Dnevnik velikog Perice

"Dnevnik velikog Perice" (2021) is a TV series created and touted as a supposed successor to the 1970s film "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli".

"Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" (1970), directed by the late great Kreso Golik, was a film adaptation of the play "Dnevnik malog Perice", an escapist burlesque of the middle-class Zagreb of the pre-WWII period. It was a piece of comedy magic, something very rarely achieved in Croatian cinema. It was a huge commercial success at the time it was made, it has been fondly remembered by all generations ever since, and is indeed a part of the cultural heritage, no less, as the characters and the dialogue are cemented in the folklore. There is a broad consensus that it's the best Croatian comedy of all time.

A pretty high bar to match, as is the case with every classic. But someone was shameless and stupid enough to try. This 2021 TV-series takes up the name (albeit of the play version) in a clear attempt to leech off some of the appeal of the original, and puts the timeframe a few decades ahead, in the 1960s Zagreb, when the youngest character, Perica, who is now promoted to the central character, has become an adult man and the communists have taken over the society. The director of the series, Vinko Bresan, stated that the series is taking inspiration from - rather than trying to be a direct sequel to - the old classic. I can see why he'd say that, now that I've finished watching it: "Dnevnik velikog Perice" is a brazenly boring and insipid mess, done by talentless hacks across the board. It really has got very little in common with its predecessor.

It's definitely a sequel, though, since it utilizes two characters (Perica and his mother), one prop (a wedding photograph) and one member of the original cast (the aging Mirjana Bohanec in the role of the mother) from the original. Also, it makes use of the fact that nearly all the original cast members are no longer with us, so the story starts after their respective characters would have died in the timeline.

As for the inspiration from the original film, there is none to be seen. None, whatsoever. The series is, in fact, a pure antithesis to the film. "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" was a quirky, witty, high-tempo slapstick, full of life and energy. "Dnevnik velikog Perice" is a tired queue of long and empty set-pieces that go on forever and get nowhere. "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" had characters so colourful and so well developed by the screenwriters and the cast, that they were driving the plot forward on their own. "Dnevnik velikog Perice" has got more characters, but they are so bland that they had to be given backgrounds, vocations and plot points, yet all that extra load still couldn't make for an interesting story. The cast is at a loss on what they are supposed to do with their roles, so each one of them tries their own shtick, but they don't gel. "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" was virtually free of politics of any kind. It was simply a timeless study of characters, which is why it's loved to this day. "Dnevnik velikog Perice" has obvious political undertones and overtones and that makes it wholly predictable, bogs it down and alienates a big chunk of the audience who could just use some escapist fun in times when everything is saturated with politics. "Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli" was a nostalgic throwback to the good old days, and one could just feel the spirit of old Zagreb watching it. "Dnevnik velikog Perice" is a convoluted throwback to the times it obviously doesn't care about. The sets are anachronistic and lifeless, there is very few visual or aural cues that would give away the 1960s period, and the kitschy cinematography didn't help at all. It could've been any given period, really, it just so happens that the 60s were the most convenient, so they went with that.

So what was really the inspiration behind this? In a nutshell, the state funds and the lack of original ideas. That's it, really. Vinko Bresan is one of the "chosen ones" when it comes to the access to the government subsidies for filmmaking. It's not completely without merit, though. He did once make the *second* best Croatian comedy of all time ("Kako je poceo rat na mom otoku", 1996). The brilliant screenplay by his father Ivo, a great playwright of his generation, helped a lot. But then he treated us, from then on, to exhausting attempts to further exploit what he successfully tapped into in that first film of his - the counterpoint between rural and urban Croatia and the accompanying politics. Here, in a change of direction, he tries to tackle a purely urban milieu, something he, coming from a semi-rural background himself, has got zero sensibility for. I think he knows it and this is just a grift for him. A way to pocket some undeserved money. Nothing more.

Even if he approached it sincerely, which I doubt, this TV series finds him way out of his depth as an author and woefully inadequate as a director. Having an attitude and a huge ego just don't cut it. As a result, "Dnevnik velikog Perice" comes across two ways: at best, it's a smug high-concept of "what if a timeless masterpiece - that needs no sequel - got a sequel?" (the co-writer Albino Ursic, a man of a questionable sensibility himself, pretty much admitted to that in an interview); at worst, it's an ugly piece of graffitti on a classical building and one just wishes to take a big hose and blast it off the wall, and put the sacrilegious perpetrators behind bars. Unfortunately, in this case, the perpetrators will probably just end up getting more funds from the sychophantic administration to commit more vandalisms like this. And they will be considered successful, as long as the ride lasts.

But time knows that creating for the Ministry of Culture and creating actual culture are not the same thing.