The graduate film of Jasny and Kachyna shows both the incredible abilities of its creators and the time of their creation. An untraditionally conceived feature documentary about the settlement of Moldava in the borderland after World War II.It shows the village in an entertaining way from the first settlement to the first successes of collective farming.
The graduate film of Vojtěch Jasný and Karel Kachyně was the first film by FAMU students to be distributed.Read More »
In the final days of the Second World War in 1945 Frantisek Pribyl is killed during a shoot-out with the Germans. After the funeral, the widow (Jana Svandová) and her two young sons Martin and Ondra move to her deceased husband’s native village at the foot of the Kralický Snezník mountains. Life in the borderlands is far from easy for the lonely woman. The village is almost deserted, food supplies are delayed; the Werwolf (Nazi guerrilla squads) are hiding in the mountains, and shooting is heard from time to time. The elder son Ondra (Michal Dlouhý) is helping out his mother and at the same time absorbing intense new experiences. He meets an old Czech resident Skurek (Lubomír Kostelka), German women working in the forest, soldiers from the engineering units removing the mines, and a young first lieutenant. At night he dreams about his dead father whom he loved very much. This is why he runs away from home when he finds out that the lieutenant is courting his mother.Read More »
A touching story of a Czech boy who is liberated from a concentration camp and then picked up by a Czechoslovak Army laundry unit under Soviet command. He becomes the unit’s mascot, and is given the nickname “prace” or “slingshot bearer” after Czech boys who had fought with slingshots in the Czech Hussite armies of the 15th century. The boy, along with a little Slovak girl whom the unit also rescues up along the way, participate in the liberation of his homeland.Read More »
Ignác Šavlíř, called Lucin, will try to steal another worker’s pocket from the pocket of a large gravel pit. He is caught, beaten up and thrown into the autumn mud. He is picked up by a randomly passing worker Magdalena and takes him to his house high on the land. Two losers start living together. Lucin was once a site master and driver, but immense drinking made him an assistant worker, a permanent debtor, and an occasional thief. Magdalena’s arms often served as a refuge for many workers for one night. But it wasn’t about money, she was more afraid of loneliness and longed for constant feeling and security. She is very clean and has a good influence on Lucin.Read More »
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 »
A WW2 story of a young Austrian soldier running from the Russian army and a woman whom he forces to come along in order to save his wounded mate.Read More »
Quote:
Karel Kachyna’s 1970 The Ear is a harrowing tale that interweaves marital discord and surveillance paranoia. With its portrait of a government functionary who spends a sleepless night wondering if he’ll be arrested before daybreak, it’s no wonder that The Ear had to wait until 1989 for its Czech premiere; the wonder is that it was made at all. The latter, at least, can be explained by the fact that Kachyna’s long-time collaborator, scenarist Jan Procházka, was a government official of some standing – which accounts, no doubt, for The Ear’s insider perspective, playing as it does with the couple’s knowledge of which rooms in their comfortable house are likely bugged and which aren’t.Read More »
Quote:
Své milostné okouzlení prožívají nejen mladičtí hrdinové filmu šestnáctiletý Petr a stejně stará dívka Andrea, ale i jejich rodiče, kteří se po letech znovu setkali. Rádoby poetické ladění je však místy násilné stejně jako střídání barvy s černobílými pasážemi. Láska patří mezi Kachyňova normalizační díla, která postrádají osobitost, nahrazuje ji křečovitou stylizací, která postihuje všechny složky filmu.Read More »
