Hrvatski kozerijski film u jugoslavenskoj kinematografiji nakon 1945.
Authors:   , Kukoč Juraj 
Published: April 2024

A causerie film is a hybrid type of film with documentary quality at its core that tends to inform, educate or persuade viewers on serious social issues in a casual and entertaining way based on the narrator's subjective speech and constructed, often fictional scenes. Although a causerie film is a hybrid genre, it originates in the classical expository documentary and follows its basic postulates. In this doctoral thesis, we will use the term “narrator's speech” for voice-over: “narrator” because of the tendency of causerie films to tell stories and “speech” to emphasise the importance of the content, but also the physical aspects of the voice-over. All causerie films have at least a minimum level of documentary quality. In other words, they deal with real social issues, which are important for the local community, and to do so, they use at least a minimum amount of documentary means. Also, all causerie films are characterized by a certain level of construction, either through fictional stories and characters or through the subjective speech of the narrator. All causerie films deal with social issues in a casual and entertaining way. They usually achieve casualness through humour and subjectivity. Finally, all causerie films possess stylistic freedom, which allows them to use all available stylistic devices in imaginative and playful ways. This doctoral thesis deals with causerie films produced in the period of the Yugoslav cinema from 1945 to 1990. The primary focus of the research were causerie films made in Croatia (CRO), a republic that was a part of the socialist Yugoslavia. In addition to the thorough research done in the field of the Croatian cinema, limited research on causerie filmmaking was done for other Yugoslav republics (Slovenia SLO, Bosnia and Herzegovina BiH, Serbia SRB, Montenegro MNE, Macedonia MKD). A total of 132 causerie films were found, of which 71 were Croatian. Causerie films, or their precursors, in the Croatian and Yugoslav cinema began to be produced in the early 1950s. The main features of first causerie films were mixing of documentary and feature elements, subjectivity of the narrator's speech and selfreferentiality (Because of That Thing This Morning / Radi onoga jutros, Radenko Ostojić, 1951, CRO; A story from the cavalry / Priča iz konjice, Boško Vučinić, 1952, SRB, etc.). Humour in causerie films started appearing more frequently only in the mid-1950s (One Day in the City of Rijeka / Jedan dan u Rijeci, Ante Babaja, 1955, CRO, etc.). Causerie films reached their climax period at the end of the 1950s and this lasted to the mid-1960s, when an average of six causerie films per year were produced in Croatia, while during the same period in Yugoslavia, it is assumed that about fifteen to twenty such films were produced annually. The making of causerie films was obviously a trend in Yugoslavia at that time, as indicated also by the thematic and stylistic similarities between them. In the second half of the 1960s, the production of causerie films began to decline and continued to do so until the end of the 1980s. Causerie films were mostly commissioned films that achieved their educational or promotional goals through a casual causerie approach. Tourism promotion films were regularly made with causerie approach (Come to Montenegro / Dođite u Crnu Goru, Branislav Bastać, 1960, MNE; Sunny Adriatic / Sunčani Jadran, Frano Vodopivec, 1965, CRO, etc.), as were educational films about traffic rules (At the Wheel / Za volanom, Branislav Bastać, 1958, MNE; Dangerous Games / Opasne igre, Nikša Fulgosi, 1963, CRO, etc.) and educational films about nature (Summer of Bear Cubs / Ljeto medvjedića, Branko Marjanović, 1963, CRO; Small Wonders of the Great Nature / Mala čuda veliki prirode 1, Branko Marjanović, 1971, CRO, etc.). Many advertising films of 3 to 6 minutes were also made in causerie style (Factory Evropa / Evropa, Aleksandar Markus, 1953, MKD; Juicer / Sokovnik, Nikša Fulgosi, 1961, CRO, etc.). A large number of causerie films were not commissioned. They were general informative films about some localities, occupations, social customs, etc. (Goodbye, City of Krapina / Doviđenja Krapino, Branko Bauer, 1956, CRO; The Fair / Vašar, Svetozar Pavlović, 1959, SRB, etc.). Finally, in the 1960s, a significant number of auteur causerie films were made, that differed by their personal authorial approach (My Flat / Moj stan, Zvonimir Berković, 1962, CRO; Stamp / Pečat, Branko Čelović, 1965, SRB etc.). The existence of causerie films in the Croatian cinema was first noticed by film scholar Hrvoje Turković. He named this type of film after the literary genre called causerie (2010a: 193-194). Until then, the causerie film was an unknown concept in the Yugoslav literature, as well as in the historical overviews of world documentary films. Most of the films that we refer to as causerie films were not even mentioned in the Yugoslav literature or were mentioned only marginally. When they were mentioned, their causerie traits, such as subjectivity and constructed humour, went frequently unnoticed or were defined as poetical, satirical, etc. When these causerie traits were noted in literature, they were often evaluated negatively, because they were considered not to correspond to the postulates of a documentary film. The precondition for the creation of causerie films was the liberation from the strict rules of ideological propaganda in the post-war Yugoslav society and its cinema. In the 1950s, Yugoslav documentary films reduced or completely rejected propagandist rhetoric and began to turn to peacetime and civic themes. Also, a commissioned film, which is a type of film that often uses the causerie approach, began to develop in the Yugoslav cinema. The stylistic preconditions for the development of causerie films were an increasing influence of construction and fiction in the documentary fabric of the film, which paved the way for the subsequent genre hybridization of causerie films, and the development of poetic narrators in the documentary film, which paved the way for the development of the subjective, casual and witty narrator's speech of the causerie film. Several factors stimulated the emergence of causerie films in Yugoslavia. Causerie films appeared in the world already in the 1930s and continued to be produced during the 1940s and 1950s, for example British, American and Czechoslovakian causerie films (The Factory of Illusions / Továrna na iluse, Jiří Weiss, 1938, CS; Safety in Offices, 1944, USA, etc.). Yugoslav filmmakers had the opportunity to watch these films and be inspired by them, as evidenced by the preserved film copies of foreign causerie films distributed in Yugoslavia (It Doesn't Hurt, [1944?], [USA?]; Topographic Symbols, 1952, USA, etc.). The appearance of causerie films was certainly stimulated by the awareness of the usefulness of the causerie approach in achieving educational and promotional goals. Namely, during the period of the development of causerie films, it was already a well-known fact that humour, entertainment, emotionality, casualness and other similar characteristics can help in teaching, educating and persuading the audience. Also, the appearance of causerie films can be attributed to the artistic sensibility of its authors. Causerie films in the Croatian cinema were created by many distinguished, artistically ambitious directors inclined to humour, irony and satire (Zvonimir Berković, Obrad Gluščević, Branko Marjanović, Branko Bauer etc.). In the cinemas of other Yugoslav republics, causerie films were also created by artistically ambitious directors (Puriša Đorđević, France Kosmač, Branko Čelović, Vefik Hadžismajlović, Branislav Bastać, etc.). In creating the causerie impression, screenwriters and authors of the narrator's texts of causerie films played an extremely important role. Most of them in their previous film and literary work showed a sensibility close to causerie, favouring humour, irony, satire and a playful verbal style (Kruno Quien, Boro Pavlović, Matija Bećković, Božidar Violić, etc.). Some of them wrote literary causeries (Drago Gervais, Veselko Tenžera, Fadil Hadžić, etc.) Finally, the development of Croatian and Yugoslav causerie films was stimulated by the socalled “modernist upheaval” – the modernist departure from the conventions of classical art that occurred in the 1950s in various artistic disciplines and the atmosphere of stylistic freedom that reigned at that time (Turković, 2009: 92-98). The causerie film was particularly influenced by the general modernist characteristics of “subjectivity” through the narrator's subjective speech and "reflexivity" through self-referentiality (Kovács, 2007: 62). It is important to note that causerie films differed from modernist films by using these characteristics superficially and casually, without complex analysis of the subject's intimacy and without the reflexion on the relationship between fiction and reality. There are four main characteristics of causerie films: genre hybridity, richness of narration, subjectivity of the narrator's speech and humour. Self-referentiality is also an important characteristic, but it appears in a limited number of films. Genre hybridity means an extremely complex relationship between documentary and fiction in causerie films, which most often develops as a relationship between documentary and feature film, but sometimes as a mixture of