SERBIAN CRIME FILMS – MURDER COMMITTED IN A SLY AND CRUEL MANNER AND WITH LOW MOTIVES (1969) BY ŽIKA MITROVIĆ
Posted: Sep 30th 2008
Author: Đorđe Bajić
This essay analyzes cinematic ways in which Živorad Žika Mitrović (1921-2005) made his thrillers, despite the very poor tradition of Yugoslav crime/thriller films and literature he could rely on at the moment. Mitrović adopted some of the classical narrative techniques of film noir and detective films (flashbacks, investigation, suspense) and mixed them with documentary style, film-in-film and “local color”. This is most visible in the film Ubistvo na podmukao i svirep način i iz niskih pobuda (Murder Committed in a Sly and Cruel Manner and With Low Motives, 1969) which Mitrović made after his black and white masterpiece Nož (The Knife, 1967). Murder… takes a well-known situation of a falsely accused man, but then becomes distinctive by the usage of color and set-pieces unusual for its time in Serbian film, and by creating the world of media-dominated “swingin’ Belgrade” yearning for spectacles and scandals, with celebrities, journalists and high-class on the one side and hippies, hipsters and alternative groups on another. The author of the essay argues that, if properly positioned in the history of Serbian crime films, Mitrović would assume the preeminent position among directors in a genre whose heritage could be valuable to younger directors, but still hasn’t been well recognized and put into practice.
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