‘Czechoslovakia’ Archives
František Vláčil: an introduction
The recent retrospectives and DVD boxes of films by the long-neglected Japanese master Mikio Naruse serve to emphasise the wealth of important cinema that still remains to be discovered outside the established canons. František Vláčil (1924-1999) may be Naruse's closest equivalent in Czech cinema, not because their aesthetic and thematic [...]
The Devil’s Trap
Ďáblova past. Czechoslovakia, 1961, black and white, 87 minsFrantišek Vláčil's second feature was the first of a loose trilogy set in the distant past. All three films (the others being Marketa Lazarová and The Valley of the Bees/Údolí včel, both 1967) take place at a time of fundamental ideological conflict and upheaval - in the case [...]
Daisies
Sedmikrásky Czechoslovakia, 1966, colour/black & white (assorted tints), 73 minsI was planning to post a full-scale review of Second Run's new DVD of Věra Chytilová's Daisies/Sedmikrásky by today, but workload and a commission to write an extended piece on it for Sight & Sound conspired against me.But what I'll certainly say is that [...]
Švankmajer in Manchester
Well, not the man himself, but a rare chance to see some of Jan Švankmajer's shorts in 35mm, preceded by a talk from yours truly about the use of movement in his films. It's part of the concurrent Moves09 festival, which this year is exploring the narrative possibilities of movement on screen. I'm still finalising the details, so I can't give [...]
Seclusion Near a Forest
Na samotě u lesa Czechoslovakia, 1976, colour, 93 minsFirst of all, some much-needed context. Seclusion Near a Forest (also known as A Cottage by the Wood, though the former title is closer to the original) was the second film that Jiří Menzel made after a five-year ban following the reception of Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti, 1969), [...]
Short Animated World
I've just discovered the Short Animated World blog, dedicated to chronicling all 100 entries on the recent Annecy Film Festival/Studio Magazine/Variety poll of thirty animation historians to establish the best animated films of all time. There's no original critical material, but each entry offers links and - in most cases - a streaming copy of [...]
Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák in London
On the weekend of 7-9 November, London's Riverside Studios Cinema (probably the most consistently supportive of all British venues when it comes to central and eastern European cinema) is hosting a season of ten films featuring one or both of the father-and-son team of Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák, who will also be appearing in person. The full [...]
The Ghost of Munich
The Prague Post reports on a potentially intriguing film collaboration between two of the elder statesmen of Czech culture: playwright and former president Václav Havel and director Miloš Forman. Inspired by (as opposed to based on) the novel The Ghost of Munich by French journalist Georges-Marc Benamou, it's an account of the British and [...]
Polish Posters revisited
One of the first posts I ever made on this blog enthused about Polish posters (one of the most underrated authentically great art forms of the last century), so I'm delighted to see that Andrew Lindstrom's design resource Well Medicated is hosting a superb online exhibition of fifty Polish film posters, plus the option to leave comments. And I [...]
The Firemen’s Ball
I'm just taking a quick break from Sarajevo Film Festival reviews to recommend this exhaustive, heavily illustrated and multi-authored discussion on Miloš Forman's The Firemen's Ball (Hoří, má panenko!, 1967) in the Film of the Month Club blog. It's in several sections, so here are quick links: Introduction (by Marilyn Ferdinand) 'I Laugh at [...]