Belgrade



At the moment, film “Doctor Ray and the Devils (Doktor Rej i Djavoli)” by Dinko Tucaković is in the process of making in Belgrade Serbia and features character of a great American film director Nicholas Ray (1911 – 1979), the most famous for his films ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘Johny Guitar.’ Nicholas Ray was a fascinating film director with wonderful ability to, according to a film curator in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, “ find the emotional and narrative heart of a story". Film director Nicholas Ray has influenced generations of filmmakers from those of the French New Wave to a film director of nowadays while Jean-Luc Godard once proclaimed: "Cinema is Nicholas Ray". Towards (what would prove itself to be) the end of his film-making career in 1964, Nicolas Ray found himself in former Yugoslavia for a period of approximately two years, attempting to make a film based on the Dylan Thomas script ‘The Doctor and the Devils’. This project was never realized either in former Yugoslavia or in elsewhere. In fact, Ray would never make another significant film during the remainder of his life. The reasons for this turn of events were complex, and were due as much to Ray’s vulnerable and extreme personality as they were the political forces at play with former Yugoslavia of that time. Tucakovic’s film “Doctor Ray and the Devils” is now, according to main actor of the film who stars Nicholas Ray Paul Murray, dealing with the “universal human issues of desire, ego, vulnerability, vision, weakness and ambition, and set within an intriguing and much misunderstood (from the west at least) socialist state which existed for over forty years in the heart of Europe.”


If Tucakovic’s “Doctor Ray and the Devils” is story about Nicholas Ray making the film in Yugoslavia, one of the understatements regarding the entire picture here for me is the actual Dylan Thomas who wrote the script about “doctor devil” in the first place. Moreover, based on Thomas’ script Nicholas Ray came to former Yugoslavia to make a film. Thomas (who was also a theatre actor) is a well-known Welsh writer that possessed immense gifts as a writer, often a contradiction to his life, which lie in the various ways of his personality: shy, confused, maybe insecure, but outwardly egotistical and charming personality. Regarding the fact that I can not reveal much of the film right now and intriguing fact that this originally horror drama was never shot in former Yugoslavia and not knowing why, I am sure that the film “Doctor Ray and the Devils” by Serbian film director Dinko Tucakovic will be just like Thomas’ script: charming, witty and a wonderful performance! Although I am sure that many of you know that Thomas’ tales are of horror, hallucinations, nightmares, fantasy, ghostly full-blooded witchcraft… in total dark tales from which, according to English writers, “the traveler does not return unscarred” and all about dark and shadowy side of England! Dylan Thomas’ script “The Doctor & The Devils” has a similarity and is horror-drama based on the first of Thomas' published screenplays, released right before his death in 1953. It dramatizes the notorious West Port Murders by Burke and Hare body snatchers from 1827-28 who has sold the corpses of their 16 victims to the Edinburgh Medical College for dissection. This was the famous case that utterly scared newspaper readers in the mid-nineteenth century and whose crimes are still relished among famous homicide cases. Giving the macabre real taste, Thomas in this script created characters and an atmosphere very much alike his best short stories, which brings me to inevitable question: what kind of film the great contradiction in life filmmaker Ray wanted to make in former socialistic Yugoslavia and what has really stopped him from doing it? Original Thomas' script resembles a bit the Sweeney Todd story and according to some film critics, “its material ripe for reinvention as macabre entertainment”.
Never mind what would glorious "The Body Snatchers" and higher art horror masters of early Hollywood archetypal villains Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff have to say about this, sometimes horror genre can be very politically subversive, especially in such totalitarian political systems of former socialist country of Yugoslavia.


Murray Featuring Ray

Nevertheless, we are going to leave Dylan Thomas, Nicholas Ray and the rest of the ghouls alone for now and we are going to chat with main actor of Tucakovic’s film “The Doctor & The Devils” Paul Murray featuring the great Nicholas Ray. Mentioning Dylan Thomas and his madness again, Murray is also theatre director and actor-performer worked on various art projects in UK, Scotland and lately in region. Murray’s work is connected to strategy and resulting funding stream offered to artists from all disciplines to work in ‘mental health’ environments and improve state of mind due to a mental illness with an exposure to artwork that has been inspired by the concept of ‘madness’. We are in fact, settled to hear just a little bit about the film and its intriguing content since it is still in the process of making and more about the main actor Paul Murray, his theatre work and different cultural policies and diferencies. Murray graduated from the University of Winchester, faculty of Arts U.K. with a PhD in Theatre. In 2004 he graduated from University of Warwick, faculty of Drama U.K. with a Masters Theatre, Education and Cultural studies. He also graduated from Bretton Hall, UK with a B.A. in Dramaturgy and Acting. Now he lives in Belgrade and he is visiting lecturer at Central School of Speech and Drama, London, University of Winchester and University of Fine Arts, Belgrade. He has worked through the U.K. Europe and internationally as a theatre maker and performer. Previously director of the Scottish Government Arts and Health strategy: ArtFul (Scotland) he is now a working theatre, performance and film actor and director of the English Language Theatre School in Belgrade.


