STUDIES AND RESEARCH

A Film Version of Ksaver Šandor Gjalski’s Notturna

American scholar George Bluestone believes that films based on a piece of literary fiction do not represent a translation of the book into a new medium; the only thing that is »translated« is some sort of narrative summary. The analysis of Branko Ivanda’s Nocturno (a film based on the short story Notturno by Ksaver Šandor Gjalski) supports this claim. However, this does not mean that the comparative method in the study of film makes no sense, since a film adaptation is firmly linked to its literary inspiration, influencing it in return. To study the cultural cannon of a society is to study the media that form it, and the comparative method is the most natural way to do it.

Nikica Gilić