Monday or Tuesday (film)
Encyclopedia
Monday or Tuesday is an acclaimed 1966
Yugoslav
drama film directed by Vatroslav Mimica
starring Slobodan Dimitrijević
. The film's title is a famous quote from Virginia Woolf
's 1919 work Modern Fiction (and the title of her 1921 short story collection
) in which she described her approach to writing:
journalist Marko Požgaj (played by Dimitrijević), an average modern intellectual who goes about his daily business. Mundane scenes of Požgaj's day are shown interspersed with flashbacks
and fantastic imagery reflecting his inner life. These include his recollections of childhood, his feelings about the present and past, including memories of his first marriage, his current girlfriend Rajka (Jagoda Kaloper
) and his father killed in World War II (Pavle Vuisić), as well as his fantasies and hopes about the future.
. The film's visual structure (based on a collage of scenes set in the past and present mixed with fantastic imagery, which are indicated by changes in picture quality and colour) and the theme of contemporary social alienation
(in part resulting from the trauma of War World II) have urged critics to draw comparisons to his animated film The Inspector Is Back! (Inspektor se vratio kući, 1957) and have been called "trademarks of Mimica's entire body of work".
Andrew James Horton, writing for the film journal Kinoeye wrote in 2001:
The film won the Best Film and the Best Director
Golden Arena awards at the 1966 Pula Film Festival
, the Yugoslav national film awards festival. In addition, Tomislav Pinter
won his third Best Cinematography
award for his work on both Monday or Tuesday and Rondo
(directed by Zvonimir Berković
).
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...
Yugoslav
Cinema of Yugoslavia
-SFR Yugoslavia:The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had an internationally acclaimed film industry.Prominent male actors included Danilo Bata Stojković, Ljuba Tadić, Bekim Fehmiu, Fabijan Šovagović, Mustafa Nadarević, Bata Živojinović, Boris Dvornik, Ljubiša Samardžić, Dragan Nikolić and...
drama film directed by Vatroslav Mimica
Vatroslav Mimica
Vatroslav Mimica is an award-winning Croatian film director and screenwriter.Mimica had enrolled at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine before the outbreak of World War II. In 1942 he joined Young Communist League of Yugoslavia and in 1943 he went on to join the Yugoslav Partisans,...
starring Slobodan Dimitrijević
Slobodan Dimitrijević
Slobodan Dimitrijević was a Serbian television and film actor.-Selected filmography:*Prometheus of the Island *The Desperado Trail *Monday or Tuesday *Target for Killing...
. The film's title is a famous quote from Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
's 1919 work Modern Fiction (and the title of her 1921 short story collection
Monday or Tuesday
Monday or Tuesday is a 1921 short story collection by Virginia Woolf published by The Hogarth Press. 1000 copies were printed with four full-page woodcuts by Vanessa Bell. Leonard Woolf called it one of the worst printed books ever published because of the typographical mistakes in it.. Most...
) in which she described her approach to writing:
"Examine for a moment an ordinary mind on an ordinary day. The mind receives a myriad impressions—trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel. From all sides they come, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms; and as they fall, as they shape themselves into the life of Monday or Tuesday."
Plot
The film follows a day in the life of a divorced ZagrebZagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
journalist Marko Požgaj (played by Dimitrijević), an average modern intellectual who goes about his daily business. Mundane scenes of Požgaj's day are shown interspersed with flashbacks
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
and fantastic imagery reflecting his inner life. These include his recollections of childhood, his feelings about the present and past, including memories of his first marriage, his current girlfriend Rajka (Jagoda Kaloper
Jagoda Kaloper
Jagoda Kaloper is a Croatian painter and actress famous for groundbreaking roles in classic films in the former Yugoslav cinema.-Biography:...
) and his father killed in World War II (Pavle Vuisić), as well as his fantasies and hopes about the future.
Reception
The film is today regarded as a logical continuation in Mimica's body of work as it replicates the stream of consciousness concept previously seen in his critically acclaimed 1964 film Prometheus of the IslandPrometheus of the Island
Prometheus of the Island , also known in English as Prometheus from the island of Viševica, is a 1964 Yugoslav film directed by Vatroslav Mimica....
. The film's visual structure (based on a collage of scenes set in the past and present mixed with fantastic imagery, which are indicated by changes in picture quality and colour) and the theme of contemporary social alienation
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...
(in part resulting from the trauma of War World II) have urged critics to draw comparisons to his animated film The Inspector Is Back! (Inspektor se vratio kući, 1957) and have been called "trademarks of Mimica's entire body of work".
Andrew James Horton, writing for the film journal Kinoeye wrote in 2001:
"Some of the devices now seem a little dated. Changes in image quality and colour are probably less exciting now than they were then, and the intercutting of documentary footage of the concentration camps particularly now has a somewhat heavy-handed and "obvious" feel to it. But the film still exudes the appeal of what the New WaveFrench New WaveThe New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
must have looked like when it first emerged as a trend, with its concentration on ordinary people and charmingly observed street scenes. And its this that makes the film endearing. There's none of the removed coldness that formal experimentation can bring to a film as an unfortunate by-product."
The film won the Best Film and the Best Director
Golden Arena for Best Director
The Golden Arena for Best Director is an award given for best director at the Pula Film Festival, which was until 1992 the Yugoslav equivalent of the Academy Awards. Since 1992 and the breakup of Yugoslavia the competition narrowed to Croatian films only...
Golden Arena awards at the 1966 Pula Film Festival
Pula Film Festival
The Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival which is held annually in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula arena since 1954. The festival is usually held in the summer, in July or August....
, the Yugoslav national film awards festival. In addition, Tomislav Pinter
Tomislav Pinter
Tomislav Pinter was an award-winning Croatian cinematographer, regarded as the most significant cinematographer in Croatian cinema due to the artistic quality of his work and his prolific career spanning almost five decades....
won his third Best Cinematography
Golden Arena for Best Cinematography
-List of winners:The following is a list of winners of the Golden Arena for Best Cinematography at the Pula Film Festival.-Yugoslav competition :-Croatian competition :-Multiple winners:...
award for his work on both Monday or Tuesday and Rondo
Rondo (film)
Rondo is a 1966 Yugoslavian film by Croatian director Zvonimir Berković. It was filmed in Zagreb, Croatia .-Plot:...
(directed by Zvonimir Berković
Zvonimir Berković
Zvonimir Berković was a Croatian film director and screenwriter.Berković had studied film directing at the Zagreb Academy of Drama Arts...
).
External links
- Monday or Tuesday at Filmski-programi.hr