#11 Primer 1, 2, 3

Mladen Stilinović

Experimental films and videos, 1971-2006

Mladen Stilinović, one might say, is a unique successor of the Zagreb experimentalist film current.  He appeared right at the end of an intensive experimental era marked with “GEFF” festivals (experimental film festival) and continued to work independently, occasionally participating in amateur film manifestations.

According to his words, his film orientation is anti-stylistic and anti-technical: he does not strive to achieve any stylistic coherence; he likes “dirty photography” and “dirty” procedures, i.e. those prosecuted by perfectionists. His attitude is essentially anti-aesthetic, or in other words, radically removes aesthetic standards by which film is evaluated.

What links his movies is a visually defined idea, regardless of the motive being windows, meaning of phenomena, or some systematic film procedure, or a subsequent manipulative intervention into finished film tape, his films strive to exhaust the initial idea to the maximum and lay it down clearly. Therefore, Stilinović’s films are films of commitment. Diversity of ideas and the adequate diversity of procedures from film to film only confirm the basic characteristic of Stilinović’s approach to film (or film approach – if you will).

However, despite the diversity of procedures, there is one procedure notably present in almost all of Stilinović’s best films: the procedure of careful rhythmization of material. It is mostly implemented during the shooting, although there is doubt of this being a conscious action, but it is suggestively present be it in small master pieces like Run away and  Walls, Coats, Shadows and other, or in slower movies (of a more gentle rhythm) like for example Write about Un-loneliness.

Thus, best Stilinović’s film reflect deliberateness and sensibility, both strongly embedded in film.

Films

• 01 Panika / Panic
  1971, 16 mm, c-b/b-w, 5' 32''
• 02 Piši ne samoće / Write about Un-loneliness
  1973, 16 mm, negative, 5' 32''
• 03 Bježi / Run away
  1973, 8 mm, c-b/b-w, 3'28''
• 04 Početnica 1, 2, 3 / Primer 1, 2, 3
  1973, 16 mm, c-b/b-w, 4' 55''
• 05 Soba u Veneciji / A Room in Venice
  1974, 8mm, boja/color, 3'
• 06 Pokreti prema / Movements Towards
  1975, 16 mm, c-b/b-w, 9' 10''
• 07 Zidovi, kaputi, sjene / Walls, Coats, Shadows
  1975, 8 mm, boja/color, 6' 37''
• 08 Za Dürera / For Dürer
  1976, 8 mm, c-b/b-w, 3'
• 09 Vrijeme 1 / Time 1
  1977, 16 mm, c-b/b-w, 7' 28''
• 10 Vrijeme 2 / Time 2
  1977, 16 mm, c-b/b-w, 2'40''
• 11 Krumpira, krumpira / Potatoes, Potatoes
  2001, Mini DV, boja/color, 3'
• 12 Great Show, Great Show
  2006, Mini DV, boja/color, 2'