Czech

Lewis Carroll’s poem is read and followed by a free-form animated depiction of images and toys from childhood, repeatedly overturned by a live cat.Read More »

The age-old story of Don Juan, played by giant puppets.Read More »

A small, animated figure learns how to use a whip, a pair of wings and a house.Read More »

Two puppets, Punch and Joey, do battle to the death over the custody of a live guinea pig.Read More »

A man plays the Bach piece of the title on the organ, accompanied by images of stone walls with cracks and holes that grow and shrink, intercut with images of doors and wire-meshed windows.Read More »

Two magicians, Mr.Schwarzwald and Mr.Edgar, try to outdo each other in performing elaborate magic tricks, leading to a violent ending.Read More »

Quote:
Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, who gained a reputation for his short subjects, makes his feature-film debut with Neco z Alenky, a grotesque look into the darkest, wildest recesses of a child’s mind. A surreal adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic Alice in Wonderland, the film stars Kristyna Kohoutov? as Alice, the only human character in the film. The other roles, which are voiced by Alice, are filled by an odd menagerie of animated clay, puppets, and meat. After falling asleep beside a stream, Alice follows a stuffed rabbit into a magical world where she encounters several grotesque-looking characters, including a caterpillar and The Mad Hatter. Also released under the title Alice, Neco Z Alenky was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award at the 1989 Fantasporto Film Festival.Read More »

Photographer Frantisek Drtikol

The documentary film “The Photographer Frantisek Drtikol” by the director Jiri Holna (28 min, 2002) drawn from Drktikol’s diaries and private correspondence, includes the recollections of Drtikol’s daughter Ervina Bokova, as well as part of a short film by Drtikol from 1920.

“Man can never be lazy and indifferent to flashes of beauty:
he must collect them, keep them and treat them well,
because in a while they disappear as footprints in sand.”

This documentary is about world-famous Czech photographer, painter and philosopher Frantisek Drtikol (1883-1961).Read More »

A young convict gets a few days off after a suicide attempt, so that he may regain his strength. He heads back to places closely linked to his youth, during which he gets acquainted with a lonely village teacher…. This film with the lead star Petr Čepek could not be shown in cinemas before the revolution due to the participation of Kristýna Hanzalové, the Czechoslovak Miss of 1969, who emigrated before the film’s premier. (official distributor’s text)Read More »