Czech

A factory producing agricultural machines is about to be thoroughly modernized. If he wants to keep his job, master craftsman Kroupa (Jirí Sovák) is going to have to improve his qualifications through further training and completing his school-leaving exams. Kroupa is persuaded to go back to school by his subordinates who fear that the unbearable Hujer (Václav Lohniský), who has already signed on for schooling, may get promoted and take Kroupa’s place. The students at the evening classes of the technical college are all middle-aged people. Even so, there are go-getters, shirkers and slobs among them just like in any other school.Read More »

Two criminal gangs are ruthlessly fighting for a 1-million dollar check that, purely by chance, got into the flat of shy high school teacher George Camel. As the number of victims sharply increases, Camel is mistakenly regarded as a mass murderer and cunningly uses his horrifying reputation to get the respect and heart of his beloved Sabrina, a journalist from a local newspaper. But this game turns out to be risky and in the end, both gangs don’t hesitate to seize the check at all costs, including an improvised operation.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Forty-year old PE teacher Luboš Urna, is a man you’d be unlikely to notice on the street. He is completely average and unremarkable, with nothing interesting or special about him at first glance. Even his life up until now seems completely ordinary; that is, until the beginning of the film. For this is when Luboš, totally unexpectedly and it could be said needlessly, dies. The moment of Luboš’s death is actually the beginning of the story, which reveals how his whole life from birth, through growing up to adulthood was a constant battle to survive in a WORLD where REAL MEN are slowly disappearing and that is more and more dominated by ALL POWERFUL WOMEN. We follow our hero through humorous, dramatic, lyrical and erotic episodes in his life, in many of which it is unclear whether they actually took place or if they are just a product of his turbulent imagination. Both the hero and filmgoers will come to a surprising realization at the end of the film.’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 »

From 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 »

Quote:
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 »

THE 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 »

The filmmaker and film preservationist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur (who, according to his IMDB page, also belongs to the former royal family of Dungarpur State in Rajasthan, India) fell in love with Jirí Menzel’s Czech new wave classic Closely Observed Trains (a.k.a. Closely Followed Trains) back when he was a film student. He longed to meet the man behind this wonderful film and many years later his dream came true.Read More »

From 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 »