Three veterans are given magic artifacts by elves that can magically create gold, servants and any other object. They encounter greedy characters and one of them falls in love with a princess.

Tri Veterani - The Three Veterans (1984) Oldrich Lipsky - 720p.mkv

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Runtime: 	1 h 32 min
Size: 	3.45 GiB
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Resolution: 	984x720 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	4 820 kb/s
BPP: 	0.272
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#1:  	Czech 5.1ch AC-3 @ 384 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/2EE1C62450725F3/Tri_Veterani_-_The_Three_Veterans_(1984)_Oldrich_Lipsky_-_720p.mkv

Language(s):Czech
Subtitles:English

Many thanks to @Marcio for this copy

The post Oldrich Lipský – Tri veteráni AKA Three Veterans (1984) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
In 1900, Stepha, the vivacious 30 year old daughter of a wealthy couple, agrees to marry her cousin Paul, who has accumulated large debts as an Austrian army officer. Paul refuses to work or to consummate the marriage, and then his health steadily declines.

Oil.Lamps.1971.576p.BluRay.AAC1.0.x264-Slope.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 44 min
Size: 	3.85 GiB
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Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	956x576 
Aspect ratio:  	5:3
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	5 166 kb/s
BPP: 	0.391
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#1:  	Czech 1.0ch AAC LC @ 119 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/402FBF795AE58A4/Oil.Lamps.1971.576p.BluRay.AAC1.0.x264-Slope.mkv

Language(s):Czech
Subtitles:English

The post Juraj Herz – Petrolejové lampy AKA Oil Lamps (1971) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Cast out by his father, young Ondrej joins the Order of the Teutonic Knights, where he is raised by strict monk Armin. After years of hardship, Ondrej escapes from the Order when he is wrongly punished, and sets out for his former home. Arriving to discover his father to be dead, Ondrej now not only assumes control of his father’s properties, but seeks to marry his former stepmother.

Quote:
It is hard to watch Frantisek Vlácil’s 1968 movie The Valley of the Bees (Údolí včel) without comparing it with the liberation movement of the Prague Spring that lasted until the end of summer of that same year. Although set during the middle ages, the film is essentially a meditation on the question of ideology, whether to repudiate it or not, and if yes, by what means. Portraying the story of a political traitor, the film perpetrates historical meaning, perhaps in spite of itself. It thus reflects the resistance attempts in Czechoslovakia against the repressive political and social conditions of the Soviet regime.

Ondrej is the son of the sovereign of a remote village in 13th century Bohemia. He’s given over to an anonymous Christian Order when he refuses to accept his father’s new wife, who seems to be closer in age to Ondrej than his father, as a mother. At the convent, he is raised by the overly devout Armin von Heide, who spends most of his life fasting, crusading, and searching for salvation. Armin is an obedient minister to the religious policies of his time. But he has one thing in common with his young friend. They are both fascinated by the sight of the endless sea, which soon turns out into a metaphor for a distant promise. But the magic of distance is deceiving. It only allows them to dream about the possibility of escape. To actually renounce the Order that keeps them on land does not seem to be an option. But unlike his older companion, Ondrej soon begins to disagree with the restrictive rites of authority. He finally runs off after spending some time in prison for having been innocently involved in the escape plan of a fellow knight.

The Valley of the Bees is a film about making decisions in a world where there is little or nothing left to decide. Decision-making remains crucial to every liberalization because it involves having to act independently and establish a conscious position against the conscious-thwarting standards that it is trying to overcome. It is worth thinking about, whether Ondrej’s return to the sea at the end of the film is really a relinquishing of the activity he tried to pursue or whether it is a necessary grief over something he has finished with.

Udolí.vcel.1968.576p.BluRay.DD2.0.x264-KG.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 40 min
Size: 	3.08 GiB
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Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	4 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.373
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#1:  	Czech 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s
#2:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC @ 192 kb/s (Projection Booth commentary with Mike White and Robert Bellissimo)

https://nitro.download/view/4232E23ADE86B65/Udoli.vcel.1968.576p.BluRay.DD2.0.x264-KG.mkv

Language(s):Czech
Subtitles:English

The post Frantisek Vlácil – Údolí vcel AKA The Valley of the Bees (1968) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

PLOT: In the aftermath of World War II, a former Czech soldier takes charge of a manor formerly owned by a German family. He falls in love with the daughter, who is now a maid, and is forced to confront the stress between his love and his conscience when he discovers her sheltering her German-soldier brother.

Adelheid.1970.Frantisek.Vlacil.576p.BluRay.AAC2.0.x264.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 43 min
Size: 	2.86 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	790x576 
Aspect ratio:  	1.372
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 514 kb/s
BPP: 	0.322
Audio
#1:  	Czech 2.0ch AAC LC @ 329 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/0A51D64A090D2A1/Adelheid.1970.Frantisek.Vlacil.576p.BluRay.AAC2.0.x264.mkv

Language(s):Czech
Subtitles:English, French, Turkish, Greek, Czech [SDH], German

The post Frantisek Vlácil – Adelheid (1969) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The partnership between director František Vláčil and screenwriter Vladimír Körner yielded films including Adelheid (Adelheid, 1969), Pověst o stříbrné jedli (The Legend of the Silver Fir, 1973) and Stín kapradiny (The Shadow of a Ferns, 1984). But it is the historical drama Údolí včel (The Valley of the Bees, 1967) that is widely regarded as the pair’s greatest collaborative achievement. Released in cinemas shortly after Vláčil’s highly acclaimed Marketa Lazarová (Marketa Lazarová, 1967), The Valley of the Bees came about as a result of efforts to reuse the props and costumes from the director’s previous opus – hitherto the most expensive Czechoslovak film of all time. Körner’s compact concept is very different from the ambitious, expansive adaptation of author Vladislav Vančura’s historical novel Marketa Lazarová. While the former film told the story of Christianity’s battle with paganism, The Valley of the Bees is more of a timeless picture representing a battle between asceticism and freedom. Similarly to Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (Sedmá pečeť, 1957), the film is highly philosophical; a non-romanticised view of the Middle Ages, which, instead of putting forward battle scenes, focuses on the internal conflicts of its characters. The protagonists of the story are two Teutonic Knights of the Cross, Armin von Heide and his Bohemian protégé Ondřej. The young aristocrat, whose father appointed him to the Order in childhood, escapes the castle where he grew up indoctrinated in asceticism and prayer. But the fanatical Armin keeps his companion under surveillance, following him to his hometown of Vlkov, and thwarting Ondřej’s attempts to lead a happy life with the lovely Lenora. The return of the desperate Ondřej to the Order as the only possible home that remains available to him was viewed by “normalisation” era censors as so controversial that for a 1977 TV version, they created a notably different “new” version with a truncated ending. This visually polished piece stars Petr Čepek as Ondřej, and Jan Kačer as Armin. Unlike Marketa Lazarová , the film did not find favour with critics and audiences. But the film has since been reappraised, and is today widely viewed as a Czechoslovak film classic.

Udoli.vcel.1968.1080p.WEB.AAC.x264-PAMETNiK.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 36 min
Size: 	4.12 GiB
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Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	6 000 kb/s
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#1:  	Czech 2.0ch AAC LC @ 125 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/3B26F6A320BDF87/Udoli.vcel.1968.1080p.WEB.AAC.x264-PAMETNiK.mkv

