Branko Bauer
Branko Bauer | |
---|---|
Republic of Croatia | |
Occupation(s) | Director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1950–1982[1] |
Awards | Vladimir Nazor Award for Life Achievement in Film (1980) |
Branko Bauer (18 February 1921 – 11 April 2002[2]) was a Croatian film director. He is considered to be the leading figure of classical narrative cinema in Croatian and Yugoslav cinema of the 1950s.
Early life
Righteous Among the Nations |
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By country |
Bauer became interested in cinema as a school boy. During World War Two he attended local cinemas in Zagreb, which were very popular during the Nazi occupation. His father Čedomir Bauer and he hid their Jewish tenant Ljerka Freiberger from the
In 1949, Branko began working in the Zagreb-based Jadran Film studio as a documentary filmmaker.[2] His feature debut was the 1953 children's adventure film The Blue Seagull (Sinji galeb) which distinguished his work from then-native Yugoslav productions through vivid visual style and natural acting.
Selected works
Don't Look Back, My Son
Bauer became one of the most respected directors in Yugoslavia after his third film, the 1956 war thriller
Three Girls Named Anna
Bauer's next film was the 1957 feature
Bauer's next two films were more commercially successful - the 1961 comedy Martin in the Clouds (Martin u oblacima); and the 1962 film Superfluous (Prekobrojna, 1962), which introduced Milena Dravić as a future Yugoslav superstar.
Face to Face
Probably the best known of Bauer's films is the 1963 feature Face to Face (Licem u lice), a film which is considered to be the first Yugoslav political film. It tells a story about a rebel worker who challenges a manager during a communist party meeting in a huge construction company. Although it was initially seen as controversial due to its political content, the film eventually received support by communist officials, which was understood among filmmakers as a green light for more overt depictions of socially controversial topics. Serbian director Živojin Pavlović said that Face to Face had been "the most important film shot in Yugoslavia by that time".[10]
Late career
During the 1960s, Yugoslav films shifted to modernism, and Bauer couldn't accommodate to an auteur cinema. In the 1960s he made two unsuccessful modernist films, and was subsequently unable to get funding for his new cinema projects.[11] During the 1970s, he directed the TV series Salaš u malom ritu (1976), a war drama set in Vojvodina, one of the most memorable works of Yugoslav television.[12]
Critical reception
During the 1950s and 1960s, Bauer was regarded as a master of
In the late 1970s his works were rediscovered by young critics as a kind of a Yugoslav version of old Hollywood masters. Slovenian film historian Stojan Pelko wrote in the British Film Institute's Encyclopedia of Russian and Eastern European Cinema that "Bauer was for Yugoslav critics what Hawks and Ford were for French New Wave critics".[4] A substantial critical reevaluation of Bauer's work took place since the mid-1980s. In a late 1990s critics' poll of all-time greatest Croatian film directors, Bauer took second place, behind Krešo Golik.[15]
Filmography (as director)
- The Blue Seagull (Sinji galeb, 1953)
- Millions on the Island (Milijuni na otoku, 1955)
- Don't Look Back, My Son (Ne okreći se sine, 1956)
- Only People (Samo ljudi, 1957)
- Three Girls Named Anna (Tri Ane, 1959)
- Martin in the Clouds (Martin u oblacima, 1961)
- Superfluous (Prekobrojna, 1962)
- Face to Face (Licem u lice, 1963)
- Nikoletina Bursać (1964)
- Doći i ostati(To Arrive and to Stay, 1965)
- Fourth Companion(Četvrti suputnik, 1967)
- Salaš u Malom Ritu (A Farm in Mali Rit, 1975)
- Boško Buha (1978)
References
- ^ "Branko Bauer – filmografija" (PDF). Hrvatski filmski ljetopis (in Croatian) (30). Zagreb: Croatian Film Association, Croatian State Archives and Croatian Society of Film Critics: 25–28. June 2002. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ a b Branko Bauer profile at Filmski-Programi.hr
- ^ "Pravednici i njihove životne priče". jutarnji.hr (in Croatian). 24 May 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ a b Pavičić 2004, p. 64.
- ^ a b Šakić, Tomislav (23 November 2006). "Samo ljudi". Vijenac (in Croatian). No. 331. Matica hrvatska. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ a b Kirn, Gal; Madžar, Vedrana (August 2014). "Between Subversion and Critique". East European Film Bulletin (44). Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ a b Njegić, Marko (29 September 2013). "Restaurirani vjesnik jugoslavenskog 'crnog vala'". Slobodna Dalmacija (in Croatian). Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Sinovčić, Dean (17 July 2002). "Hrvatski film 'Tri Ane' iz 1959. - hit Motovuna 2002". Nacional (in Croatian). No. 348. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Šakić, Tomislav (21 December 2006). "Univerzalne vrijednosti klasičnog autora". Vijenac (in Croatian). No. 333. Matica hrvatska. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ Škrabalo 1998, p. 321, cited in Pavičić 2003, p. 15
- ^ Hribar 2002, p. 20.
- ^ "U Ovči je 1973. počelo snimanje serije "Salaš u Malom Ritu"". lobi-info.rs (in Serbian). 29 February 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ Hribar 2002, p. 6.
- ^ Pavičić 2004, p. 71.
- ^ Kragić 2007, p. 531.
Sources
- Hribar, Hrvoje (June 2002). "Šesta rola, Kraj" (PDF). Hrvatski filmski ljetopis (in Croatian) (30). Zagreb: Croatian Film Association, Croatian State Archives and Croatian Society of Film Critics: 3–7. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- Kragić, Bruno (May 2007). "Izazovi "Amerike" u hrvatskom filmu i pisanju o filmu – esej o postupnoj realizaciji naslovne metafore" [The Challenges of "America" in the Croatian Film and Writings on Film – An Essay on Gradual Realisation of the Main Metaphor] (PDF). Dani Hvarskoga kazališta (in Croatian). 33 (1): 527–536. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
- Pavičić, Jurica (June 2003). "Igrani filmovi Fadila Hadžića" [Fadil Hadžić's feature films] (PDF). Hrvatski filmski ljetopis (in Croatian). 9 (34). Zagreb: Croatian Film Association, Croatian State Archives and Croatian Society of Film Critics: 3–38. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
- Pavičić, Jurica (March 2004). "Žanr i ideologija u filmu Ne okreći se sine" (PDF). Hrvatski filmski ljetopis (in Croatian) (37). Zagreb: Croatian Film Association, Croatian State Archives and Croatian Society of Film Critics: 63–72. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- Škrabalo, Ivo (1998). 101 godina hrvatskog filma, 1896-1997 (in Croatian). Zagreb: NZ Globus.
Further reading
- Turković, Hrvoje (June 2002). "Karijera na prijelomu stilskih razdoblja" [A Career on the Turn of Stylistic Periods] (PDF). Hrvatski filmski ljetopis (in Croatian) (30). Zagreb: Croatian Film Association, Croatian State Archives and Croatian Society of Film Critics: 8–24. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
External links
- Branko Bauer at IMDb