Psychological study of Jitka, daughter of a widower. The girl helps her father run a small hotel. A group of geologists is staying at the hotel and Jitka falls in love with one of them, Gaba. However he regards her as only a child, goes out on the town every night and doesn’t think about her. She intercepts the phone calls of the women with whom Gaba has been involved and plays power games with him. His adventurous life means that Gaba also gets into trouble with his boss. It becomes increasingly clear to Gaba that Jitka’s feelings for him are true love. At first he rejects her – she is after all only a child – but gradually starts to feel more for her. However it is too late: Jitka goes to study in Prague and leaves the hotel. The power of the film is in its visual aesthetics. The emptiness of the landscape, accentuated by impressive drilling rigs, is beautifully expressed by the cinemascope format and the high-contrast black & white. This serves to make the loneliness of the characters overwhelming.Read More »
Czech Republic
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Karel Kachyna – Závrat AKA Vertigo (1963)
Karel Kachyna1961-1970Czech RepublicDrama -
Michal Hogenauer – A Certain Kind of Silence (2019)
2011-2020Czech RepublicDramaMichal HogenauerThrillerA young woman is unwittingly drawn into a sinister cult-like group in A Certain Kind of Silence, the debut feature of Czech writer-director Michal Hogenauer. Inspired by real events, this beautifully composed psychological thriller has some of the eerie domestic-horror feel of The Handmaid’s Tale or Rosemary’s Baby in places.
A Certain Kind of Silence opens with twenty-ish Prague native Mia (Eliska Krenkova) arriving at an upscale suburban home in a non-specific European city to begin her new job as an au pair. The house is a pristine minimalist fortress, elegantly finished in pastel watercolor shades, its chilly elegance mirrored by its impeccably groomed owners. Mia’s employers, credited simply as Mother (Monic Hendrickx) and Father (Roeland Fernhout), make it clear she is on temporary trial, her future prospects resting on how well she bonds with their 10-year-old boy, Sebastian (Jacob Jutte).Read More »
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Jirí Menzel – Kdo hledá zlaté dno aka Who Looks for Gold? (1975)
Jirí Menzel1971-1980Czech RepublicDramaFrom ce-review.org
Menzel could not work in films for some time after Skřivánci na niti. It was a period when he had to decide if he would accept the rules dictated by the regime or leave his profession yet keep his “artistic freedom.” This difficult situation was also faced by other members of the Czech New Wave. Miloš Forman, Jan Němec and Ivan Passer decided to emigrate, while Věra Chytilová and Evald Schorm stayed in Czechoslovakia even though they could not work as film directors (Chytilová for seven years, Schorm for 17 years).Read More » -
Vojtech Jasný – Az prijde kocour AKA The Cassandra Cat AKA When the Cat Comes (1963)
1961-1970ComedyCzech RepublicFantasyVojtech JasnýQuote:
Some people with a strange cat arrive in a small village. The cat wears glasses, and when someone takes them off, she can colour people, according to their nature and mood. The grown-ups of the village consider the cat to be dangerous, but the kids just love her…Read More » -
Jirí Barta – Krysar AKA The Pied Piper (1986)
Jirí Barta1981-1990AnimationCzech RepublicHorrorTHE PIED PIPER (KRYSAŘ), 1986, Czechoslovakia, 53 min. Director Jiří Barta’s stop-motion animated masterpiece, based on The Pied Piper of Hamelin, is set in a dark and twisted medieval village of narrow streets and weird Gothic arches, half-CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI and half-Jan van Eyck. The money-obsessed citizens, carved out of wood blocks and speaking in an onomatopoeic babble, are like George Grosz caricatures, literally spouting coins from their mouths instead of words. The rats are far more organic and sympathetic, made of real fur and whiskers, constantly tunneling and burrowing under the towering arches and cobblestone streets above. (In one of the film’s many surreal moments, a rat emerges from a gargoyle’s gaping maw.) Fans of fellow Czech animation legend Jan Švankmajer and the Brothers Quay will adore Barta’s eerie, Expressionist gem, recently restored for its first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release through Krátký Film Praha, Deaf Crocodile and Comeback Company. “Barta’s mastery of all aspects of filmmaking are evident: staging, production design, lighting, animation, editing, sound and music combine into dark worlds of repression and revolt with ironic conclusions.” – Phil Tippett (MAD GOD).Read More »
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Karel Zeman – Pohádka o Honzíkovi a Marence AKA The Tale of John and Mary (1980)
1971-1980AdventureAnimationCzech RepublicKarel ZemanFrom nytimes
The Fairy Tale of Honzik and Marenka employs an ingenious animation technique using cut-out figures that is typical of the creative genius of Karel Zeman, the writer and director of this 66-minute film. The sophistication of the technique, and a sprinkling of puns and twists in the story line that bring out a moral parable on the meaning of liberty, justice, and other social issues, make the fairy tale enjoyable for adults as well as children.Read More » -
Jan Svankmajer – Kunstkamera (2022)
2021-2030ArthouseCzech RepublicDocumentaryJan SvankmajerAn astonishing array of paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, objects and materials fill room after room – but this is not a museum open to the general public. It is the home of the celebrated artist couple Jan Svankmajer and his late wife Eva, situated in the Czech Republic’s Horni Stankov Castle.Read More »
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Jan Hrebejk – Kawasakiho ruze AKA Kawasaki’s Rose (2009)
2001-2010Czech RepublicDramaJan HrebejkRenowned psychiatrist Pavel Josek is singled out to receive a “Memory of the Nation” medal, however, it transpires that this reputedly morally irreproachable dissident once collaborated with state security agencies, informing on a former friend of his wife, Borek, and ultimately being responsible for the latter’s forced emigration. Josek’s family and close friends try to come to terms with these new facts.
*Czech official submission to 83rd Academy Award’s Foreign Language category (2011)Read More »
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Jirí Menzel – Postriziny AKA Cutting it Short (1981)
1981-1990ComedyCzech RepublicJirí MenzelSynopsis wrote:
Short Cut is a comedy revealed more in the acting and witty dialogue than in the simple premise of the story itself: how the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal was born. Actually, the story is, in many ways, the writer’s conception.Read More »