Vlada Petrić Explained

Vladimir "Vlada" Petrić (March 11, 1928 – November 13, 2019) was an eminent theoretician, historian and aesthetician of cinema, a professor at Harvard University and co-founder of the Harvard Film Archive. Professor Petrić was the first scholar to receive a doctoral degree in film studies in the United States at New York University in the Department of Cinema Studies.[1]

At the beginning of his career he was involved as a director in film, television and theater, and later focused on experimental film. He was the recipient of many awards, including a Fulbright scholarship to the United States and the prestigious award from the Anthology Film Archives in New York City.[2]

Biography

Childhood and education

Vladimir Petrić was born in 1928 in Prnjavor, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, where he attended the first two grades of elementary school. Before the outbreak of World War II, he attended school in Bosanska Gradiška, in Bosnia. His family moved to Serbia, where his father was a geodesist in Pančevo, where Petrić finished his primary and secondary education and graduated in 1948. As a student, he participated in a Drama Studio, which was an adjunct of the Pančevo Theater, one of the most important theaters in Serbia, headed by the famous Russian director and pedagogue, Alexander Vereshchagin. In 1949 he passed the entrance exams for both the Drama Studio at the National Theater in Belgrade and the Serbian Film School. Although he loved theater, he opted for the Film School, which was then headed by the Zagreb actor Vjekoslav Afrić, who had also been the director of the first Yugoslav feature-length film, Slavica (1947). After Film School, Petrić had a position at the Academy of Theater, Film, Radio and Television. He became an assistant to Afrić in his directing class and to Josip Kulundžić in his acting class, while at the same time continuing with his studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, where he graduated in the Department of English Language and Literature in 1956, and in 1958 graduated in theater directing after studying with Kulundžić.[3]

Early career

Petrić became an associate professor of film history at the Academy of Theater, Film, Radio and Television in 1959 and in the following year received the title of professor. 

He began his career as a film director at Radio Television Belgrade when it was first established in 1958. Petrić participated in the performance of the first television program that was broadcast. It was the first televised broadcast of a theater play, which took place on December 28, 1958, performed at the avant-garde theater Atelje 212. The play Ljubovna zavist črez jedne cipele by Joakim Vujić was adapted and directed by Petrić,[4] who received an award for directing at the Sterijino Pozorje Festival for this play. Between 1960 and 1965 he was head of film department at Radio Television Belgrade and editor of movie program.

Petrić simultaneously published literary and theatre critiques, articles and essays in Politika and NIN, as well as in magazines and journals such as Književnost, Delo, Savremenik, Scena, Književne novine, Mladost, Letopis Matice Srpske, Kultura, Film, Filmske sveske, Polja, and others. At this time he directed the ritual drama Slovo svetlosti on the stage of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad. In Petrić's manuscript legacy there is a substantial chronicle which details the creative process of this experimental stage achievement and the preparatory work on it.

In the period between 1965 and 1968 Petrić spent three semesters attending specialist studies at the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow, where he intended to join the doctoral program at that institute, but was unsuccessful due to an ideological disagreement with professor Nikolai Lebedev, and he subsequently returned to Belgrade. While in Moscow, he studied Soviet film under the tutelage of the great Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov.

Departure for the United States

As a recipient of the Fulbright scholarship, and at the invitation of the Film Archive at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), he left for New York City in 1969, where he began work on the classification of Soviet silent films.[5] He simultaneously started gathering the materials for his doctoral dissertation (on the relationship between Soviet and American silent film), which he defended in 1973 at New York University, thereby becoming the first doctor of Cinema Studies in the United States. He became an associate professor of English Language and Literature at the State University of New York in the period between 1972 and 1974, as well as a visiting professor at Purchase College at the Conservatory of Theater Arts.

Engagement at Harvard University

Immediately after receiving his doctoral degree (in 1973), Petrić received a position at the Henry Luce Chair at Harvard University, where he lectured as a professor of film history and theory. He remained in that position until his retirement in 1997.[6] He held lectures at a multitude of universities in the United States, Europe and Asia during this time. Together with the documentary filmmaker Robert Gardner and the philosopher Stanley Cavell, Petrić established the Harvard Film Archive and became its first curator, fulfilling this duty until his retirement.[7] Throughout his career, he published essays and critiques in eminent magazines such as Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Cinema Journal, Film Quarterly, The Harvard Crimson, Harvard Magazine, Harvard Gazette, etc.

