Czech folk hero Jan Zizka’s story has been dramatized — and mythologized — in various forms many times, including a mid-1950s celluloid trilogy by Otakar Vavra that was arguably the local industry’s most ambitious production in those somewhat stodgy, pre-New Wave days. Purportedly the Czech Republic’s most expensive feature to date, Petr Jakl’s new “Medieval” portrays the same legendary figure in what’s anything but an old-school costume epic. Instead, this robust, assured enterprise offers a distant past in the brutally combat-driven action mode of “Gladiator” and “Braveheart,” its patriotic sentiments steeped in mud and blood.
The economic realities for such a costly spectacular require a degree of formulaic creative decisions in line with current international audience tastes, while the casting of American and British actors in primary roles further waters down a distinctive regional character. Nevertheless, “Medieval” succeeds as a lively, handsome chunk of history (however...
The economic realities for such a costly spectacular require a degree of formulaic creative decisions in line with current international audience tastes, while the casting of American and British actors in primary roles further waters down a distinctive regional character. Nevertheless, “Medieval” succeeds as a lively, handsome chunk of history (however...
- 9/5/2022
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Different shades of the noir genre to be seen across the history of cinema at the 12th century Křivoklát Castle in the Czech Republic. The Noir Film Festival in the Czech Republic, focused exclusively on the different forms and shapes of the noir genre, is bracing for its 8th edition despite the unstable situation. The upcoming edition will explore the strange worlds of David Lynch inspired by noir classics, such as Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Drive (2001). Besides American noir, the festival will also focus on Italian takes on the genre in Pietro Germi’s Four Ways Out (1951) and noir reborn as giallo in horror thrillers The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) and Deep Red (1975). Czechoslovak noir retains a traditional spot at the festival and the 8th edition will introduce Otakar Vávra’s The Magic House (1939), example of Czechoslovak neorealism...
Věra Chytilová shooting Time Is RelentlessIn Something Different (1963), housewife Vera has had it with her emotionally unavailable husband, exhausting chores, and child-rearing, so she starts an affair. A broken woman, she bursts into sporadic fits of giggling, scaring both men in her life. Prefiguring to some extent Alain Tanner's La salamandre, this laughter lifts the veil over the heroine's existential crisis, one so reluctant to be put into words and yet occasionally susceptible to movie images. Over the almost 50-year span of her career, we've heard Věra Chytilová's laugh so many times that it deserves to be catalogued. Daisies (1966) gave the censors plenty of reasons to ban it, but the derisive cackling of two girls at war with common sense would've sufficed. You can hear the sound as early as her student film Caterwauling (1960), made at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Famu). There,...
- 3/8/2019
- MUBI
Film director who suffered censorship in her native Czechoslovakia for her 'anti-communist' films
Vera Chytilová, who has died aged 85, was one of the brightest of the new wave of film directors who emerged in Czechoslovakia in the mid-60s. Chytilová, Ivan Passer, Jan Nemec, Jirí Menzel, Ján Kadár and Miloš Forman were all products of Famu, the national film school in Prague. After the Russian invasion in 1968 put an end to the Prague Spring, Passer, Kadár and Forman left for the Us, and Nemec went into exile in western Europe. Menzel, who remained, was restricted despite repudiating his "anti-communist" films in 1974. But Chytilová, whose Daisies (1966) was the most adventurous and anarchic film of the period, was silenced.
Born in Ostrava, now in the Czech Republic, Chytilová had a strict Catholic upbringing. "I left that basic, personified faith," she later said. "It seemed like a crutch to me. I realised it...
Vera Chytilová, who has died aged 85, was one of the brightest of the new wave of film directors who emerged in Czechoslovakia in the mid-60s. Chytilová, Ivan Passer, Jan Nemec, Jirí Menzel, Ján Kadár and Miloš Forman were all products of Famu, the national film school in Prague. After the Russian invasion in 1968 put an end to the Prague Spring, Passer, Kadár and Forman left for the Us, and Nemec went into exile in western Europe. Menzel, who remained, was restricted despite repudiating his "anti-communist" films in 1974. But Chytilová, whose Daisies (1966) was the most adventurous and anarchic film of the period, was silenced.
Born in Ostrava, now in the Czech Republic, Chytilová had a strict Catholic upbringing. "I left that basic, personified faith," she later said. "It seemed like a crutch to me. I realised it...
- 3/16/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Influential Czech film director with a talent for self-preservation
The Czech film director Otakar Vávra, who has died aged 100, was born in Bohemia when it was part of the Austro- Hungarian empire, and was seven years old when Czechoslovakia became an independent nation in 1918. He lived through the German occupation, communism and the Velvet Revolution, and saw his country become the Czech Republic in 1993, while never ceasing to make films. In each epoch, Vávra changed his skin in order to save it.
Among his lasting achievements was the film faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (Famu) in Prague, which he helped establish after the second world war and where he taught for five decades. Among his students were Vera Chytilová, Milos Forman, Ivan Passer and Jiri Menzel, all directors of the 60s Czech new wave, and more recently Emir Kusturica, all of whom had high praise for his teaching.
The Czech film director Otakar Vávra, who has died aged 100, was born in Bohemia when it was part of the Austro- Hungarian empire, and was seven years old when Czechoslovakia became an independent nation in 1918. He lived through the German occupation, communism and the Velvet Revolution, and saw his country become the Czech Republic in 1993, while never ceasing to make films. In each epoch, Vávra changed his skin in order to save it.
Among his lasting achievements was the film faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (Famu) in Prague, which he helped establish after the second world war and where he taught for five decades. Among his students were Vera Chytilová, Milos Forman, Ivan Passer and Jiri Menzel, all directors of the 60s Czech new wave, and more recently Emir Kusturica, all of whom had high praise for his teaching.
- 11/7/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
"Czech director Otakar Vávra, an inspiration and teacher to the most successful generation of Czech film makers died on Thursday at the age of 100," reports Roman Gazdik. "Vávra came to prominence before World War Two, helped launch what became known as the Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960s and taught at the influential Prague film academy Famu, whose graduates include Oscar winners Miloš Forman and Jiří Menzel. 'He was one of the most significant people in the history of Czech cinema and the teacher of the most important Czech film generation,' Famu Dean Pavel Jech told Reuters."
A report from Czech Happenings notes that Vávra published a memoir earlier this year covering not only his 70-year career but also tracing a history from the Czechoslovakia of 1930s to the Czech Republic of today. Besides Forman and Menzel, his students included Věra Chytilová, Evald Schorm, "as well as foreign directors,...
A report from Czech Happenings notes that Vávra published a memoir earlier this year covering not only his 70-year career but also tracing a history from the Czechoslovakia of 1930s to the Czech Republic of today. Besides Forman and Menzel, his students included Věra Chytilová, Evald Schorm, "as well as foreign directors,...
- 9/16/2011
- MUBI
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.