Relja

Dino

"Excuse me, I've read a lot and I think I know a lot." is one of the most famous sentences of Zagreb's most famous "fulir".

It seems that Mr. Fullir's famous sentence: - Excuse me, I have read a lot and think I know a lot. – is not only valid for the character of the most famous charmer in Croatian cinema. This is exactly the sentence we could use to describe Relja Bašić, an actor and a native of Zagreb who embodied the character of a "polished dandy".

Namely, the famous actor Relja Bašić was born on February 14, 1930. And just like his stage counterpart, he was surrounded by art and creativity since childhood. Rela's mother, Elly Bašić, was a famous Croatian music pedagogue and pianist of Jewish origin, while he got his last name from his stepfather, Mladen Bašić, a Croatian conductor.

Relja started his music education very early. He played the piano, violin and drums, but even as a boy he concluded that learning music requires a lot of time, and that the results of such efforts are often uncertain. When Stjepan Šulek blackmailed him - either you will give up hockey or you will practice the violin, he immediately threw away his bow and picked up a hockey stick.

But who knows what his life path would have looked like if Relja, as a Zagreb schoolboy, had not found himself in the spades of a Russian language teacher. Namely, because of his mother and grandmother, the boy was fluent in German and French, but he did not like Russian, the only compulsory language at the time, and did not want to learn it.

The anecdote went so that Relja honestly told the professor in class that he was not interested in the Russian language, to which the professor began to "honor" him, telling him that he was a fool and a jerk. Then Relja answered him: - I'm glad that we have the same opinion about each other. - And so, with just one sentence, Relja was expelled from all Zagreb secondary schools. But luck in the accident was that because of that expulsion he arrived in Rijeka. Relja's first trips to the acting world were sponsored by his grandmother by enrolling him in a maritime school.

Namely, the family sent Relja to Rijeka, where the famous maritime academy from Bakro had moved. There he started attending acting courses and played his first amateur roles. It was also there that Relja, while playing basketball, learned Italian, which will help him in his further career. After finishing school, Relja first became a second lieutenant in the merchant navy. It is interesting that he sailed only once with that rank. He spent two years in the General Directorate of the Merchant Navy in Rijeka, and after returning to his native Zagreb, he decided to enroll in the acting academy at any cost.

He enrolled in it only at the age of twenty-four and on the second attempt. The problem was that he wasn't Gavell's type. Namely, the founder of the Academy of Dramatic Art and everyone's favorite professor, at that time preferred Štokavština with two lengths. Relja, as a native of Zagreb, was not familiar with such a way of speaking. Therefore, it was a real surprise when, as the first Kajkavian and the first native of Zagreb, he finally enrolled in the academy. The fact that he presented himself through Krleža's text "Gospoda Glembajevi" certainly contributed to the success. Namely, the non-existent "Glembaje" salon was almost innate to the polished Zagreb resident. He has already seen all of this at home - and how he sits down with a tailcoat, holds a glass or speaks German-Croatian.

In 1955, near the end of his studies, the director Bojan Stupica included him in the drama ensemble of the HNK in Zagreb. His broad knowledge of languages ​​was crucial for engagements at that time. For a while, Relja also had a Parisian agent who took care of new business. It is interesting that when the famous Gérard Philipee visited Zagreb in 1956, it was Relja who was his official guide. Later, he told how he "by the way" showed "Millions on the Island" to the famous French actor in the small Croatia film cinema in Katančićeva Street.
 
Relja remained in the permanent engagement of HNK until 1967, playing almost five hundred performances. In 1968, he became an independent artist. As an actor and director, he worked at "Teatro &TD", Theater "Komedija", Zagreb Youth Theatre, as well as at the Dubrovnik Summer Games. One of his more notable directions was the staging of Murray Schisgal's Broadway hit "Love" at &TD in the mid-60s. Among his directors, "Black Comedy", "One Day in the Death of Joe Egg", "Old Times", "Promises" and "Hotel Plaza" stand out.

The talented actor took off on the big screen by playing the designer "Feđa" in Zvonimir Bereković's film "Rondo". The film is remembered as one of the most successful Croatian films. But the collaboration almost didn't happen. Namely, the director did not intend to hire Relja at first because he had known him since his school days. Since he also attended the Elly Bašić music school, he thought that it would be too familiar to entrust him with the role, but in the end he gave in, and the film turned out to be a "complete success". He won several Golden Arenas, including those for screenplay and camera, and Relja won the award for best male role.

At that time, he also played in a Czech drama in which his partners were the famous musician Keith Richard and his then-wife Anita Pallenberg. Later, Relja often recalled how the musician begged Relja to try hashish with him, which he resolutely refused. However, they managed to get him to promise to "smoke one" when he visited them in London. When Relja arrived in London a few months later, his trip to light drugs soon turned out to be unfortunate because on the way to the "party" he went to, he "lit one" and threw up his soul, after which he asked Anita to take him home.

