Aleksandar Petrovic Movies
Yugoslavian director Aleksandar Petrovic was one of his country's most prominent filmmakers during the 1960s. His best-known films are Tri (Three), which earned the highest award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1965, and Skupljaci Perja (I Even Met Some Happy Gypsies), which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1967. Petrovic got his start as a film critic following graduation from Belgrade University. His writings on cinema made him one of Yugoslavia's most respected film critics during the '50s. He then directed a few documentaries. Petrovic made his feature-film directorial debut with Dvoje (When Love Is Gone) (1961). This and his subsequent film, Dani (Days) (1963), were heavily influenced by French New Wave and heralded the dawning of the "Black Wave" in Yugoslavian cinema. Following the success of Skupljaci Perja, Petrovic began having difficulty with his government. It began when governmental officials took offense with his adaptation of Bulgakov's novel Majstor i Margarita (The Master and Margarita) (1972), calling the film a direct assault against communism. In 1973, Petrovic was forced to leave his post at the Belgrad Film Academy because of the scandal surrounding the film Plastic Jesus, which was made by his protégé, Lazar Stojanovic. Though he would continue on to make two more films, one of them in France, Petrovic's promising career was over. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1991
As soon as Zina begins menstruating, her parents start searching for a suitable husband for her. In this Yugoslavian village just before World War II, what she wants is not important. Her large dowry will attract a suitable mate. The boy her father picks is a sickly and unassertive lad named Cola. When the two prospective mates meet, Zina ridicules him and treats him with some contempt. This unpleasant relationship continues after they are wed, as Zina compares Cola's virility unfavorably to that of the boy who raped her shortly before her wedding day. In a parallel story, a divorced woman has an affair with a younger bachelor but cannot marry her beloved because an abortion has rendered her sterile. In the brutal world of the villagers, the purpose of women, as of livestock, is to reproduce early and often. Eventually Cola grows up and becomes a more commanding, mature man who occasionally strikes his wife, which everyone (including his wife) thinks is a good thing. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1983
The Italian The Falcon has nothing to do with the RKO detective series of the same name. This Falcon is a medieval swashbuckler, played by Franco Nero. After several examples of derring-do, Nero sets about to rescue a damsel in distress. Given the Falcon's romantic nature, the girl may not be entirely out of danger once she's rescued, wink-wink nudge-nudge. At 105 minutes, The Falcon has aspirations to be an epic, but falls just a little short. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero, Dragan Nikolic, (more)
- 1977
The West German/French Group Portrait with Lady (Gluppenbild mit Dame) is based on a bestselling novel by Heinrich Böll. The film is a string of anecdotes, some longer than others, related to the topic of German war guilt. The main plotline involves German woman Romy Schneider's affair with Russian prisoner of war Brad Dourif. Through an occasionally confusing series of flashbacks, we discover Schneider's ultimate fate, and also solve the mystery of the Jewish girl buried in a convent cemetary. Romy Schneider won several German film awards for her participation in this 100-minute elegy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romy Schneider, Michel Galabru, (more)
This strident Yugoslavian/Italian film is a very uneven adaptation of a small portion of the famous and much-loved whimsical novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulghakov. It attempts to deal only with the Moscow portion of the novel. Even so, it was a brave attempt to film the unfilmable, and uses animation and other techniques to portray the more fantastic aspects of the story. In the film, which lovingly recreates the Moscow of the 1920s, the Master (Ugo Tognazzi) is a playwright. He is attending the dress rehearsal for his play, which is being performed over the objections of everyone involved, except for his girlfriend Margarita (Mimsy Farmer) and Professor Woland (Alain Cluny). He grows frantic when he discovers that the Professor is actually the Devil (the actual supernatural being, not just a very bad man). The Master tries to warn people but is committed to an insane asylum for his pains. At the play's premiere, the Professor uses his magical powers to add terrifying special effects which send the audiences screaming out of the theater. The film makes many guarded references to the persecution (past and present) of artists under communism. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
In this Yugoslavian film, when a young man shows up at her door, Jelena's life begins to disintegrate from within. The man was the other driver in an accident which injured Jelena's husband. After helping her husband at the scene of the accident, the young man seeks out Jelena (Ana Karic) to tell her about the accident and to obtain money for her husband's medical treatment. Jelena seems to take the news well, and she agrees to travel with the man to see her husband. While passing the time before her train arrives, she goes to see her father in his old-age home. There, she gives him a tongue-lashing for doing small favors around the home to earn pocket money because she believes this behavior is beneath his dignity or will reflect badly on her. When Jelena returns home, the young man comes to visit once again with the disturbing news that her husband doesn't want to see her and with the request that she leave the money with his girlfriend (whom she didn't know about previously). Somehow the wife becomes romantically involved with the young man and disillusionment follows disillusionment as the film proceeds. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- R
A young man who cares for pigs defends a mentally challenged girl. When he fights with the local saloon keeper, the man gets the boy drunk and bribes the priest into marrying the boy to the unfortunate girl. When a teacher arrives to instruct the ladies of the town in painting, the swineherd is used as a model and then a boy-toy for the teacher's pleasure. The teacher takes another lover and gives up the young man with the excuse that she didn't know he was married. The young swineherd kills his wife, but his father takes the blame and confesses his sins before he dies in prison. The people of the town exact their revenge on the swineherd as he is tied to the massive church bells and subjected to a torturous demise in this depressing feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Annie Girardot, Eva Ras, (more)
- 1967
The Yugoslavian leading man Bekim Fehmiu plays a charismatic but mean-spirited gypsy, married to the submissive woman (Olivera Vuco). The gypsy couple's various escapades end up in a desperate flight from the Law. The authenticity of I Even Met Happy Gypsies is amplified by the use of genuine Gypsy melodies on the soundtrack; in addition, the film was shot in a near-extinct Gypsy language called Romany, requiring the film to carry subtitles even when released in Yugoslavia. I Even Met Happy Gypsies was the recipient of an award at the Cannes Film Festival, and was later nominated for a "best foreign picture" Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bekim Fehmiu, Olivera Vuco, (more)
- 1965
In this episodic WW II drama, a Yugoslavian youth attempts to escape from German soldiers. In the first scene, he stands amongst a group of refugees waiting for a train. One man, with no identification papers is accused of a petty crime and the crowd insists that three soldiers arrest him. The youth tries to stop them all, but he fails and the man is executed. Soon afterward, his wife shows up and proves that he was indeed innocent. In the second episode, the youth participates in a resistance raid and ends up pursued into a swamp where he meets another fugitive. This man ends up sacrificing his life so that the youth can escape. The final story begins as the war ends. The youth has become an officer in the Yugoslav army and is being forced to deliver an order to execute all citizens who collaborated with the Germans. One of the traitors is a woman he cares for, but this doesn't stop him from obeying his commands. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Velimir "Bata" Zivojinovic
- 1965
While her husband is away, Nina sets out to combat boredom. The wealthy woman visits an elderly aunt and frequents the stores and boutiques of downtown Belgrade. She spends the day with a handsome stranger who is obviously enamored with Nina, but the two separate at the end of their memorable day when she tells him she is married. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ljubisa Samardzic
