PORTRAIT OF AN AUTHOR: ANTE BABAJA
Biofilmographic Conversations: Ante Babaja
Ante Babaja was born in 1927 in Imotski.
He was educated in Belgrade and Zagreb, where he began
to study economics and law. He became involved in film
through Branko Belan, first as an assistant to K. Golik
(Blue 9), then to Belan himself (Not Everyone
Sleeps at Night, 1951, Concert, 1954). He also
volunteered for J. Becker in Paris for a while, and in
1955 he made his first documentary film entitled A Day
in Rijeka.
This was followed by the short fiction films Mirror,
Ship, Misunderstanding, Elbow (as such), Jury, Justice,
Love, Body, Cabin, the documentary Can You Hear
Me? and other films. All of these work show an author
of exceptional visuality and wittiness, with a tendency
to explore media and subtly criticize society. In 1961,
despite the dissatisfaction of censors and the frequent
ban of his works, Babaja made his first feature length
film The Emperor’s New Clothes. He photographed
it in high key, and the stylization was so great that the
censors could not even detect, much less grasp, the stinging
social critique. This film was followed by Birch Tree (1967),
unquestionably one of the greatest Croatian films, which
was based on the motives of primeval village life. During
that time, Babaja also dedicated himself to pedagogical
work at the film directing department which he founded
at the Academy for Theater, Film and Television. This is
the reason that the gaps between his films became increasingly
larger: the political-provocative Smells, Gold and Thyme 1971,
the lyrical-nostalgic Lost Homeland 1980, and finally
the intimate, The Stone Gates 1992, which sums up
the author’s credo and which functions as a confession
as well.
With his not large opus, Ante Babaja has carved
a unique place for himself in Croatian cinema as an author
who has consistently held true to his view of film: »Film
has, for me, since the first day that I have been aware
of it, always been art. Film as art, this is something
that I have always emphasized. Naturally, film exists in
a hundred different ways, but I am only interested in this
one — film as art.«
Damir Radić |