So here it is! Interview with Paul Murray featuring great Nicholas Ray in a brand new version of Dylan Thomas' "The Doctor & The Devils”:

C.E: Now you are working and managing English Language Theatre School
in Belgrade, tell us something about the school? What are the rule and regulations for entry
and about the aim and strategy of the school?
P.M: “I started the English Language Theatre School a year after I first moved to Belgrade in 2009. It is open for any child or young person to join between the ages of 8 and 16, (it is preferable that they have some knowledge of the English language but this is not a prerequisite for entry). Currently I lead four groups of young people who meet twice a week at the Children’s Cultural Centre, Belgrade. Each group (delineated by age) will perform in at least one original show per year, a show that is created by them in conjunction with me. The central educational priorities of the school are: to help children learn how to work and play collaboratively, to teach them the skills necessary to be theatre makers and performers, and to improve their fluency and confidence in speaking English”.


C.E: You were director of Scottish Government Arts and Mental Health Strategy: ArtFull (Scotland) organization can you tell us something about this organization. It is connected to art and theatre, on what way?
P.M: “Artful was a strategy initiated and funded in collaboration between the ministries of Health and Culture at the Scottish government. For many years in Scotland (and in the UK as a whole) artists had been engaged in participatory (or community) practices, creating artworks with non-professionals in a host of different locations. It had been noted by the Scottish Government that increasing numbers of artists were working in healthcare environments; particularly those (hospitals, clinics etc.) designed for the treatment of people with mental health problems. The initiative to develop such a strategy resulted from an increasing body of evidence being produced from such practices, which pointed to an improvement in the mental health of participants. The strategy and resulting funding stream offered to artists from all disciplines to work in ‘mental health’ environments amounted to almost three quarters of a million Euros, and the work produced over my time as director can been viewed still via the website: www.artfull.org.uk”


C.E: Can you tell us something about Kiosk – Platform, the organization that you
are involved with in Belgrade? What kind of projects Kiosk does and supports?
P.M: “ Kiosk – Is a platform for contemporary art; non-governmental, non-profit organization working in the fields of arts and culture. It was founded in Belgrade in 2002 by Ana Adamovic and Milica Pekić. In 2008 Dorijan Kolundzija, artist, joined Kiosk team and I joined in early 2010.
Kiosk facilitates and supports cooperation between artists and cultural operators from all fields of contemporary art. It believes innovative artistic activities that foster openness and provides better understanding of the social and political difficulties underlying modern society. With this aim in mind, Kiosk creates exhibitions, publications and research projects that generate understanding about social problems, the theory and practice of contemporary art, and the role of art in mainstream culture. Since 2002, Kiosk has collaborated with artists, cultural operators and the general public to create large-scale participatory projects and new networks that foster dialogue. Since 2007 Kiosk actively develops projects that are exploring the issue of contemporary art production in public space, creating temporary as well as permanent interventions on urban structure of cities in Serbia.”


C.E: Since you being involved with pedagogical work and yourself you have
participated in various artistic activities, can you elaborate a bit how art can
improve better understanding of the social and political difficulties in Serbia?
It sounds like a good cultural policy.
P.M: “ One of the defining features of good art is its relevance to the social and political environment in which it is made. Good art reframes the familiar and provokes questions about the ‘taken for granted’ but (particularly participatory) art also has the capacity to move beyond the mere critical and, in its actual practice, exemplify alternative (and perhaps more developmental) methods of human interaction. It is sometimes hard to identify tangible ways in which art improves a society or helps it deal with its problems, and in many ways I believe we should be careful when we attempt to do so, but there is no doubt in my mind that a vibrant and well resourced arts scene is symbol of a healthy society. “


C.E: Tell us a bit about British artists that you have been working with in UK and
here in Serbia and about basic differences of the cultural policy and cultural
goals of British Art and Serbian Art? It must be very different since Serbia is
now III world country with many problems and different approaches to theory and practice of the contemporary art.
P.M: “ I have found surprisingly little difference between the skill set or the mentality of the artists I have collaborated with in the UK and Serbia, in every country in the world we can find good and bad artistic practice, and good and bad artists. What are more culturally specific are the criteria, which is used by the art establishment of each country to judge exactly what is and what is not good art. Despite having lived in Serbia for three years I am not exactly aware of what the cultural policy or the specific cultural goals of this country are; this may be a result of my own naivety but I suspect that even for most native Serbians they are somewhat of a mystery. If we try to ascertain what the country’s cultural goals are by analyzing the practices that the state supports we can see a wide range of contradictory work which does not exactly make the situation any clearer. There is no doubt that the infrastructure which exists to support the arts in the UK is more developed, however this does not mean that the aims which this infrastructure is being used to pursue are any more appealing or relevant than those which are being pursued in a rather more ad hoc basis in Serbia. “


