Ritam zlocina

It is not easy to find a novel by Pavao Pavlicic that couldn't be transferred to a movie. And it is impossible to find the movie made after his novels that was a failure. Finally, it would be very difficult to find a director that could feel Pavlicic's novels so well, so deeply like Tadic had.

It is a pity that Pavlicic was writing and Tadic making movies in a country that is not rich enough to use all those potentialities – in some other cinematography it's easy to imagine Tadic making one movie per year and at least half of them making after Pavlicic's novels.

In "Ritam zlocina" Tadic feels not only the soul of the novel, but the soul of Zagreb suburbs where the movie takes place. Suburbs that have mostly vanished by now, or will in only few years. Suburbs that have their own soul, their own life, that have existed in almost every big town in the world, that have been villages a century ago, and have been slowly approached, then surrounded and finally swallowed and digested by their big neighbor. But in those few decades when they were in process of turning from villages to towns they developed some special characteristics, where people kept their gardens as miniatures of old fields and meadows, still digging a little and growing carrots and tulips, keeping old close relations to the neighbors, knowing every person living two streets away, not only by name, but knowing names of their distant relatives somewhere in Germany or America, knowing what these people do for life (officially or illegally), knowing what church they go to (if they do), what will they kids become in their lives (often better than their own parents). Life similar to life in some streets few blocks away from the centre of smaller towns like Virovitica, Bjelovar, Vinkovci, Koprivnica... But people in those small towns have to walk five minutes to reach the centre that has few big buildings, one theater, one big and several small stores, a hospital and a police station, some public services and a soccer stadium and a hall for handball and basketball. People in big town suburbs have to take a tram or bus and suddenly they are in another world, another space. So many possibilities offered, so many choices. But, in the same time, so many dangers, so many temptations. One square big as their whole suburb, one park bigger than all their gardens and schoolyard put together, one skyscraper giving homes to more people that will ever live in their area bounded by three avenues and a river. Magnificent and frightening, astonishing and threatening, seducing like Delilah, like Circe, like Sirens ready to swallow too incautious sailors. So they prefer to stay in their little shell, hoping that big, strange and perilous world won't touch their small community – though deep inside knowing that it is inevitably.

(This vanishing world of Zagreb's suburbs was shown in "Tko pjeva zlo ne misli" and "Snivaj, zlato moje"; but both movies take place in former decades – before or just after WWII, and how these suburbs look like today can be seen best in serial "Smogovci", and partially in "Ispod crte".) And then the day comes when machines come and in only few days the century old streets, houses, gardens disappear to make place for heartless 10 or 20 floor buildings same as in every town on the Earth. Those small worlds that each have its own soul, ow spirit are replaced by one same world that has no soul, no spirit.

"Ritam zlocina" has to be seen as an ode or epitaph for those worlds. And the original title of the novel "Good Spirit of Zagreb" expresses this mood much better. Everything in the movie is less important. But not less great.

This movie preserves this world forever, keeps it for the history. And in the same time, the movie is one of the most prominent stones in building of Croatian movie history.

Based on the novel of Pavao Pavlicic, "Ritam zlocina" is a movie with good acting and a very pleasant atmosphere that will lull you in a state of relaxation and enjoyment, even in the movie's more tense scenes (which there aren't a lot of). In the movie there is also an adaptation of one of the most legendary poems in Croatian history and is performed amazingly. Acting is also on the right level. All in all, the movie will keep you interested from it's start to the end and I recommend it to you if you like crime movies and movies with good atmosphere. 8/10!

I saw this film in terrible quality and still liked it. It has a two things which are usually rare in films: good acting and an original story. In this case, a man wants to hire a room from some guy who lives in the outskirts of Zagreb. The guy accepts. They talk from time to time. The older tells about his fascination for crime statistics, he seems to be able to 'read' them.

This is an interesting, smart story, written by Pavao Pavlicic, and translated to the screen by Zoran Tadic. It reminded me a bit of modern absurd cinema, like the stories of Efthymis Filippou (Alps). Never before I have seen a film using statistics and maths this way. Not much happens but it is still intriguing and absurd until the very end, that's how smart this story is. However, I understand the viewers who find this story getting too supernatural for its own good.

And then the wonderful acting. I really felt that Fabijan (who is also called Fabijan in real life) is madly passionate about statistics, and that Ivica (also Ivica in real life) has initially no interest (he has interests of his own, reading books and talking to Zdenka, his former girlfriend). Fabijan's spell over Ivica grows gradually.

The film has the looks of a modern art-house film (straightforward scenes, slow, observing). But in 1981 this style wasn't as common then as it is now. Therefore is this style ahead of its time. I rate it 8/10.

The movie has been released in 1980. not in 1981 [cf. the tail of the movie, please, where it says "1980"]. Otherwise, reviews/reviewers are completely along my personal opinion about this remarkable movie (with Pavao Pavlicic's text) which I watched three times within the last week. I live in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia, but I love Zagreb, as well.

... masterpiece. Story is original, acting is excellent, dark atmosphere & suspense. Everything is quite slow but flowing smooth. I remember watching this for the first time when I was 14 old kid, I was completely overwhelmed. I watched a movie ten years later and feeling was the same. Old good cinematography with 50000$ budget.