PUNK BEFORE PUNK: YOUNG AND HEALTHY AS A ROSE (1971) BY JOVAN JOVANOVIC
Posted: Sep 30th 2008
Author: Uroš Smiljanić
Mlad i zdrav kao ruža (Young and Healthy as a Rose, 1971) was the first feature film of a young Serbian film director, Jovan Jovanović (1940). Jovanović was considered to be one of the up and coming mavericks of the new Yugoslav cinema, having enjoyed a degree of international success with his previous two documentaries. By analyzing the „punk“ aesthetics of his feature debut before the punk movement was even born, the text emphasizes the prophetic side of the film and some of the reasons why the reactions to it at the time of its realease were unfavorable. Few critics were praising the energy of the film yet the media at large and the organisations of the socialist society were attacking it as reactionary, insulting to the socialist values and politically unacceptable. There was no official ban of the film, but it was never seen again in theatres or on television until 2006. Jovanović’s film is a chaotic pre-punk rock, pre-Dogme 95 avant-garde cinema, with shaky camera, improvised dialogue and ecstatic disregard for causality. It references American and European leftist cinema while at the same time satirising the socialist values, consumer mentality, youth rebellion, secret services and organized crime. Its energy is captivating even as its narrative and images spiral into barely controlled chaos, but its most enduring quality is how accurately it managed to foresee the degenerative developments over the following three decades in Yugoslavia and make fun of them in advance.
2007 - 2010 Novi kadrovi, supported by Open Society Institute New York, and SCP Pro Helvetia Beograd, website by Breve