Aleksandar Petrovic

Birthday

Oct 17, 1921

Bio: Yugoslavian director Aleksandar Petrovic was one of his country's most prominent filmmakers during the 1960s. His best-known films are Tri (Three), which earned the highest award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1965, and Skupljaci Perja (I Even Met Some Happy Gypsies), which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1967. Petrovic got his start as a film critic… More Bio: Yugoslavian director Aleksandar Petrovic was one of his country's most prominent filmmakers during the 1960s. His best-known films are Tri (Three), which earned the highest award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 1965, and Skupljaci Perja (I Even Met Some Happy Gypsies), which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1967. Petrovic got his start as a film critic following graduation from Belgrade University. His writings on cinema made him one of Yugoslavia's most respected film critics during the '50s. He then directed a few documentaries. Petrovic made his feature-film directorial debut with Dvoje (When Love Is Gone) (1961). This and his subsequent film, Dani (Days) (1963), were heavily influenced by French New Wave and heralded the dawning of the "Black Wave" in Yugoslavian cinema. Following the success of Skupljaci Perja, Petrovic began having difficulty with his government. It began when governmental officials took offense with his adaptation of Bulgakov's novel Majstor i Margarita (The Master and Margarita) (1972), calling the film a direct assault against communism. In 1973, Petrovic was forced to leave his post at the Belgrad Film Academy because of the scandal surrounding the film Plastic Jesus, which was made by his protégé, Lazar Stojanovic. Though he would continue on to make two more films, one of them in France, Petrovic's promising career was over. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi