Czech

Plot / Synopsis
The gloriously larger-than-life Czech fantasy Vynalez Zkaky (Weapons of Destruction) was based on a novel by Jules Verne. Set during the 19th century Industrial Revolution, the film concerns the efforts of the villainous Count Artigas (Miloslav Holub) to conquer the world with the aid of futuristic inventions created by kidnapped scientist Professor Thomas (Arnost Navratil). Having fallen in love with the professor’s virtuous, resourceful daughter Jeanne (Jana Zatloukalova), stalwart hero Simon (Lubor Tokos) does his best to sabotage Artigas’ schemes. Props essential to the action include a fished-shaped submarine, bicycle-style undersea shuttlecraft, and an impossibly huge cannon, secreted on a volcanic island. Curiously, when Vynalez Zkaky was unveiled to the world at the 1958 Brussels Film Festival, reviewers downplayed its most striking visual aspect: throughout the film, the art direction and special effects are brilliantly rendered in the style of 19th century engravings and woodcuts. In 1961, an English-dubbed version of Vynalez Zkaky, with character names changed and a few minutes’ footage excised, was released in the US as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. ~ Hal Erickson, AllRoviRead More »

Synopsis:Factory owner Pardon, meets Olga, daughter of clairvoyant Stefanie Lesczynska at a ball. Their brief acquaintance is interrupted when Olga and her mother have to leave. Fifi Hrazánková has her sights set on the elligible Pardon. Pardon asks his Uncle Cyril Ponděliček if the girl could take over his position at work so that she may be dissuaded of her amorous intentions. Fifi seduces Pondělíček. In the meantime, Pardon meets Olga and Stefanie again by chance and offers them a place to stay at Ponděliček’s while Pondělíček passes himself off as Pardon. Ponděliček recognises Stefanie as his former lover, Olga is their daughter. Stefanie also recognises him, but Pondělíček declares that he is the thief named Kanibal whom the newspapers are all writing about. He locks Pardon, Stefanie and Olga in the cellar and, together with Fifi, he escapes. In the inn they happen to come across the real Kanibal who is being pursued by the police. The police mistakenly arrest Pondělíček. Pardon explains to the Police who Pondělíček really is. The real Kanibal is then apprehended. Pondělíček then marries Stefanie and they wish their daughter luck with the factory owner, Pardon. Fifi is thus finally cured of her romantic notions.Read More »

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User Review

A great fairy tale from a great storyteller
26 May 2005 | by simon-bensasson (Greece)

This is the story of a woodcutter in Bohemia during a war between Austria and Turkey. Wandering in the forest he finds a golden fern whose seed turns into a beautiful young woman – they fall in love. After a village feast in which he gets drunk he gets to sign up to the army. The fairy gives him a shirt to wear and asks him to swear he will never part with it. At the war front he falls in love with the the colonels daughter; cold beauty who asks him to perform various feats in order to respond to his courting (bring her the horse of the grand-vizier, then the necklace of the grand-vizier’s wife and finally his nightingale). In performing these feats he proves invulnerable to bullets, swords and other calamities – protected by the fairy’s shirt. Before performing the last feat, however, the colonel’s daughter asks him to throw away his ugly shirt, which he does. He returns, wounded and disguised in Turkish clothes to escape from the enemy camp. He gets arrested as a spy and condemned to death by a thousand strikes. His comrades who are assigned to throw his body at the river discover he’s still alive and let him go. Returning to his village he does not find Sylvana (the fairy of the golden fern) and the film ends with him wandering in the forest shouting her name in a beautiful photograph in which the camera moves high up the trees.Read More »

Synopsis:
While serving the cream of Prague society, humble waiter, Jan Díte (Ivan Barnev) dreams of owning his own hotel and becoming a millionaire. Full of desire and ambition, he hustles his way towards his dream. But getting a fortune and keeping it are two different things. Directed by celebrated Czech director Jirí Menzel and set in German occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II, I served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále) is a bitter-sweet comedy exploring the gradual maturing of an ambitious man who, suddenly in love and guided by stupidity rather than opportunism, finds himself on the side of the occupying power.Read More »

Two years after his worldwide hit Closely Watched Trains, Jiří Menzel directed this amusing idyll about three middle-aged men whose mellow summer is interrupted by the arrival of a circus performer and his beautiful assistant. A meditation on aging and sex, shot in warm, sun-dappled color, Capricious Summer is one of the New Wave’s loveliest reveries.Read More »

SYNOPSIS
(…) Set in the 18h century when the Inquistion was still in force. A small town is one day visited by a priest who is there on a secret mission. He is a member of the Inquisition sent to investigate the activities of a local miller. The miller and his son are the descendants of an old family whose ancestral home burned down a century ago, but was rebuilt from scratch. The miller inherited much of his knowledge about the land, water, and a building’s stability from generations of family experience. His reputation for finding water and predicting when a structure might collapse have come to the attention of the Inquisition -surely he must be in league with the Devil. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

Quote:
Czechoslovak cinema was reinforced in 1963 by the emergence of Jaromil Jireš. He made his directing debut with a simple narrative based on a book by Ludvík Aškenazy (who also wrote the screenplay). Similarly to contemporaries at Prague’s FAMU film academy, this talented young filmmaker was influenced by the documentary approach to making feature films. The protagonists in Křik (The Cry), husband and wife Slávek and Ivana, experience a rather important day in their lives during which they are separated from each other. Ivana lies in the delivery room giving birth to their first child, while Slávek is repairing televisions at work. The spouses dwell on themselves and the life they have up until now experienced with each other. Jireš and cameraman Jaroslav Kučera use a hidden camera perspective, something that was quite unusual at the time. The director also uses non-actors to add authenticity to the narrative. Slávek is, however, played by the experienced Josef Abrhám.Read More »