documentary and animation. Although Noel Carrol considered that in almost all cases it is possible to clearly determine the genre of a film (2006: 154-171), the example of the complex mixing of types in the causerie film indicates that in many cases it is not possible to clearly recognize the genre determination of the film. That's why we defined the causerie film as a hybrid film type. The image of certain causerie films is based on unconstructed documentary scenes of the outside world, and it is the narrator's speech that, with its subjectivity and humour, gives these films the causerie quality of construction (See You in Pula / Doviđenja u Puli, Mladen Feman, 1961, CRO, etc.). In some of these films, the narrator's speech gives non-constructed scenes their fictional quality by telling stories and turning filmed people and animals into protagonists of those stories (Tram Number 2 / Tramvaj dvojka, Oto Deneš, 1958, SRB, etc.). However, in many causerie films, rudimentary stories are developed through the image as well as through the narrator's speech (Baltazar Travels / Baltazar putuje, Davor Šošić, 1959, CRO; Classified Ads / Mali oglasi, Miodrag Paskuči, 1960, MNE, etc.). These films use various stylistic devices common to feature films (acting, close-ups, establishing shots, editing of motion, etc.). They often use professional actors (Antun Nalis, Zvonko Lepetić, Tito Strozzi, Zdenka Heršak, etc.). Some of the causerie films about traffic rules directed by Nikša Fulgosi are inspired by the popular genres of melodrama, thriller and teen movie, showing that casualness in the causerie does not necessarily need to be realized through humour (Beware of One Drink / Čuvaj se čašice, 1963, CRO; Dangerous Games). Despite the strong presence of fiction, causerie films always maintain the impression of documentary quality, that is, they maintain the impression of films that describe current social reality. For example, they never have complex plots, but instead develop rudimentary stories. These films almost never use dialogues, but rather the narrator's retelling or commenting on the events. The narrator's speech in fictional scenes is often injected with informative, educational or persuasive comments. Also, causerie films often mix fictional scenes and documentary footage. In this way, causerie films talk about social reality through fiction. In other words, when we watch fictional events in a causerie film, we have the impression that we are watching events that regularly happen or could very easily happen in the real world and that represent knowledge about that world. In addition to feature film characteristics, animation is also intertwined with documentary in causerie film. A special case is the animated causerie film Costumed Rendezvous / Kostimirani rendez-vous (Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo, 1965, CRO) about the history of fashion, in which documentary and animation are equally represented, which is why we can name this film an animated documentary made in the period before that term was defined (cf. Honess Roe, 2013). Another main characteristic of causerie films is the wealth of narrative devices. The narrative in these films ranges from minimalist stories with two events (Our Free Time / Naše slobodno vrijeme, Stipe Delić, 1960, CRO, etc.) to stories that resemble those in classical fictional films (Beware Of One Drink, etc.). The main medium of narration is the narrator's speech. Narrators often use the technique of “simultaneous narration” (Genette, 1980: 217-219), which is rarely used in film and literature and which narrates events that happen in the present time, that is, they are narrated at the same time in which they happen (Student days / Studentski dani, Davor Šošić, 1958, CRO; What's a Workers' Council / Što je to radnički savjet, Dušan Makavejev, 1959, CRO, etc.). By anchoring the action in the present, this technique strengthens the impression of documentary quality of the fictional story. However, the narrator also narrates events that happened in the past, often in the form of “analepses” (flashbacks), but at the same time strengthens the impression of documentary quality of narration by clearly determining the “transfer point” in the present time (ibid.: 40, 45) from which the story is narrated (Snow and Flowers / Iz snega v cvetje, Jože Bevc, 1962, SLO; Vacation in Croatia / Odmor u Hrvstskoj, Zvonimir Berković, 1981, CRO, etc.). Using stylistic freedom, causerie films even develop hypothetical “prolepses” (ibid.: 40) to show what could happen in the future (Tonight at 6 PM / Večeras u šest, Aleksandar Aranđelović, 1961, SRB; The Bridge / Most, Zlatko Sudović, 1965, CRO, etc). Causerie films also use the narrative technique of focalization. Often, they play with