Language(s):Czech
Subtitles:English, Czech

The post Frantisek Vlácil – Udoli vcel AKA Valley of the Bees (1968) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Czech filmmakers have several times been galvanised by the writings of Jaroslav Havlíček. The result in most cases was a film that merged the quality of the literary template and the personality of the particular filmmaker, whether it be Barbora Hlavsová (1942) directed by Martin Frič, Prokletí domu Hajnů (The Curse of the Hajns’ House, 1988) directed by Jiří Svoboda, or Jaromil Jireš’s Helimadoe (1992). However, the most famous adaptation of a Havlíček novel is the psychological drama Petrolejové lampy (Oil Lamps). The film is based on an eponymous novel first published in 1935 as Vyprahlé touhy (Parched Desires) and released again in 1944 following revisions and a change of title. The motion picture was made in 1971 according to a screenplay from Lubor Dohnal, Václav Šašek and Juraj Herz, the last of whom also directed the film. The director, who achieved fame in the 1960s with his excellent drama Spalovač mrtvol (The Cremator, 1968), made Petrolejové lampy into an expressive account of unfulfilled female desires. The main protagonist of the film, set in the early 20th century, is wealthy thirtysomething Štěpa Kiliánová, whose liberalism makes it difficult for her to find a suitor among her social circles in a small town. She ends up marrying her worldly cousin Pavel for whom she harbours a naïve admiration despite knowing that he is merely interested in the dowry. It is only after the wedding that Štěpa finds out that her husband suffers from syphilis. She’s now not only unable to have children, she’s also to suffer her husband’s physical and mental decline… The role of Štěpa was delivered by Iva Janžurová, 30 at the time, in one of her stand-out performances. Janžurová also starred in the main double role in Herz’s romantic drama Morgiana (1972). The actress found a worthy counterpart in Petr Čepek who performed Pavel as an impressive study of the devastation of a conquering, elegant manhood. In 2006, Herz directed a theatrical performance of Petrolejové lampy on the stage of Prague theatre Na Jezerce with Bára Hrzánová and Radek Holub in the two leading roles. In 2013, Radim Špaček and David Jařab recorded a theatrical performance of Petrolejové lampy, which Jařab staged with the Prague Chamber Theatre. The stars on this occasion were Karel Roden and Ivana Uhlířová.

Petrolejove.lampy.1971.WEB.AAC.H264-CHRONOPHOBiA.mkv

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Runtime: 	1 h 39 min
Size: 	3.73 GiB
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Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	5 163 kb/s
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#1:  	Czech 2.0ch AAC LC @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/4BD7E710C1A8FB5/Petrolejove.lampy.1971.WEB.AAC.H264-CHRONOPHOBiA.mkv

Language(s):Czech
Subtitles:English, Spanish, Czech

The post Juraj Herz – Petrolejové lampy AKA Oil Lamps (1971) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
…Faust was originally intended as a production for the Laterna magika theatre. Svankmajer describes it as a “variety collage” in which elements from Marlowe, Goethe, Christian Dietrich Grabbe, Gounod and the Czech folk puppet play (Kopecky) are all framed by the reality of contemporary Prague… The films hero, an ordinary man in a dirty raincoat, lives in a rundown flat in Prague. Here (as in Conspirators of Pleasure), it is noticeable that Svankmajer avoids any exotic images of “tourist Prague”, preferring nondescript streets and down-at-heel cafes serving nauseous food… Like Alice Faust moves from scene to scene and from one world to another but, this time, also from text to text, with a time out for the occasional cigarette or glass of beer. In both Alice and Faust, we encounter narratives in which the identity of the central character is unstable and an episodic and serial construction recalling Svankmajer’s short films… Svankmajer’s ignoring certain aspects of classical narrative construction is no different from what Antonioni, Godard, Miklos Jancso, Chytilova and others have done – in each case the audience is, in some way, challenged and required to make an adjustment. In Faust, the narrative is constantly fragmented by the shift from text to text, from opera to folk puppetry, from the “high” to the “low”. As Svankmajer himself puts it, “high and low together create a certain magic”. – Peter Hames – Czech and Slovak Cinema: Theme and Tradition

The film is not so much another version of the Faust legend as, precisely, an exploration of what the legend can reveal to us today. Faust, of course, is associated with Prague and with its alchemical tradition, more precisely with the point at which alchemy starts to go wrong, that is, when it becomes detached from a disinterested quest for knowledge and becomes self-interested… In fact, in Svankmajer’s film, Faust appears to enter into the diabolic pact not from any great desire, but out of boredom: he can’t be bothered to resist and barely protests when the Devil doesn’t keep his part of the bargain. This is partly a comment on the way in which people came to accept Stalinism. We should, however, always remember that for Svankmajer Stalinism was nothing but a particular emanation of the sickness of modern civilization: the fact that consumerism has come to replace Stalinism does not reflect any improvement in the structure of society… It is the will to modify the environment so that is serves human needs that Svankmajer sees the sickness of modern society as essentially residing. From his earliest films, he has been concerned to question the way we tend to try to reduce the world to our own dimensions… – Michael Richardson, Surrealism and Cinema

2.12GB | 1 h 36 min | 784×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/A9EF1789AADDC8C/Jan_Svankmajer_-_(1994)_Lesson_Faust.mkv

Language:Czech
Subtitles:English

The post Jan Svankmajer – Lekce Faust AKA Faust (1994) first appeared on Cinema of the World.