C.E: Many artists today are mixing media in their theatre and artwork; can you
tell us your opinion about that? By all mean, mixing media is as much as usual
for contemporary art…
P.M: “The incorporation of new media within the work of contemporary visual and performance artists reflects the cross-disciplinarily which in many ways exemplify contemporary society as a whole. Artists are no longer restricted to working within the strict boundaries of their disciplines with experimentation across art forms increasingly regarded as being valid. The value of art-works however cannot be measured only by the skill that the artist demonstrates in manipulating their chosen material, as previously alluded to it is the artwork’s capacity to provoke and stimulate that holds the key to its value, as opposed to it lying within the fashionable (or unfashionable) form used with which to create it. “


C.E: Tell us something relating your work as a theatre director? I assume that we
are talking about contemporary theatre play.
P.M:”All theatrical creation, even the performance of the most antiquated text, is contemporary, purely because of the fact that it is always presented within a live context. The tools that the theatre director has at his/her disposal, the actors, the set, the stage, the audience, have changed little in thousands of years; and despite many years of working in the theatre I remain as intrigued as ever about the potential of each of these factors as well as the creative power of their interaction. In the way I could be regarded as a traditionalist, however the way in which I identify and play with each of these factors could be regarded as being more radical than other of my contemporaries is. For example, I have created many performances in prisons, where the director’s tools of the actor, set, stage and audience are present but in forms that may be not recognized as such by the theatre traditionalist.”


C.E: Found on your site information about your involvement in the art project
facilitates by Kiosk in Zagreb on 21st February discussion"Art and madness:
beyond mental health" and EXTRAVAGANT BODIES: EXTRAVAGANT MINDS International festival of mental health. Can you tell us about this project?
P.M: “Kiosk was asked to be a partner in the EXTRAVAGANT BODIES: EXTRAVAGANT MINDS project organized Zagreb based arts association Kontejner. Historically the festival has focused on giving exposure to artwork that has been inspired by the concept of ‘madness’. Our view, in relation to this topic, is that historically there have broadly been two trends apparent in the treatment by art of the issue of madness. The first trend was based on the idea that madness is apparent in society only within those suffering from what has been defined as ‘mental illness’ with the second regarding madness an essential part of human existence. The first interpretation (which we are less interested in) which has been predominant in recent years within the field of art, effectively subjugates artwork to the medicalized interpretation of madness and for this reason we decided to subtitle our event ‘beyond mental health’ in order to expose ways in which art has, and can, both broaden our understanding of what madness may be as well as challenge those which aim to rationalize and somehow contain it within certain individuals. “


C.E: And of course tell us about your role in Dinko Tucakovic's film about Ray
Nicholas here in Belgrade and about film in general (as much as you are allowed
to reveal now).
P.M: “In the film Doctor Ray and the Devils (Doktor Rej i Djavoli) I play the character the character of American film director Nicholas Ray (1911 – 1979), most famous for his films ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘Johny Guitar.’ Towards (what would prove itself to be) the end of his film-making career (circa 1964), Ray found himself in former Yugoslavia for a period of approximately two years, attempting to make a film based on the Dylan Thomas script ‘The Doctor and the Devils’. This project was never realized, either in former YU or elsewhere, in fact Ray would never make another significant film during the remainder of his life. The reasons for this turn of events were complex, and were due as much to Ray’s vulnerable and extreme personality as they were the political forces at play with former YU of that time.
Playing a recognized historical figure is always a challenge to an actor; how does one do justice to someone regarded by many to be a genius of the film industry? How does one deal with the responsibility of partly shaping the legacy of such a figure? If one thinks about these questions too much they can become stifling, and at the end of the day the actor can only put his trust in the director and do his bet to accomplish his vision of the man and the film.
I hope that the film will be of interest to those both inside and outside former YU, dealing as it does with the universal human issues of desire, ego, vulnerability, vision, weakness and ambition, and set within an intriguing and much misunderstood (from the west at least) socialist state which existed for over forty years in the heart of Europe.”


Appendix to the article:

In addition to this article, for those willing more to explore and due to mentioning a chilling and dark mystery relating the secret life of Dylan Thomas, you can check out book The Dylan Thomas Murders by David. N. Thomas at www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781854113047-0
It is a good book where Thomas's closest friends are confronted with the legacies that haunt their past. Book review
www.birminghamwords.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=209&Itemid=49