TAJNA DVORCA IB is a wonderfully demented propaganda film, made in 1951, just as Tito's Yugoslav socialist regime decided to break away from Stalin's iron control. Katic's film is a ballet set in the fictitious castle where the Informburo of the International Communist Party sends out its' resolution denying Yugoslav independence. In the game of symbols, the Resolution is created in a freaky alchemist way and dispatched to people who deny it and throw it away.
TAJNA DVORCA IB presents current, daily propaganda shaped in a different way. Even though avantgarde used to be associated with revolutionary movements, soon after the victory, it was forgotten and propaganda got based on melodrama and visual displays of power and domination. But in Katic's film, it's avantgarde all over again. It's a film that combines socialist propaganda with American slapstick, German expressionism and Soviet ballet symbols.
Thus, even though it often seems silly, the main reason it aged so badly is the political expiry date. Katic's direction is pretty skillful and Fadil Hadzic's screenplay is actually very imaginative and precise. This film may as well be Yugoslav predecessor of Guy Maddin and his politicized avantgarde done these days.
TAJNA DVORCA IB was also one of the most thoroughly forbidden and overlooked films in the history of Yugoslav cinema. If you ever get an opportunity to really dig through Yugoslav film archives, ask for this film.
TAJNA DVORCA IB presents current, daily propaganda shaped in a different way. Even though avantgarde used to be associated with revolutionary movements, soon after the victory, it was forgotten and propaganda got based on melodrama and visual displays of power and domination. But in Katic's film, it's avantgarde all over again. It's a film that combines socialist propaganda with American slapstick, German expressionism and Soviet ballet symbols.
Thus, even though it often seems silly, the main reason it aged so badly is the political expiry date. Katic's direction is pretty skillful and Fadil Hadzic's screenplay is actually very imaginative and precise. This film may as well be Yugoslav predecessor of Guy Maddin and his politicized avantgarde done these days.
TAJNA DVORCA IB was also one of the most thoroughly forbidden and overlooked films in the history of Yugoslav cinema. If you ever get an opportunity to really dig through Yugoslav film archives, ask for this film.
