Czech Films Come To New York

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 26 October 2009 14:31

Written by Brad Balfour

Certain cinema always seems to get the spotlight in the States, be it French or Polish or whatever is in vogue at the moment. At the same time, a lot of other national cinema gets overlooked.

During this month and in November, Czech cinema will no longer seem overlooked. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, there are several film programs that highlight Czech cinema.

The New York Czech Center (321 East 73rd St.) held an event in celebration of The Jubilee -- the 50th International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín -- and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Czech director Karel Zeman earlier this month. A photo exhibition entitled Film Magician Karel Zeman is on display until end of October which outlines his productions and includes a film projection of Zeman's film, The Fabulous World of Jules Verne.

One independent programmer, Laura Blum, has not only become quite expert in the Czech cinema, but, in putting together this survey of its directors past and present, The Ironic Curtain, for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, she offers an enlightening look at a country that has taken on a new life in the wake of the Iron Curtain's collapse 20 years ago.

During a relatively peaceful and bloodless six-week period of demonstrations -- between November 17 and December 29, 1989 -- the former Czechoslovakia saw the overthrow of the Soviet regime in what became known as the Velvet Revolution.

Explains programmer Blum, "Americans tend to think the Velvet Revolution happened far away, without any connection to us, but its leader, Václav Havel, was in New York on April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King was assassinated. He says he was influenced by the non-violent philosophy he heard at the rallies honoring Dr. King at Central Park -- which he would ultimately bring to the Velvet Revolution."



In fact, The Ironic Curtain opens with the North American premiere of Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek's intimate documentary, Citizen Havel, about his private and public life during this playwright-turned-politician's two terms as President of the Czech Republic. The film vividly captures the life of the man emblematic of the Velvet Revolution as well as the individual and collective yearnings of recent Czech history. Czech Consul General Eliška Žigová introduces the film; it's preceded by a special video of the former president, exclusively made for this series as he begins his next career as a filmmaker.

A later tragedy in 1968 inspired The Ferrari Dino Girl (Holka Ferrari Dino) by New Wave enfant terrible Jan Nĕmec. The docudrama recalls the filmmaker's rush across the Czechoslovak-Austrian border to deliver footage of Soviet tanks ramrolling through Prague. Though Soviet propaganda later claimed the Czechs welcomed Warsaw Pact troops, Nĕmec's footage -- which will ring a bell for anyone who saw The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- provided visceral refutation of such a thought.

This deliberately timed 68-minute film shares a double bill with Jiří Střecha and Petr Slavík's The Kind Revolution (Něžná revoluce). Cinema is at its verite best in this chronicle of the Velvet Revolution when riot police quashed a peaceful student rally in Prague, the popular protests that followed sacked Czech Communism.

Czech film history also appears in four classics from the '60s and one from the '30s in this series. Gustav Machatý's Extáse offers the first nude scenes in cinema with a quick glimpse of the young Heddy Lamar skinny dipping; Voyage to the End of the Universe is a sci-fi gem that was an influence on the makers of Star Trek; Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is an early example of the New Wave as seen through Czech eyes.

The New Wave influenced a younger generation of filmmakers--for instance, director Bohdan Slama -- who made the acclaimed Something Like Happiness (which is also screening during the series) says Forman's Black Peter was among his biggest influences.



Also included in this fest is a 19-minute sneak preview clip of Czech Peace (Český mir), Filip Remunda and Vit Klusák's "pre-war comedy" about recent US plans to install a radar base on Czech soil. These two did a fabulous mockumentary called Czech Dream that debuted at 2005's Tribeca Film Festival.



And there are two Dostoevsky-inspired films, including Saša Gedeon's The Return of the Idiot (Návrat idiota) with top starlet Ana Geislerova, who sadly had to cancel an appearance here to introduce it, as well as her starrer Something Like Happiness. Variety singled out its director Slama as among the top 10 directors to watch in 2009.

The series closes on October 29 with the North American premiere of Petr Zelenka's Karamazovi, about a Czech theater traveling to Poland to perform Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The Dostoevsky classic is currently in the news with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's praise, in Moscow, for the book's attack on dogma.

From November 18th-22nd, 2009, BAMcinématek-- the repertory film program at BAM Rose Cinemas -- presents the 10th season of New Czech Films. The series features seven contemporary films from the Czech Republic--one North American premiere and three New York premieres.

Co-curated by Irena Kovarova and BAMcinématek with the New York Czech Center, this annual program has presented nearly 70 films with 25 guests including unforgettable discussions with auteurs such as Jan Švankmajer presenting his latest feature Lunacy (2005), Sláma with A Country Teacher (2008), and Oscar winning and nominated directors such as Jiří Menzel (I Served the King of England (2006)) and Jan Hřebejk (Divided We Fall - 2000).  Along with works by established directors, the series has included works by emerging filmmakers such as Champions (2004) by Marek Najbrt whose second feature Protector (2009) is the Czech Republic’s selection for this year's Academy Award nominations; Remunda and Klusák's Czech Dream (2004); and early films by Zelenka (Year of the Devil Wild Bees - 2001 and Something Like Happiness - 2005).

New Czech Films begins on November 18 with the North American premiere of Forman’s A Well Paid Walk (2009). The film is a comic jazz opera originally staged by Prague’s subversive Semafor Theater in the 1960s and filmed for TV by a young Forman, and now restaged by Forman in 2009. Forman will be at BAM on November 18 to speak with film writer Scott Foundas in a conversation expanding upon their first encounter in 2008 at Walker Art Center that covered Forman's entire film career.  

Continuing through November 22, the series also includes the New York premiere of acclaimed animator Maria Procházková’s Who’s Afraid of the Wolf? (2008) with Procházková coming to BAM on November 19. In honor of the Velvet Revolution's 20th anniversary, there will be another screening  Koutecký and Janek’s Citizen Havel, on November 20. Helena Třeštíková’s award-winning documentary René screens the following day, November 21 with Třeštíková on hand for a Q&A. Třeštíková directed Marcela (2006) which was selected for New Czech Films 2007. Also screening November 21 is (2008), Václav Marhoul’s Tobruck, a story about exiled Czech soldiers fighting alongside the Allies in the infamous battle set in North Africa during WWII.  

The final day of series, November 22, includes both Zelenka’s The Karamazovs and the New York premiere of Jan Hřebejk’s I’m All Good (2008), an entertaining ensemble comedy set in the early 1990s.  

For more information on The Ironic Curtain go to: filmlinc.com

For the Czech Center go to: czechcenter.com

For the BAM schedule go to: BAM.org

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