In 1968, Relja collaborated with Kreša Golik in the film "I have two mothers and two fathers". The excellent collaboration led to the fact that the director engaged him in his upcoming film "Tko pjeva zlo ne misli", based on Vjekoslav Majer's novel "Iz dnevnika malog Perica". The filmmakers decided to bring together four actors who, apart from Bašić, had no experience with film - Mirjana Bohanec, an opera singer who had never acted, Franja Majetić, a great provincial theater actor who wanted to prove himself on film, and Mia Oremović, a champion and top actress of the HNK -And.

Relja played Mr. Fulir, a classy gentleman who, with his charm, seduced a housewife who wanted a different life (Mirjana Bohanec). No one could have guessed that the film, as well as Rela's role, would become iconic. The famous actor explained the success of the film by the exceptional involvement of both the actors and the director. Namely, he said that the rehearsals for the film lasted as long as three weeks, and the film was prepared for more than three months. During this time, Golik allowed the actors to refine their roles together with him. Due to the hard and joint work on the script, the actors completely adopted the text, so during the recording, it seemed as if they were throwing insults at each other, and not as if they were saying what was planned in advance.

- I am very proud of that film. It was filmed 40 years ago, and when I recently saw it on TV, I realized that it still works today, visually, dramaturgically and acting-wise. Relja said later.

The great actor was thinking about making a play about his most famous character. In it, he would tell what happened to Fulira forty years after the end of the film and his marriage to Mina. The monodrama was to be called "Fanti (and fantasies) of Mr. Fulir", and Relja and Boris Senker had already prepared the script for it. However, the production did not take place in the end, and the text in which Mina cheats on Fulir with a local butcher, and the already grown-up Perica sends Fulir to prison, is still waiting to be published.

One of Relja Bašić's biggest projects was "Guest Theater". From Bojan Stupica, he borrowed the idea of ​​founding an acting troupe that would choose its own repertoire and play every evening in cities and towns throughout Yugoslavia. In 1974, he brought together the big stars of Croatian and Serbian theater at the time, among them: Fabijan Šovagović, Vanja Drach, Ivo Serdar, Franjo Majetić, Jelisaveta Sablić and many others. And since then, the actors and equipment traveled by van for thirty years and performed more than 4,200 plays throughout Yugoslavia.

- We had contracts with actors for six or seven years and we played up to 350 plays a year. It was a great security for the actors. We had the same technical team, which had to leave in a van at least two hours before us to set up the stage, which we would inspect before the show started. Let's say, when Šovagović was shooting a movie, we organized ourselves so that he would play a show with us in the evening, in places near his set. We didn't have a wardrobe, we dressed ourselves, did our makeup and were our own acquirers. We were also well paid. My actors earned three monthly salaries of HNK champions. – Relja told the newspaper.

Due to his popularity, Relja was invited several times to an audience with Tito. He told how on one occasion the supreme leader suggested that prominent actors stay with him even after dinner. - You could stay for a night swim, I have a lit beach to which a red carpet leads, so you don't slip. - he suggested to them. Milena Dravić tells him: - But we don't have costumes! - What Tito quickly figured out, glancing at his wife Jovanka out of the corner of his eye: - Borrow a costume from Jovanka, you both fit into it. Do you see these dogs? They are constantly hanging around our legs, and Jovanka throws them food every now and then. If it weren't for them, it would be twice as big. –

Relja also fondly recalled the time when, during the filming of "The Battle of the Sutjeska", he hung out with acting greats - Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. When there was a ten-day break from filming due to lack of finances, Relja called Burton and asked him for an interview.

The interview was finally published in the penultimate issue of the legendary "Hrvatski tjednik", as a conversation between R.B. and R.B. - That's where I discovered his other face, he was sensationally charming. - said Relja. - By the way, he is a great Shakespearean actor. –

Afterwards, Burton boasted that it was one of the best interviews of his life, and he especially emphasized that he gave it to an actor who, while he and Liz Taylor were making a movie based on the play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", played the same role in the theater boards in Zagreb.
Relja achieved a notable career in the theater, but also in film and television. Thanks to his knowledge of German and English, he most often got the roles of villains in partisan films. Because of this, it has already become a custom that, seeing Relja Bašić in a film, you could often conclude that this character is surely playing a double agent.

The famous actor retired at the same time as saying goodbye to his beloved "Guest Theater". This unique project, as Mrduljaš writes: "a theater for the audience, which does not wait for the audience to come to it, but goes to meet it", was canceled on the thirtieth anniversary of the first performance, on October 14, 2004.

Relja often expressed his regret that no one followed the project. He spent his last years in his home in the center of Zagreb. He spent his time reading and writing, and he often said that he was sorry that his illness prevented him from seeing the works of new and young authors on stage.

Even after forty years, he didn't get bored of Fulir. He would often mention the role that placed him in eternity when seeking medical and pharmaceutical services. - I always say: 'This is Relja Bašić, but maybe you remember me better as Mr. Fulir'. Namely, 26-year-old operator Relja Bašić often means nothing, but she recently watched Mr. Fulir on television. - he used to joke.

The renowned Croatian actor won the "Vladimir Nazor" award, and was also awarded the Order of Danica of Croatia for his outstanding contribution to national culture. He died on April 7, 2017 in his hometown. We will never forget his greatness as a character actor, the numerous roles he entrusted us with, and the embodiment of "Fulir" from Zagreb.

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The life story of the most famous charmer of Croatian cinema