the technique of “internal focalization”, dealing with the character's perspective and its limitations (Genette, 1980: 189-190). In this case, they usually use “double focalization” (ibid.: 208-209). With this technique, internal focalization through the narrator's speech develops in parallel with “zero focalization” through the image, which represents a non-focalized representation of “objective reality” (ibid.: 189). Using double focalization, causerie films imaginatively combine their fictional and documentary aspirations (My First Ride / Moja prva vožnja, Vladimir Pavlović, 1963, CRO; Grey Mullet / Cipol od porta, Branko Kalačić, 1972, SRB, etc.). Following the documentary aspiration of causerie films, the narrator's speech occasionally abandons the internal focalization and replaces it with zero focalization, that is, the narrators turns from a character with limited knowledge into an omniscient one (White Harvests / Bijele žetve, Krsto Škanata, 1958, CRO; Sunny Adriatic, What's a Workers' Council, etc.). Causerie films also imaginatively play with “narrative levels” (Genette, 1980: 227-234, 243- 252). They do this through the narrator's speech. For example, in certain films, the “homodiegetic narrator” (narrator-character) starts narrating from the “extradiegetic perspective” (after the event being recounted) and suddenly switches to the “intradiegetic perspective” (the time of the event) having limited knowledge of the event (The Camp of Joy / Logor radosti, Vladan Slijepčević, 1956, SRB; The Road Is Not Only Yours / Put nije samo vaš, Nikša Fulgosi, 1963, CRO etc.). By playing with narrative levels, causerie films sometimes manifest self-referentiality. For example, they use the technique of “metalepsis” (ibid.: 234-235) in which the heterodiegetic narrators, from their extradiegetic perspective, influence and change events at the intradiegetic level. They give the characters instructions that they follow, “order” the film to rewind, etc. (Because of That Thing This Morning; The Secret / Skrivnost, Zvone Sintič, 1959, SLO, etc.). This self-referential technique, as well as other narrative devices, doesn't serve to create a complex aesthetic structure or encourage the viewer to think deeply about the nature of the fiction, but is another way of playfully and creatively approaching the tasks of information, education or persuasion. The third main characteristic of causerie films is the subjectivity of the narrator's speech. Although causerie films, like classical expository documentaries, present “objective truths” about the world, they do so with the presence of a strong subjectivity. The narrator's speech of the causerie film narrates and comments on the events on the screen by using a rich range of emotional reactions (from angry to happy, from ironic to sentimental, etc.). They express their emotions by speaking in an extremely rich range of voice colours, pitches, and volumes. Because of this demanding nature of the narrator's speech, many of the narrators of causerie films were professional actors (Branko Bonacci, Boris Buzančić, Mato Ergović, Petar Kralj, etc.). The narrators express their distinct subjectivity also through addressing the characters of the film or the viewers, which is an indicator of the film's high “self-consciousness” (Bordwell, 1985: 57-61) and another causerie contribution to self-referentiality. They address the viewer or viewers in the second person singular or plural in order to tell them something or warn them about something (Two Boys / Dva dječaka, Ratomir Ivković, 1955, CRO, etc.). Occasionally, the viewers are invited to do something together with the narrator in the firstperson plural, as if they are together at the intradiegetic level (1001 Drawings / 1001 crtež, Dušan Vukotić, 1960, CRO, etc.). When they act as homodiegetic narrators, they emphasize their subjectivity by naming or even pointing to themselves in the scene of the film (Memories of One Summer / Uspomene jednog leta, Oto Deneš, 1963, SRB, etc.). The heterodiegetic narrator often addresses the characters of the film, this time not with the intention of influencing their behaviour, but with the intention of conveying the informative, educational or persuasive message to the viewer of the film in a casual way (Day of Rest / Dan odmora, Obrad Gluščević, 1957, CRO; Come to Montenegro, etc.). Interestingly, in causerie films, the materialization of the narratee during narration (cf. Gilić, 2007: 88-99) often occurs. Namely, the narrator's speech in these cases consists of a conversation between two or more narrators, where one functions as a speaker (narrator) and the other as a listener to whom the speech is addressed (narratee). The narratees occasionally react to the speaker's messages by commenting and asking questions (Sunny Adriatic; Folk Costume / Narodna noša, Mako Sajko, 1975, SLO, etc.). In this way, the narratees materialize their presence, which very rarely happens in films. The last main characteristic of causerie films is humour. It follows a Renaissance vision of humour. It's a mixture of hedonistic pleasure and pedagogical engagement. As in the Renaissance, when causerie films teach through humour, they do so through mild mockery in order to correct flaws (Grlić, 1972: 7-23). Causerie films also follow the Renaissance ideal of humour as a mockery of authority, similar to Bergson's definition of humour as a mockery of individual or social rigidity through the flexibility of humour (1987: 7-40). This process most often occurs in two types of causerie films. In tourism promotion films, the target of mockery is the rigidity of the concept of tourism as enjoyment of cultural and natural sights. Instead, these films humorously celebrate hedonism as the main tourist pleasure (The Beauty of the Adriatic / Ljepotica Jadrana, Mladen Feman, 1962, CRO; Tourist scherzo / Turistički skerco, Obrad Gluščević, 1963, CRO, etc.). The auteur causerie films, on the other hand, mock the rigidity of the ideological propaganda of the Yugoslav socialist system (Cherchez la femme, Zvonimir Berković, 1968, CRO; Guide to Trieste / Vodič kroz Trst, Ivo Škrabalo, 1969, CRO, etc.). To achieve a humorous effect, causerie films use a wealth of stylistic figures of rhetoric that originate from literature (Solar, 2005: 71-88). They are developed through the narrator's speech, but also in the image of the film through visual stylistic means. Causerie films most often use the rhetorical figure of irony, as irony in the narrator's speech itself (Glorious Tribunal / Slavni sude, Fadil Hadžić, 1959, CRO, etc.) or as an ironic counterpoint between the image and the speech (White Slopes / Bele padine, Milorad Gončin, 1964, SRB, etc.). Numerous other rhetorical figures appear in causerie films: hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, simile, allegory, personification, euphemism, anaphora and asyndeton (See You in Pula; Gold / Zlato, Branko Čelović, 1968, SRB; The Ballad of the Forest / Šumska balada, Rudolf Sremec, 1984, CRO, etc.). Rhetorical figures called puns are especially common. The most common among them is paronomasia, a play on words that have a similar form but different content, and calembour, a joke in which a new word is created from existing words (My First Ride; City of Birds in the City of People / Grad ptica u gradu ljudi, Zlatko Sudović, 1973, CRO, etc.) An outstanding master of verbal humour was Kruno Quien, a frequent screenwriter and author of the narrator's texts for Croatian causerie films. Quien's narrator's texts possessed specific characteristics: puns, erotic allusions, use of foreign words and folk children’s songs, etc. His narrator's texts were often read by actor Branko Bonacci, whose interpretations stood out for their rich voice intonation and emotional reactions (Under the Summer Sun / Pod ljetnim suncem, Obrad Gluščević, 1961, CRO; Tourist scherzo; Sunny Adriatic). Humour in causeries is often developed through the interplay of music with images and speech. Music is an important part of causerie films. It is almost always cheerful and playful, and in the service of the casual causerie effect. In some cases, the interplay of music with images and speech results in an ironic effect (The Bridge; Protected by Law / Zakonom zaštićeno, Nikola Jovičević, 1975, MNE, etc.). The wit of a causerie film is often achieved by “illustrative music” (Down With the Pedestrians / Dolje pješaci, Mate Bogdanović, 1960, CRO; My Flat, etc.), through which musical equivalents of the events in the scene are developed. Another common type of music in causerie films is “imitative music” (Nurturing the Offspring / Briga za potomstvo, Branko Marjanović, 1959, CRO; Baltazar Travels, etc.), that imitates natural sounds that belong to the scene (Paulus, 2012: 165-166). A special chapter of the thesis is dedicated to the auteur causerie films, which were created during the 1960s. Underneath the casual causerie exterior, these films hid social criticism of the flaws of the socialist system and its propaganda, carried out most often with the help of irony. Social criticism was often developed through the technique of the naive “unreliable narrator” (Gilić, 2007: 109), that is, a narrator who naively believes or pretends to believe in the triumphal successes of the socialist system and the political orthodoxy of the socialist citizen, while the image shows the opposite as an ironic counterpoint. Many auteur causerie films were directly influenced by cinematic modernism. A large number of such films belonged to