At the 52nd International Film Festival FEST, which will be held from 23 February to 3 March, the audience will be able to see the last film of the former Yugoslavia acting scene great, RadkoPolič, ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ (Pamtim samo sretne dane).
This film, which is shown in the Gala programme selection, is directed by Nevio Marasović and written by the Norwegian Gjermund Gisvold.
In addition to Radko Polič, a large cast consists of Tena Nemet Brankov, Lana Meniga, Leona Paraminski, Tonka Kovačić, Zlatko Burić-Kićo, Stjepan Perić, Dado Ćosić, Vinko Kraljević and many others.
At the beginning of the film, an elderly gentleman comes to a restaurant and observes the guests in it. It seems like a casual glance as he waits for his dinner, yet it becomes clear that the life of others, which he observes, is actually his life, and that the restaurant is a waiting room for another world.
According to critics, but also the audience, who received the film very well, one of the most charismatic actors from this region played his last role perfectly: ‘He left in style. He hardly speaks in this role. He talks a little at the beginning and at the end, but is mostly silent and analyzes what is happening with his characteristic penetrating gaze. His face sometimes reveals more than all the dialogue’, which is a recommendation not to miss the film ‘Good Times, Bad Times’.
The filming was interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic during 2019 and 2020. Director Marasović, as he said, knew in advance that the best actor for this film was Radko Polič.
The film crew visited Polič in Ljubljana, and, as they said, during the conversation, he was hesitant. However, when he read the script a few days later, even though he had already been severely affected by a deadly disease, he immediately changed his mind and enthusiastically accepted the role. The film was shot on Sundays in the Zagreb restaurant ‘Pri zvoncu’, which is why the already weakened Polič was able to keep up with the filming pace. The film is named after Arsen Dedić;s song, performed by Gabi Novak. It is interesting, however, that the film opens and ends with Arsen's song ‘Ono sve što znaš o meni’.
At the premiere as part of the Pula Film Festival, director Marasović said that even though Polič had not attended the premiere of his last film, he had seen the film before his death. ‘While he was watching the film, you could see in his eyes that he liked it. It was symbolically close to him. He knew it would be his last film,’ said Marasović.
The critics in Croatia pointed out that Polič ‘identified with the character as much as possible and acted with tears in his eyes, as if he was saying goodbye to life in every scene, aware that this film was his “waiting room for another world”’.
Polič appeared in more than one hundred and fifty films, over one hundred theatre plays and dozens of radio dramas. He left an indelible mark on the Slovenian theatre, and the list of roles, for which he will remain in the memory of the audience throughout the countries of the former Yugoslavia, is really long and impressive. He will be remembered as one of the most respectedfilm actors of the former Yugoslavia. Before ‘The Rift of a Nation’ (Ravna Gora), he appeared in
Goran Marković's film ‘Falsifier’ (Falsifikator), where he played Tito. Before that, he did not appear in Serbian cinema for many years, since the last film by Živojin Pavlović, ‘The State of the Dead’ (Država mrtvih) in 2002.
All these are reasons to see ‘Good Times, Bad Times’, which will be shown on 1 March (Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 7.30 p.m.), 2 March (Cineplexx Galerija, Hall 5, 10 p.m.) and 3 March (Cineplexx Ušće, Hall 1, 2.30 p.m.).