Theatrical, Cinematic and Literary Opus

"Since the middle of the 1970's, Petrić authored a series of films and books which extol cinema. The Studio for Digital Media at the Yugoslav Film Archive in Belgrade is named in his honor. He is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Belgrade Festival of Documentary and Short Film, where he had earlier received an award for the screenplay of his documentary film Wall of Memories."[8]

Some of Petrić's most successful plays include: Teater Joakima Vujića performed at the Atelje 212 (1958), Slovo svetlosti at the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad (1967), and an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the US (1980). He directed the short experimental film Kobna žed (1964) in cooperation with Ljubomir Radičević and also directed the 50-minute feature film Kavez (1966). In 1970, he appeared as a supporting actor in Mel Brooks’ film The Twelve Chairs (1970). His experimental film Light Play – A Replay from 1990 represents a cinematic appropriation of the film Ein Lichtspiel Schwarz Weiss Grau by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1930), while the intimate digital essay Wall of Memories from 2003 represents a "digital manifesto" of Petrić's career. 

The scholarly theoretical works by Petrić encompass works of seminal importance to film theory and history, in which he primarily focused on researching and promoting film (cinema) as an autonomous artistic medium. He published a significant number of books both in Yugoslavia and the United States: Čarobni ekran (1962), Šekspir i film (1964), Uvođenje u film (1964), Razvoj filmskih vrsta (1969), Televizija – osma sila (1970), Griffith’s Early Masterpiece: A Corner in Wheat (1979), Six Essays on Film (1980), Film and Dreams:  An Approach to Bergman (1981), Constructivism in Film: The Man With the Movie Camera – A Cinematic Analysis (1987).

He died in Belgrade, Serbia.[9]

Petrić on Art

On Artistic Creativity

On Alternative film

On the Effect of Cinematic Motion Pictures

On Theatrical Art

On Slavko Vorkapić

On Marina Abramović

The Vlada Petrić Foundation

The Vlada Petrić Foundation is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the life and works of Vlada Petrić. The basic goal of the Foundation is to gather and present Vlada Petrić's works in the fields of film history, theory, and aesthetics, as well as his works on art in general. The Foundation has as its goal to publish Petrić's written works as well as to organize exhibitions, symposia and scholarly events and the awarding of prizes in collaboration with the Harvard Film Archive and the Yugoslav Film Archive. The Foundation also collaborates with cultural institutions, artistic organizations and individuals who are conducting research and creating works in the field of film and art. Moreover, the Foundation contributes to the expansion of the material contained in the Vlada Petrić Collection, which is part of the Harvard Film Archive, to assist in the promotion of scholarly research.[19]

Bibliography

Filmography

As director

As Screenwriter

As actor

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Vlada Petric Collection – Collection. May 10, 2021. Harvard Film Archive. en.
  2. Web site: Anthology Film Archives : Support – 2011 Film Preservation Honors & 40th Anniversary Benefit Concert. May 10, 2021. anthologyfilmarchives.org.
  3. Web site: International Federation of Film Archives. May 10, 2021. www.fiafnet.org.
  4. Web site: Golubović-Trebješanin. Borka. Pozorišni vremeplov pred gledaocima. May 10, 2021. Politika Online.
  5. Web site: Преминуо проф. др Влада Петрић. May 10, 2021. www.kinoteka.org.rs. en-US.
  6. Web site: Ty Burr . November 21, 2019. The man with a movie passion: remembering Vlada Petric . May 10, 2021. The Boston Globe. en-US.
  7. Web site: November 1, 2005. The Harvard Film Archive. May 10, 2021. Harvard Magazine. en.
  8. Web site: U čast zaštitnika filma SEEcult.org. May 10, 2021. www.seecult.org.
  9. Web site: Serbia. RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of. Preminuo profesor i reditelj Vladimir Petrić. May 10, 2021. www.rts.rs.
  10. Petrić. Vlada. Pismo Vlade Petrića. Filmograf. 1984. 27. 55–56.
  11. Petrić. Vlada. Začarani krug. Književne novine. 1960. 131. 1.
  12. Lazić. Radoslav. Razgovor sa Vladom Petrićem. Filmograf. 1985. 31. 57–58.
  13. Petrić. Vladimir. Smisao i dejstvo filmske slike. Književne novine. 1985. 62. 10.
  14. Petrić. Vladimir. Put ka istini. Književne novine. 1964. 216. 5.
  15. Petrić. Vlada. Lice pred kamerom. Književne novine. 1964. 217. 6.
  16. Petrić. Vlada. Pozorište i tradicija. Književne novine. 1958. 66. 5.
  17. Petrić. Vlada. Vorkapićev efekt. Filmograf. 1978. 8. 95–96.
  18. Web site: Petrić. Vlada. Oči u oči sa Marinom. May 10, 2021. Politika Online.
  19. Web site: Kinopravda Institute. May 10, 2021. en-US.

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