BOOKS
Ivo Škrabalo: 101 godina filma u Hrvatskoj, 1896.-1997.
101 godina filma u Hrvatskoj
Ive Škrabale (Ivo Škrabalo’s 101 Years of Film
in Croatia) is a new, somewhat changed and supplemented
(the chapter that deals with 80’s and 90’s) version of
his pioneer history of the Croatian cinema Između
publike i države (Between the Audience and the
State) 1984. The new book is a methodological and
pluralistic creation that the author himself, in the
preface, describes as a romanticized biography of Croatian
film, or rather a fable about the history of the creation
of Croatian films and their repercussions. Fable is certainly
a key term in Škrabalo’s work, and it is responsible
for the books dynamic pace, liveliness, and an almost,
it could be said, pop attractiveness. However, Škrabalo’s
focus on fable, or story, brought about absurd situations
in which some films, persons and phenomena received an
amount of attention that by far exceeded the degree of
aestheticism, social representativeness, and relevancy
they deserved, while some other, aesthetically more significant
films and phenomena were marginalized as a result of
the authors opinion of their fabular inspirational worth.
Škrabalo’s book is also explicitly politically
marked. His unquestionable starting point is that Croatian
film is a part of Croatian national culture. But he goes
further, and in the spirit of an influential political
party (The Croatian Social Liberal Party), which he is
a high profile member, he in fact represents a hidden (soft,
liberal) nationalism. Škrabalo’s book is actually a defense
of the thesis on the essential character of every art,
and this includes film art as well. That is why he takes
great satisfaction in detecting authentically Croatian
films, even if his understanding and explanation of what
is authentically Croatian is unelaborated, unconvincing
and sometimes, infantile. In harmony with his views, Škrabalo,
as much as possible, ignores the Yugoslav context of Croatian
cinema, neglecting the evident mutual influences of the
national cinemas, or rather the artistic uniqueness in
the ex-Yugoslavia (the author of the review minutely illustrates
Škrabalo’s, as he interprets them, nationalist views and
consequential deductions, and polemicizes with them).
Škrabalo’s aesthetic views have been the
cause of polemics in the public before, and it is certain
that he underrates Branko Bauer’s opus and his significance
to Croatian cinema by ignoring the fact that Bauer was
one of the first Croatian film makers (and one of the first
in Yugoslavia) who masterfully used the standard classical
(genre) narration of the Hollywood provenance. Despite
the fact that he deems the period of the so-called authorial
film (i. e. modernism) the most mature period in Croatian
cinema, Škrabalo’s general aesthetic standpoints show an
attraction toward traditional film expression and a great
respect of the perceptive abilities of the general public,
which brings him closer to populism.
Unlike the considerably exhaustive analysis
of feature and animated film, we can complain about Škrabalo’s
marginalized treatment of the documentary and experimental
film genres, which had a very important role in Croatian
film history.
Despite the numerous complaints, the positive significance
of 101 Years of Film in Croatia remains unquestionable.
Škrabalo’s work is the only one of its kind. It is also
relatively exhaustive, informative and above all, a very
readable and interesting synthesis of Croatian film and
cinema that can be a valuable incentive for future works
on Croatian film history.
Damir Radić |
