When Love Has Gone

(Two), original title Dvoje

This film marks the beginning of modern Yugoslavian film

The new european sensitivity of the 60s

Plot Summary:

A romantic encounter. Love. The end of a relationship and the death of a feeling.
Alexander Petrovic examines the chaos and romance of a couple in an intimate and poetic way. In this work he revolutionizes the language of cinematography.

Awards, honors, festivals:

VIII th Festival of Yugoslav film in Pula 1961 Week of International film in Mannheim (Germany),1961 October Award of the Town of Beograd, 1961 Cannes Film Festival, May 1962 IV th Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Libero, Poretta Terme, 1966 Centres Georges Pompidou, Paris, Yugoslav cinema, 1986 International Film Festival in La Rochelle, 1986 Europe around Europe Festival, Paris-Normandy, 2008 International Film Festival Cinema City, Novi Sad, Serbia 2009 – Hommage to national auteur Aleksandar Sacha Petrović

This was Petrovic’s first fiction film. French and Italian critics at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962 said that this was also the first film with socialist cinematrography that, in its own way, corresponded with the cinematographic movement of the time (‘new wave’).

Press excerpts:

“We will find the best solution to problems in Alexander Petrovic’s When Love  Has  Gone,  a  film  that  is  magnificiently  deep  and  realistically personal.  It’s  the  first  yugoslav  film  (among  those  that  I  have  seen) where  the  director  reigns  completely  on  the  material  of  his  work,  he knows  it  so  well  that  instead  of  looking  for  a  more  expressive  filmed language,  he  accesses  his  creation  and  therefore  expresses  what  he wants  to, with  richness and accuracy.” THE FILM OF TODAY – Donald Rich

“…We  can  attribute  to  Alexander  Petrovic  numerous  pleasant discoveries,  like  the waltz  that  the  two  lovers dance  in  the street,  taken away by the distant music, witnesses of a charming invention.  

It  is  a  film with  no  claims, which makes,  at  a moment when  cinema  is about  reflexion, makes  this artist appear  like a man  that has  felt a very important thing.” Eugène Fabre, THE GENEVA JOURNAL 05/21/1962

“Yugoslavia has presented a film that we cannot avoid, When Love Has Gone by Alexander Petrovic, that, in the modern context of boredom and solitude,  tells  a  love  story  that  lives  only  one  year,  the  lifespan  of  a goldfish. We do not know who  is more miserable – him, who  is  fed up first or her, who  is abandonned. Only  tears at  this  festival!” Leo Pesteli LA STAMPA 05/19/1962

Michel Menso  (L’Express,  05/24/1962)  singles  out  the most  interesting films at  the Cannes Festival of 1962. He names Michelangelo Antonioni and Alain Resnais as two of the most interesting people in world cinema and suggests  that When Love Has Gone  is  the result of  the  legacy  that L’aventurra  and Marienbad  have  left.  There  is  inherently  an  error  here because Alexander Petrovic could not have seen neither Marienbad, that was  filmed at  the same  time as When Love Has Gone, not L’aventurra, that was only diffused in Yugoslavia after the end of the filming for When Love Has Gone.

Beba Lončar and Miha Baloh

Alexander  Petrovic  about  When  Love  Has Gone (Dvoje):

I started with  the  fact  that Art  is Truth.  I  tried not  to wander  far  from  the truth of  life, by showing  the  face of daily  truth, discovering some  truths about life and the existence of man.
The film does not aspire to dramatic situations but rather to an image of life. I do not make a film based on an actor, and not even on the person that  he/she  represents,  but  on  an  idea  or  an  emotion.  For  me,  it  is essential  that a movie  today be sincere and  true, a confession of some sort,  the  image  of  life  seen  from  one’s  own  eyes,  a  part  of  the consciousness of modern man.
My documentary  films are made with  the principals of a  fiction  film,  so When Love Has Gone has documentary elements. I have concluded that fiction  films miss vitality, but  the abstract and narrative aspect of  fiction films are missing from documentary films.
One more thing: as time went by, I had many opportunities to analyze old photographs. Believe me, that is an easier way to learn about life than to observethe  environment  around  us.  To  a  certain  point,  I  tried  to make When Love Has Gone on the basis of the interactions between images of life and life itself.
My goal has never been to create something that has been preconceived but rather to express what I feel.
I always start from an experience that has touched and inspired me and I look  for  the  solution  in  the  materials  that  I  use.  One  can  literally transpose a  subject  (for example, when  two  lovers part); but one must subjectively live it for its’ rational construction to harmonise with it.

Beba Lončar

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.