Cinema
One Song a Day Takes Mischief Away
Tko pjeva zlo ne misli
Krešimir Golik · 1970
Synopsis
Zagreb, in the mid-thirties, during a week in summer. Ana Šafranek, young and pretty, is bored with Franjo, her much older husband. During an outing to Samobor, an elegant seducer, Mr Fulir, photographs her and charms her; from Tuesday he comes to her home to bring the photographs. Mina, Ana's sister, an old maid, falls in love with him in turn, and Franjo, who suspects nothing, decides to marry him to his sister-in-law. Perica, the nine-year-old son, records everything in his diary.
Context
Released in 1970, it runs ninety-five minutes; the director wrote the screenplay alone, based on Vjekoslav Majer's Journal du petit Perica (1942). Subtitled a love comedy with songs, it follows the form of a diary, day after day, and is shot in an apartment in the upper town, in the courtyard where the neighbours see everything and in the places where Zagreb people take their walks, Samobor, Maksimir, the beach on the Sava. The songs, from drinking songs to refrains, drive the action forward. No film filled cinemas more on its release, and it has become a cult film.
Who it is for
An hour and a half in colour, in the speech of Zagreb, with many pre-war songs that a translation cannot convey.
Prizes and reception
Voted the best Croatian film of all time by critics in 1990 and again in 1999, third in the 2020 survey; bronze arena for its director at Pula.
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