Days

Plot Summary:

Olga Vujadinović and Ljubiša Samardžić

Far from the realism in style in Yugoslav films from the sixties, Alexander Petrovic connects people’s individuality to their psychologica lconflicts, eroticism, and poetic discourse. This intimate film is a meditation about solitude broken by a brief meeting between a married woman and a student.

Awards, honors, festivals:

Xth Festival of Yugoslav films in Pula 1963 IVth Mostra Internazionale  del  Cinema  Libero, Poretta Terme, 1966 Centre  Georges  Pompidou,  Paris,  Le  Cinéma yougoslave, 1986 Festival International du film- La Rochelle, France 1986 Festival of First Films, Paris, 1992 Festival  Europe  around  Europe Festival,  Paris – Normandy, 2008 International Film Festival, Cinema City, Novi Sad, Serbia,  2009 – Homage  to  the  national  author Aleksandar Sacha Petrović Film review, Banja Koviljača, Serbia, 2015

Press excerpts:

 “Petrovic not only knows how to lead adventures, accumulate “signs,” or incessantly  show  “the  other  side  of  things,”  he  is  also  an  exceptional talent,  penetrating,  in  describing  “the  voices,”  the  alternatives.  In reducing  the  narration  and  the  description  to  its  smallest  state,  he develops  “situations,”  not  events;  this  lyrical  movie  possesses  an unforgettable  charm,  and  so  do  the  actors  in  his  film.  He  feeds  the spectators’ eyes while simultaneously feeding thoughts and feelings. His films, which could only be a cautious and personal meditation,  touch us directly,  because  they  relate  to  a  hurt  love,  to  solitude,  to  a  deep unhappiness; all with death present.” – ARTS – Gilbert Guez

“Freed film” INDIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS BLOOMINGTON
The films When Love Has Gone and Days greatly shook Yugoslav socialist cinematography  because  they  were  the  first  films  that’s  didn’t  portray propaganda.  Alexander  Petrovic was  called  by  the western  press  “the voice of new Yugoslav cinema.” The Yugoslav press spoke of occidental decadence  and  collusion  with  the  west.  Petrovic’s  new  style  bothers people. Alexander Petrovic did not expect to film a feature film easily. He returned  to his documentaries and short  films, and  treated  them with a poetic modernity.

Olga Vujadinović

Alexander Petrovic about cinema:

« It was never my goal to create something preconceived, but to express what I was feeling.

Sometimes  a  photograph  or  a  row  of  trees  can  be  of  better  use  than 5,000  replies. Why would a  character’s psychology be better explained through a face or a word. Facial expressions is overrated. I always start from an experience  that  touched and  inspired me, and  I search  for  the solution  in  the materials  I use. We can  transpose a subject  literally,  for example  a  breakup  between  two  characters;  but  we  must  live  it subjectively for a rationalist construction harmonizes with it.

I do not make a  film about one actor, not even about  the  character he plays, but on an idea or an emotion.

For me, it is essential that a film today be sincere and true, a confession of sorts, a picture of life from one’s own eyes, a part of the modern man’s conscience.

There are no lies in art. Art knows only truth. We are not judges, nor are we prophets or propagandists.

… The logical evolution of cinematographic art and the film market push us  to  make  simultaneously  artistic  and  commercial  films,  which  I  can assure  you  is  extremely  complicated.  I  think  that  it  is  crucial,  in  the context of global cinematography, to separate the dilettante exhibitionism from  true  poetic  adventure. When  we  will  have  succeeded  in  filtering these concepts, we will have a significantly more artistic cinematography, and the public will grow accordingly. “

1962 Aleksandar Petrovic on the shooting of Days

Eclisse’s insinuation:

“My  films When  Love  Has  Gone  and  Days  were  screened  last  year during my  retrospective at La Rochelle  (1986). During a  very animated press conference, Marcel Martin asked me if these two films were filmed under the influence of Czech cinema, and if I had seen Czech films prior to  filming  (Forman,  Passek  etc.).  I  responded  that  I  had  not  had  the opportunity to see these films prior to filming because those Czech films had not yet been produced at that point in time. Those cinematographers could have possibly seen my films, but it was impossible for me to have seen theirs. Today, I don’t want to talk about whether they have seen my films or not. But it is certain that I could not have seen their films in 1961 (the year of the filming if When Love Has Gone) since their movies were filmed  in  1963.  This  resembles  the Antonioni  story  and  the  insinuation that When Love Has Gone was inspired by Eclisse (Eclipse). That film was also made later (1962)… And remember that the scenario for When Love Has Gone was written in 1959. A.P.