Fritz Lang left Ljutomer as a filmmaker

Because movie directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola but Ridley Scott They have not yet reported to the organizers of the Grossmann festival to present the Ljutomer story of one of the greatest film artists on the big screen, Fritza Langawho spent half a year at the center of Prlekija, was done by Zoran Smiljanić. As a screenwriter and cartoonist, he has created another excellent, film -dynamic comic book entitled Fritz Lang: Ljutomer -Berlin -Hollywood.

More than a suitable announcement for this year’s Grossmann Festival Fantastic Film and Wine Festival, 21. A row, which will take place from 2 to 6 July in Ljutomer, is a comic book, published by the Ljutomer and ZRC SAZU Cultural Tourist Association. On just under 130 pages, history is forever written, of course, with a completely realistic starting point in the present, historical and nothing idealized data from Fritz Lang’s life and interesting trips to fantasy.

This year marks 110 years since he lived and created Austrian-American director Fritz Lang (1890-1976) in Ljutomer for half a year, considered one of the most influential film directors of the 20th century. With his films, he greatly influenced the aesthetics and themes of future films and crucial to genres such as Noir, thriller and science fiction.

He was sent to the school for reserve officers as a twenty-five-year-old volunteer in the town on the outskirts of Austria-Hungary, in Ljutomer. “He stayed with local lawyer and educator dr. Karol Grossmann (1864–1929), then experienced amateur photographer and recorder whose shots from 1905 are considered the first Slovenian film records, « he wrote in the comic book introduction Tomaž Horvat from the Grossmann festival. Lang, who was working on painting and sculpture at the time, arranged a sculptural studio with a local potter, while teaching drawing.

Came as a painter and sculptor

“Grossmann undoubtedly informed Langa and impressed about film art and technology. However, it is difficult to assess the actual impact of the first Slovenian filmmaker on Lang in his formative years, « writes Horvat, and continues: » The fact is that Fritz Lang came to Ljutomer in 1915 as a painter and sculptor, and went as a filmmaker. The rest is history. « 

Ljutomer around 1906. Photo: from comics Fritz Lang

That is why in Ljutomer, since 2005, they have been organizing the Grossmann festival of fantastic film and wine, which is dedicated to the history or Grossmann’s cosmopolitan and pioneering spirit. Visitors, that is, real film lovers who are willing to experiment with the boundaries of good taste and morality, offer a program of fantastic, horrifying, wild and cult films. « Our purpose is to at least partially restore the danger and boldness of contemporary cinema, which, with its lukewarmness, political correctness and desire for universal pleasure, is increasingly losing its former reputation, influence, creativity and thus viewership, » they say on the festival website.

Karol Grossmann also presented Fritz Lang the movie. Photo: Wikipedia

The festival event is also the starting point of Smiljanic’s comic book, in which Lang then tells of his life, and the facts he liked to change is placed in a real light by unsecured associates and acquaintances. Of course, it is not without fantasy or zombies, robots and other fantastic creatures portrayed by Lang in his films.

Smiljanić admits that his films had already marked him as a child. A comic book with excellent film education is impressed by Lang, especially over Tired death, nibelungi, metropolis, spish and the movie M – the city is looking for a killer. He was « impressed with a modern approach, original directing solutions, quick cuts, unusual camera maneuvers, stunning art, chosen design, shocking topics, light and shadow play, in which the topic has usually won, both fine and substantive. »

Lang is theatrical, megalomaniacal, sometimes Germanic hard, describes it. « Above all, he was bold, provocative, engaged, prophetic, and also a humorous director, who liked to demolish the taboos and achieved what he was told that he could not or not. » Life and death: “The man of contradictions. One of those great creators who would not have to deal with personally, but as a comic book hero, he was ideal. « 

The third generation of Slovenian comic books

Fritz Lang is considered one of the most important filmmakers. Photo: Wikipedia

One of the most prominent comic books in our country also says that he drew this comic relaxed and easily: “I flashed between realism, German expressionism and Noir, jumping from surrealism to fiction, affording more or less everything that came to my mind within the given frames. I enjoyed most of the time. I hope you will be.  »

Zoran Smiljanić, who has been creating for some time under the pseudonym Vittorio de la Croce, belongs to the third generation of Slovenian comic strips, who, under the influence of French new wave and the third generation of Croatian comic book, replaced the adventurous comic book by comics that criticized not only a gloomy future but also a gloomy present. He had already warned himself with a shocking comic book for the time [1945. It was similar to Hardfuckers between 1987 and 1991. He drew monumental work between 2006 and 2016 Mexicansthen in 2018 his comic book Ivan Cankar became the book of the year. According to Cankar, Plečnik also began in 2021 and Kajuha in 2023. The comic book about Fritz Lang only confirms that he is undoubtedly one of our greatest masters of this art genre.

The book contains two prefaces about how and why the comic was created – one was written by Tomaž Horvat, the other Zoran Smiljanić – and thinking Marcela Štefančič jr. About Fritz Lang as the hero of our time. It also houses Lang’s filmography since 1917, when a film was made according to his screenplay Whipdirected by Adolf Gartner through the legendary Metropolis from 1927 to the last, film Despite in 1963. Not even a list of literature and videos of Lang.