Liberating Cinema + GLITS Annual Interdisciplinary Conference
The Development of Film Language in Serbia during the Silent Era
Presentation and Screening 9th June 2021 2.30pm
On the 6th June 1896 the first film screening on the Balkan Peninsula took place on the luxurious Terazije Square in Belgrade. In the kafana at the ‘Golden Cross’ representatives of the Lumière Brothers showed the first moving images to a bustling audience. Their programme would run till the end of the month and it would be attended by no other than King Aleksandar Obrenović. From its very introduction at the end of the nineteenth century cinema was recognised as a novel form in Serbia and over the next twenty years some of the greatest innovations would take place, in a most unconventional way, and it is many of these that would come to characterize the development of film language in the country and abroad.
It is at the heart of this presentation to trace this development of film language in Serbia during the silent era by drawing upon historical examples as well as making use of rare films and archival resources from the Yugoslav Cinematheque. This trajectory involves examining the relationship between different cultural forms in Serbia between the early 1900s and the late 1910s, including trade, crafts, theatre and cinema, and showing the unconventional modes towards professionalization, including the formal developments in the medium which took place through the efforts of a series of visionary independently-organised film enthusiasts, producers, and entrepreneurs, rather than through prism of a nationalized film industry.
Looking at the films of the medium’s forerunners, including Đorđe Bogdanović and Svetozar Botorić, I demonstrate distinguishing characteristics of film language in Serbia, including the development of converging narratives, deep focus cinematography and off-screen space, and their significance in the light of international developments in the medium before the coming of sound.
Liberating Cinema is grateful to the colleagues at the Archive and Library, Jugoslovenska Kinoteka – Yugoslav Cinematheque, Belgrade for their generous support.
