Dušan Makavejev

Dušan Makavejev
Born	13 October 1932 (1932-10-13) (age 79) Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Occupation	Film director and screenwriter
Years active	1965–1996

Dušan Makavejev (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Макавејев, Serbian pronunciation: [dǔʃan makaʋɛ̌jɛʋ]) (born 13 October 1932 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His most successful movie was the 1971 political satire WR: Mysteries of the Organism, which he directed and wrote.

Career

His first three feature films Man Is Not a Bird (1965), Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967) starring actress and icon of the "black wave"^[1] period in film Eva Ras, and Innocence Unprotected (1968) won Dušan Makavejev international acclaim. The latter won him the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival.^[2] In 1970, he was a member of the jury at the 20th Berlin International Film Festival.^[3]

His next movie W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971, starring Milena Dravić, Jagoda Kaloper, and Ivica Vidović) was banned in Yugoslavia due to sexual-political content and resulted in Makavejev's exile from the country, which ended in 1988. Sweet Movie, with its explicit depictions of sex and urination also relegated the film to Art house audiences and has been banned in several places. There was a span of seven years before he released his next film, Montenegro. It was a successful (and more conventional) black comedy. The Coca-Cola Kid, set in Australia, is perhaps his most accessible picture, featuring performances by Eric Roberts and Greta Scacchi. He also appeared as one of the narrators in the film Zabranjeni bez zabrane (Banned without being banned) which shows a profound insight into the history of Yugoslav cinema through censorship, and which asks how famous anti-communist movies from Yugoslavia succeeded in being made, as well as considering their consequences. The film contains original interviews with the most important dissident filmmakers from the communist era.^[4]

Filmography

Makevejev directed the following movies:

• Man is Not a Bird (1965), writer
• Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator (1967), writer
• Innocence Unprotected (1968), writer
• W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971), writer
• Sweet Movie (1974), writer
• Montenegro (1981), writer
• The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)
• Manifesto (1988), writer
• Gorilla Bathes at Noon (1993), writer
• Hole in the Soul (1994)
• Danish Girls Show Everything (1996) "Dream" segment

References

1. ^ http://arhiva.kurir-info.rs/Arhiva/2004/februar/02/ST-02-01022004.shtml
2. ^ "Berlinale 1968: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1968/03_preistr_ger_1968/03_Preistraeger_1968.html. Retrieved 2010-03-05. 
3. ^ "Berlinale 1970: Juries". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1970/04_jury_1970/04_Jury_1970.html. Retrieved 2010-03-08. 
4. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045568/

Notes

• Article on Man Is Not a Bird in Senses of Cinema http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/08/49/man-is-not-a-bird.html

External links

• Dusan Makavejev at the Internet Movie Database
• Dušan Makavejev biography
• Interview - a Hungarian interview.
• English-language interview (2000)
• Goran Markovic Горан Марковиќ "Dušan Makavejev or a Free Man" (in Serbian)
• Critical Review
• A photograph of Dusan Makavejev: http://www.filmreference.com/images/sjff_02_img0759.jpg
• Man Is Not a Bird (TCM Movie Morlocks)
• Literature on Dusan Makavejev

Persondata
Name	Makavejev, Dusan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1932-10-13
Place of birth	Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Date of death
Place of death