Connecting the common, i.e. the experience of the collective in film and dramatic art, with the psychiatric term and group therapy treatment, the famous director Goran Markovic he spoke yesterday at the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU).
In front of an audience of all generations and professions, which is not typical for events of this type organized by CANU, Marković gave a lecture based on the topic "Common experience in dramatic art", which he had previously prepared for the world congress of group psychoanalysis, by invitation eminent psychoanalysts.
Marković pointed out that the authors, protagonists and viewers have a dramatic experience at the same time, which interpenetrate and influence each other, which is a prerequisite for a drama to be a drama and for it to act and exist as such. He compared the world of dramatic experience to the world of dreams and pointed out that it is different from everyday life.
"Film art is a place where story and dream meet directly and often form a unity... Every story brings an idea, but it is interesting that the idea is not only the end product of the story, but also its reason for existence. People often think that the camera is placed in a certain place by the director, but this is not entirely true. The decision of what to record and how to record is determined by the idea. That is why film is a collective art in which there is no single author. There is only an idea around which a hundred people are gathered, ready to realize that idea and offer it to the world for inspection," Marković pointed out.
The director referred to some of the world's most significant stories, which are proof that literature, and then dramatic art, contribute to understanding the world, society, time, and ultimately - oneself.
"There are things that we cannot feel, understand, accept, until they are separated from reality and become a story, a fiction - if you will... A man who has not read the myths of Sisyphus, Prometheus, Oedipus, in my opinion, is not capable of understanding the world that surrounds him. Or the Bible, look at what a powerful story it is," he stated.
Associate member of CANU, director Branko Baletic he pointed out that behind what Marković talks about in his lecture, there is actually everything that his films talk about. Baletić also reminded of the civic and artistic conscience by which Goran Marković has always acted and because of which even today he faces various negative comments from the top of the ruling structures, but also faces the impossibility of work. Baletić singled out, among others, the film "Variola vera" in which, he says, Marković concluded in advance what would happen in the former Yugoslavia and Serbia.
"That film is still interesting today. Serbia and the region have not found a cure for the epidemic of nationalism, although for some others, like covid, there is a cure", suggested Baletić, and Marković confirmed his statement and interpretation of the cult film.
"'Variola vera' is a film born out of my student desire to make a film Camus 'The Plague'. The 'Plague' was created as an artist's fiction and everything was related to fascism, so Bale was well aware that behind 'Variola' there was a greater misfortune than that epidemic was. Back then, we used to express ourselves in allegories in films, because not everything could be said directly. When I showed that film to the students of Columbia University in New York, I explained that it was not a film about a medical phenomenon, but a film about a disease of society... They were amazed and could not understand that people on the other side of the world speak in metaphors, symbols, indirectly, which our people then understood and were trained to decode," said Marković.
In his presentation, Marković emphasized that the director is often considered the author of the film, which, he says, "is not true, or is somewhat true."
"Essentially, the director's role is to harmonize other people's creativity into a single whole, given that he is the only one who has insight into the totality of the work. A director does not have to be good at any artistic profession, but he must have the ability to get their creative maximum from others. In short, he is everything and nothing," he said.
Baletić introduced the audience to Marković's rich career, emphasizing their decades-long acquaintance, while Marković added that they built a career together, supported and inspired each other, and shared a couple of anecdotes with the audience...
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