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army of Serbia, which was established on 16 July 1944 and headed by Rados Novakovic. Its chief task was to make the existing cinemas operational and arrange for the' showing of selected films as a contribution to cultural life. The Films Section of the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia was established in
December of the same year. Djorde Vasiljevic, a Nis photographer and proprietor of a photo-studio, owned a 35 mm camera with which he shot the first newsreel stories in the early months of 1945, which made up the basis for Our Film Chronicles No. 1 (News Reel
No. 1), the first work of the modern Yugoslav film industry. The State Film Enterprise was established on 20 November 1944 by decision of the Agency for Commerce and Industry of the Federal Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (DFY), its task being to restore the cinema network and control the acquisition of new films. That was a period of the Yugoslav film industry s transition from a military to a civilian one, since both the
Films Section and the State Film Enterprise were dissolved on 3 July 1945 and the DFY
Films Enterprise was established (its name was changed to the Films Enterprise of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY) on 29 November of the same year). The government paid in the founding capital amounting to 1,000,000 dinars and set its tasks relating to the organisation of the Yugoslav film industry.
In the period from 16 July 1944 to 17 June 1946, the shooting of the newsreel (the name of which was changed to Film News (Filmske novosti) after the first issue) was continued and 20 documentaries were made, among which the following ones stand out: Belgrade (Beograd) directed by Nikola Popovic (1945), Jasenovac (Jasenovac) by Gustav Gavrin (1945), and The Steps of Freedom (Koraci slobode) (1945) and A New Land (Nova Zemlja) (1946) directed by Rados Novakovic.
PERIOD OF CENTRALISED ADMINISTRATION OF THE FILM INDUSTRY (1945-1951). The changes occurring with the establishment of the DFY (FPRY subsequently) Film Enterprise boiled down to a complete centralisation of the domestic film industry, with a view to starting up as soon as possible the production of domestic films, covering everything from newsreels to feature films.
The FPRY Films Enterprise was dissolved with the establishment of the Film Industry Committee of the FPRY Government on 17 June 1946, and the local film industry gained on importance, since it was accorded the status of an industry of special social importance and given full government financial support. The Film Industry Committee, which had the status of a ministry, set the film industry organisation on two levels, i.e., federal and republic:ż
Aleksandar Vuco was appointed as President of the Films Committee and Jaksa Petric as its Secretary. The task of the Committee was to nationalise cinemas and proceed with the opening of new ones, centralise the import of foreign films, plan the development of the film-making facilities, acquisition the necessary equipment, start up the staff training and budget for a lasting film production. Such a set up was a continuation of centralisation of the Yugoslav film industry, although the republic film industries were also allowed to develop themselves at the same time, which particularly suited the republics which did not have much experience in film-making and had underdeveloped cinema networks. Since the film industry of Serbia was the best developed one at that time, Serbia had a Film Industry Committee, while Montenegro had only a Films Department in its Ministry of Edu-cation.
Two more specialised film enterprises were established on federal level, Zastava film (1948) and Filmske novosti (1951), both in Belgrade. The long expected feature film appeared after the failure of the Soviet-produced film In the Mountains of Yugoslavia (U planinama Jugoslavije), 1946, a film shot in Yugoslavia on a partisan topic. The first Yugoslav feature film after the Second World War, Slavica (Slavica), 1947, was directed by Vjekoslav Afric.
The biggest merits of the period of centralised administration of the Yugoslav film industry is seen in the continuation of film production, shooting of 267 issues of film news, 26 special issues, 205 documentaries, 46 teaching films, two cartoons and three short and 14 long feature films, making up the basis of the modern Yugoslav film industry.
This set up of the Yugoslav film industry lasted until 7 April 1951, when the Film Industry Committee was disbanded by decision of the FPRY Government, in the scope a general reorganisation of the country, decentralisation and introduction of workers' self-management.
(2 The other FPRY/FSRY republics had their own Film Committees/Commissions and republic film production and distribution enterprises)
PERIOD OF FILM INDUSTRY DECENTRALISATION (1951-1962). Until 1952, the film industry had no difficulties in the production and distribution of films in Yugoslavia, because that was being taken care off by the government. With the termination of the period of centralised administration of the film industry, the federal film enterprise, Zvezda film, merged with Avala film and a portion of film workers became free-lancers, which was a major novelty. The biggest change took place in the financing of film production. Instead of the federal budget, film production began to be financed from the Federal Film Industry Fund to which a part of the box office income of all cinemas in Yugoslavia was allocated. Thanks to such a modality of financing, film production was very lively in Montenegro, although that republic contributed the least to the Federal Film Industry Fund, because it had the smallest number of cinemas in its territory. Besides the republic ones, also new film production enterprises were established, i.e., UFUS (Association of Free-lance Film Workers) of Belgrade (1951) and Belgrade Film Club (1955).
In 1956, the FPRY Assembly adopted the Basic Film Law which regulated the whole Yugoslav film industry for the first time.
By 1962, the Serbian and Montenegrin film industries reached a high level by Yugoslav standards (64 feature films altogether) and managed to establish themselves internationally, too. The first-ever international co-production film, The Last Bridge (Poslednji most), was made in 1954 together with an Austrian producer. A new generation of film directors and other film artists and workers emerged.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPUBLIC AND PROVINCIAL FILM INDUSTRIES (1962-1991). The abolishment of the Federal Film Industry Advancement Fund in 1962 was followed by decentralisation of the Yugoslav film industry and its further development as a set of republic and provincial film industries. Film production was financed from republic funds at first and as from 1974, also from provincial funds, to which were allocated a special tax levied on cinema tickets and monies from the republic/provincial contribution for cultural purposes. Even under such changed circumstances, the Serbian film industry still accounted for more than 50% of the total Yugoslav film production. In the late sixties, film centres began to develop in Vojvodina and Kosovo, involving the establishment of Neo-planta film (1966) in Novi Sad and Kosovo film (1970) in Pristina.
Such a modality of financing, through republic funds, produced a crippling effect on the Montenegrin film industry, forcing it to discontinue the production of feature films, but not of the documentaries, too.
In this period, the Yugoslav film industry had several characteristics as a reflection of developments in the world film industry, the first of which emerged in the early sixties, when the number of cinema-goers decreased dramatically because of the expansion of television. When the relations between the cinema and television got settled in the late eighties, Yugoslavia, too, was affected by the expansion of the home video. However, regardless of these changes, the film industries of Serbia and Montenegro managed to maintain their normal production level by securing funds in various ways, including: inter-republic and international co-operation, co
operation with sponsors and donors, co-operation with TV and video companies and government, though to an ever decreasing extent with the latter.
By winning prizes at many international film festivals, Yugoslav film industry demonstrated its high accomplishments, in aesthetic and production terms alike.
CONTINUED ACTIVITY OF THE FILM INDUSTRY IN THE FR OF YUGOSLAVIA (from 1992 onwards). The changes that took place in and disintegration of the former Yugoslavia after 1991 affected very much the film industry, too. The economic, cultural and other sanctions introduced against the FR of Yugoslavia also produced a crippling effect on the film industry: the number of cinemas decreased by more than 70% and the number of cinema-goers by 80%, exports in domestic films were stopped completely, which also goes for the Yugoslav participation in foreign film festivals. Even so, Yugoslavia managed to keep its film production going and produced 32 feature films from 1991 to 1995.
After 1995, the Yugoslav film industry made a comeback to the European and world film industry by scoring a triumph at the Cannes Film Festival (Golden Palm in 1996 for the film Underground). The film production began to increase gradually, which also goes for the number of imported films (thanks to the return of American majors) and the number of cinemas and number of cinema-goers.
