The University of Zadar and Kino Zona invite you to the presentation of the book "Classic Film Noir: The Dark Mirror of America" by Rajko Petković, which will take place on Tuesday, May 14, in the Providur Palace, starting at 6 p.m.
Rajko Petković was born in 1972 in Zadar, where he graduated from high school. He completed his studies in English language and literature, sociology and philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar. In 1997, he enrolled in postgraduate studies in American studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, and in 2002 he defended his master's thesis entitled 'Film noir and its legacy in American film'. In 2003, he started working at the Teacher Training College in Gospić. In 2009, he defended his doctoral dissertation in the field of filmology - 'American independent film of the eighties and nineties'. In 2010, he started working as a senior assistant at the Department of English at the University of Zadar. Since 2012, he has been working as an assistant professor in the same department and teaches filmology courses. He is a member of the Association for American Studies of Southeast Europe. In addition to film noir and American independent film, he is interested in the history of film style, Croatian film, animated film and classic Hollywood.
Classic American film noir is one of the most important currents in the history of Hollywood, which significantly expanded its stylistic, narrative, iconographic, and worldview repertoire. As the classic Hollywood style is the American national style, and it is also the main model imitated by all national styles of the middle current, the analysis of the works belonging to the canon of classic film noir (1941-1958) should significantly contribute to the understanding of both the classic Hollywood style and away from him. The book uses different methodological approaches (stylistic analysis, feminism, existentialism, spatial geography, outlining the historical and social context) and can be applied to a number of different disciplines.
The book "Classic Film Noir: The Dark Mirror of America" is divided into seven parts, it contains twenty analyzes of crucial film noir, all of which should serve as examples of selected theoretical approaches and themes. Since there are no similar editions in Croatia, this monograph will try to fill that empty space and offer arguments that it is a phenomenon that is extremely important both for the history of American and world cinema, as well as for modern film as a whole, because the traces of film noir are extremely visible in many of today's film works.
Assoc. prof. will talk about the book. Ph.D. Mirko Duić and its author prof. Ph.D. Rajko Petkovic.