or borrowed characteristics from a typical modernist film genre, the essay film (cf. Rascaroli, 2009: 1-44). Causerie essay films (Cherchez la femme; Une marche ecourante, Miroslav Antić, 1969, SRB, etc.) discussed various topics. With their irony, they often deconstructed the seriousness of the essay films, but at the same time they still had an essayistic tendency to present (casual) personal reflections. A certain number of causerie films adopted elements of the modernist type of documentary films called direct cinema. Direct cinema is different from the causerie film because of its insistence on the footage of unarranged reality and rejection of the narrator's speech (Nichols, 2020: 163). The causerie film used the technique of direct cinema by ironically enriching the unarranged footage with the constructed narrator's speech (Pupils on Foot / Đaci pješaci, Vefik Hadžismajlović, 1966, BiH; The Day They Get Married / Dan kad se sklapaju brakovi, Ivo Škrabalo, 1967, CRO) or by using the unarranged footage as an ironic counterpoint to the narrator's speech (The Bridge, Guide to Trieste). Some of causerie auteur films were made in a classical style without significant modernist influences. Such is the case with one of the few causerie films that has the status of a classic, My Flat (Moj stan, Zvonimir Berković, 1962, CRO), in which the failure of the state housing reform is ironically suggested with the help of an unreliable naïve narrator in the form of a little girl. There are two unusual examples of causerie auteur films. The Ballad of the Rooster / Balada o pijetlu (Zvonimir Berković, 1964, CRO) is a mixture of an advertising film about a food manufacturing company and an auteur film about people's blind belief in the virtuousness of the socialist ideology. While Rice Ruled (Dodeka vladaše orizot, Trajče Popov, 1964, MKD) is, on the other hand, a causerie auteur film that approaches social criticism from the perspective of the dominant ideology. Namely, the film humorously criticizes those who do not follow the state ideology of collectivization. In the Croatian and Yugoslav cinema, the relationship between the causerie film and the humorous short film is particularly interesting. These two types of film share the characteristic of humorous treatment of a serious social topic. The humorous short film nevertheless has significant features that distinguish it from the causerie film: humour built on documentary scenes and real statements of people instead of a humour built on constructs (The Parade / Parada, Dušan Makavejev, 1962, SRB; Let Our Voice Be Heard / Nek se čuje i naš glas, Krsto Papić, 1971, CRO, etc.) or, in the opposite case, extremely constructed humour without noticeable documentary quality (Misunderstanding / Nesporazum, Ante Babaja, 1958, CRO; Surplused Man / Suvišan čovjek, Branko Majer, 1965, CRO, etc.). Also, humorous short films are often satires with serious tendencies. The most similar film to causerie films in the Yugoslav cinema is a type of a humorous documentary that we can call jokumentaries (The Ballad About Oil / Balada o nafti, Miroslav Jokić, 1970, SRB; Reveille / Budnica, Petar Krelja, 1971, CRO, etc.). The most fruitful period of jokumentaries were the 1970s. They are similar to causerie films because they are humorously casual and avoid any tendency, but they differ from them because they avoid constructed and fictional scenes. In the second half of the 1960s, there was a sharp decline in the number of causerie films produced in Croatia and Yugoslavia. This decline continued until the 1990s, when the Yugoslav cinema disappeared with the collapse of Yugoslavia. In the middle of the 1960s, the documentary genres of direct cinema and cinéma verité, that were based on a direct relationship with reality and thus didn’t tolerate the existence of causerie characteristics, began to dominate in Yugoslavia. Because of this, they simply overpowered causerie films and almost pushed them out of the scene. However, the causerie approach lived on in other genres and media. Jokumentaries have adapted the causerie approach to the aforementioned documentary trend. The original causerie approach has not disappeared either. It didn't even thin out, it just changed the medium. Television proved to be an ideal medium for causeries, because it based its program on information, education and promotion, as well as entertainment, so it gladly used the causerie approach in fulfilling its goals. In the 20th century, the medium of the Internet and its social networks joined television and became the latest promoter of the casual causerie approach to serious social issues. That means that the possibilities for further research of the causerie approach in audio-visual works are almost inexhaustible.