Thanks to an upcoming Riverside Studios Cinema season of the films of Jan and Zdeněk Svěrák, and the imminent release of the first English-subtitled DVD of Jiri Menzel’s I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále, 2007), I’ve decided to devote much of November to exploring the work of the two most internationally successful Czech directors after Milos Forman.
Despite being from different generations, Jiří Menzel (b. 1938) and Jan Svěrák (b. 1965) have a surprising amount in common. Their international profile notwithstanding (they’ve notched up two Best Foreign Film Oscar nominations and one win apiece), they’ve almost exclusively worked in their native country and language, they’ve regularly collaborated with writer/actor Zdeněk Svěrák (Jan’s father, Menzel’s contemporary), and most of their films are characterised by an agreeably old-fashioned humanist outlook that seems both quintessentially ‘Czech’ and yet has universal appeal.
These are the films I’m hoping to look at in more depth, all of which are available on English-subtitled DVDs.
Jiří Menzel
- 1965 – Pearls of the Deep (Perličky na dně)
- 1966 – Closely Observed Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky)
- 1967 – Capricious Summer (Rozmarné léto)
- 1969 – Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti)
- 1976 – Seclusion near a Forest (Na samotě u lesa)
- 1981 – Cutting It Short (Postřižiny)
- 1983 – Snowdrop Festival (Slavnosti sněženek)
- 1985 – My Sweet Little Village (Vesničko má středisková)
- 2007 – I Served the King of England
Jan Svěrák
- 1988 – The Oil Gobblers (Ropáci)
- 1991 – The Elementary School (Obecná škola)
- 1994 – Accumulator 1 (Akumulátor 1)
- 1994 – The Ride (Jízda)
- 1996 – Kolya (Kolja)
- 2001 – Dark Blue World (Tmavomodrý svět)
- 2007 – Empties (Vratné lahve)
Zdeněk Svěrák
- 1969 – Larks on a String
- 1976 – Seclusion near a Forest
- 1983 – Three Veterans (Tři veteráni)
- 1985 – My Sweet Little Village
- 1991 – The Elementary School
- 1994 – Accumulator 1
- 1996 – Kolya
- 2001 – Dark Blue World
- 2007 – Empties
Because I want to get all the Riverside titles out of the way before the season starts on November 7th, I’ll start with those and then jump back to the 1960s to start exploring the great Menzel/Bohumil Hrabal collaborations. In the meantime, here’s my report from the Jiří Menzel Q&A that followed the London premiere of I Served the King of England.