Silent Film Opens Photo Exhibition

An exhibition was held in Zagreb’s “Kino Europa” cinema, displaying seventy two photographs created on film sets.

The cinema was, as it is during every projection, in the dark, and at first glance nothing looked out of the ordinary. Everything until you looked at the screen which was showing a black and white film, which is unusual for today. Even the accompanying music was unusual, because it was being played live on a piano by Branko Bulic, who periodically looked at the screen in order to monitor the action.

That is how the start of the exhibition “Frozen frames – portraits of stars” looked like, in essence, an exhibition by six Italian photographers that were created on film sets. The exhibition itself was the introduction to the fifth Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF), one of the most important film festivals in the region.

The public that came to see the free projection and exhibition in the "Kino Europa" cinema, welcomed the director of the festival, Boris T. Matic, and Zagreb’s mayor Milan Bandic, after which a rare film event occurred.

A window into another time

The film “Zapusteno Dijete” (Abandoned Child), which was created in 1930, made by the school of the people’s health “Andrija Stampar” was screened. The film lasted only 15 minutes, but it was enough to win the hearts of the public. Even though its message today is nearly self explanatory, a story about a father who was blind beggar and his son that needed to be taught about hygiene, which after nearly 80 years made the public laugh, and concerned about the characters. The most interesting aspect of the film was its role of a window through time, so that you could hear comments of the delighted public when they recognized a street, cathedral or park. In that sense the people were interesting, and the rules of nice behaviour in that time. A handkerchief was placed in the left pocket, you cough with your left hand, you do not spit in the sink because not every house had running water, but in a special spitting pot on the wall. No only is this film important because of the historical value, but because the acting of that local silent film delighted as well. The warm story about a blind father and his sick son that finishes with a happy ending was itself worthy enough to open the ZFF.

Filming when there is no camera

The main attraction of the night were the seventy two (up until now unreleased) photographs from film sets. Gianni Caramanico, Emilio Lari, Egidio Poggi, Franco Vitale, Mimmo Cattarinich and Romolo Eucalitto who gathered in the project “Bottega delle Immagini del Cinema” photographed famous stars of film, both actors and directors. Even though there are photographs of scenes that later ended up in certain films, the Italian photographers took photos mainly when the film cameras were off, between the scenes, and whilst the actors were consulting the director. They photographed when there was no filming, giving an insight into the creation of the film magic.

The exhibition will be open until October 27, until the closing of the Zagreb Film Festival which open on October 21.