FROM THE HISTORY OF CROATIAN CINEMA

Rudolf Marinković — A forgotten pioneer of Croatian film

Dealing with ‘archaeology’ of early silent film, the author explains how he first came upon the name of Rudolf Marinković (in Pula daily newspaper Il giornaletto di Pola dating from May 30th, 1913). Relying upon the information gathered from the press, Kosanović points out that poorly researched pioneer Marinković was apparently working with photography and film and his first film Precession at Tijelovo in Pula was screened in 1913 at cinema Edison, in via Sergia 34. Since Marinković was a photographer, it was possible that he had developed and copied the film himself, or he might have taken it to be processed in Trieste. His second film that we have records of was The Great Celebration of August the 18th, and his following creations, made on the same year, were The Burial of three sailors - victims of the explosion on Sakorđana and Magnificent funeral of his Excellence the Vice admiral Count Lanius. The titles that followed were Regata c. and k. for yacht clubs from Pula (1914). On the basis of the available records, we can firmly state that Rudolf Marinković from Pula had shot five documentary film reportages, however, none of them were found, and it is possible that he had shot even more films than those mentioned in this text.

Dejan Kosanović