nwFilmCenter

Czech Modernism

Czech cinema is best known for its fertile New Wave period in the 1960s and the work of such such directors as Ivan Passer, Jiri Menzel and Milos Forman. But the country's entire cinematic history has been rich and varied, as this 12-film retrospective surveying works produced from the silent era to the Communist takeover in 1948 demonstrates. Absorbing the cultural influences of world cinemaÃ‘ particularly French surrealism, Hollywood glamour, German expressionism and Russian montageÃ‘and mixing it with the aesthetics of a unique, home-grown sense of artistic experimentation, Czech filmmakers fashioned a distinct sensibility Ã‘of its time yet surprisingly ahead of its time.

Czech Modernism in Film was produced and co-curated by Irena Kovarova, Czech Film Center, and New York for the BAMcinÅ½matek and The National Gallery of Art. Archival film prints provided by The National Film Archive, of Prague and Anthology Film Archive, New York. All films are in Czech with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

Fri, Dec 7, 2007 at 7 PM Sun, Dec 9, 2007 at 5 PM	ON THE SUNNY SIDE DIRECTOR: VLADISLAV VANURA CZECHOSLOVAKIA One of the great masterpieces of early Czech sound cinema, this experimental classic combines elements of Soviet montage, Buñuelian surrealism, and Czech politics in an examination of a state home for children. The plot is nominally about the arrival of new kids from a broken home, but this is just a framework for a series of otherworldly tableaus, frightening set design, and ahead-of-their-time camera angles that make the whole film an exercise in symbolism and imagery. ( 76 min ) ^ Top
Fri, Dec 7, 2007 at 8:30 PM Sat, Dec 8, 2007 at 4 PM	THE STRIKE DIRECTOR: KAREL STEKL CZECHOSLOVAKIA The only Czech film to win the main prize at the Venice International Film Festival, THE STRIKE takes its story from real events in 1889 to depict a mining family struggling with debt and alcoholism. A fascinating piece of Czech Communist ideology, Stekl's mix of pre-war social realism and post-war avant-garde aesthetics possesses a sooty, realism that is remarkable for the post-World War II era. ( 83 min ) ^ Top
Wed, Dec 12, 2007 at 7 PM	TONKA OF THE GALLOWS DIRECTOR: KAREL ANTON CZECHOSLOVAKIA Originally shot as a silent film, sound was added later to make this Czechoslovakia's first sound film. TONKA stars the beautiful Ita Rina (the lead in EROTIKON) as a reluctant prostitute who volunteers to stay the night in prison with a condemned man. But after this act of charity she is turned away from the brothel, and viewed as a bad omen, as portrayed through Anton's vivid expressionist camerawork. With Ita Rina and Vera Baranovskaia. The film will be presented in the original silent version with musical soundtrack and French intertitles with English subtitles. ( 84 min ) ^ Top
Fri, Dec 14, 2007 at 8:30 PM	FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY DIRECTOR: GUSTAV MACHATY CZECHOSLOVAKIA Machaty, a master at conveying sexuality in Pre-Code cinema, makes his first sound film a simple tale of a young woman (Magda Maderová) attracted by the glamour of the champagne set, only to find herself repulsed when she is offered money for sex. Fleeing the scene she runs into a good-hearted workingman (L. H. Struna), whose simple decency wins her over. Like Fritz Lang's M, this is a fantastic example of a silent director embracing sound (an innovative score by Czech jazz great Jaroslav Jezek) and using it creatively. "Recommended! This compact melodrama takes a sophisticated approach to love, treating sex frankly and romance skeptically"-CHICAGO READER. ( 72 min ) ^ Top
Sat, Dec 15, 2007 at 7 PM	THE RIVER DIRECTOR: JOSEF ROVENSKY CZECHOSLOVAKIA This sunbathed pastoral drama is one of the films that defined "Czech Lyricism" in the 1930s and it turned heads by winning the Director's Prize at the Venice Film Festival. THE RIVER has real charm as it relates the unhurried, genuinely affecting tale of Pavel, a sturdy country boy, and barefooted Pepicka, the poor, barefoot girl he loves. Pavel's father, the village magistrate, is determined that Pavel not follow in his youthful footsteps as a poacher, but when a reward is offered for the capture of a fierce old pike, Pavel sees an opportunity to buy his beloved some footwear. The film pays gentle tribute to the beauty and simplicity of small-town life, but doesn't neglect to sketch in the harsh economic realities at play either. "A gentle, lyrical visual poem . . . with a pantheist montage and an incantatory voiceover . . .Guy Maddin's remake would be uproarious"—J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE. ( 88 min ) ^ Top
Sun, Dec 16, 2007 at 5 PM	CRISIS DIRECTOR: HERBERT KLINE CZECHOSLOVAKIA Herbert Kline (an American) worked with Czech directors Alexander Hackenschmied, a.k.a. Sasha Hammid, and Hans Burger to produce this documentary about the rise of Nazi fascism and its threat to Czechoslovakia. It is an incredible document of the times, and its immediacy remains startling even today; this is no newsreel, but a desperate attempt to warn of a nation's danger. It premiered in New York City just two days before Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany. The film, his feature debut as co-director, was ultimately a reason for Hammid to immigrate to the United States where he became the founder of American experimental cinema with his wife Maya Deren. "One of the finest political documentaries ever made...the things he had shown forecast the future"-NEW YORK TIMES, 1939. In English. ( 71 min ) ^ Top
Wed, Dec 19, 2007 at 7 PM	HEAVE HO! DIRECTOR: MARTIN FRIC CZECHOSLOVAKIA Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Jean Renoir's Popular Front films, HEAVE HO! combines socialist commentary and riotous laughter in joyous fashion. Generally considered one of the best cinematic outings by the famous slapstick duo of Voskovec and Werich, the film tells the story of an industrialist and a labor organizer who decide to work together to create their own socialist utopia. The auteur duo After spending the World War II years in exile in the U.S, Werich returned to Czechoslovakia while Voskovec stayed in New York, eventually starring in Sidney Lumet's acclaimed film 12 ANGRY MEN. "Uproarious. . .Like a Laurel and Hardy version of SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. "-TIME OUT. ( 87 min ) ^ Top
Wed, Dec 26, 2007 at 7 PM	VIRGINITY DIRECTOR: OTAKAR VÀVRA CZECHOSLOVAKIA A shimmering tragedy in the Hollywood mold, VIRGINITY concerns a beautiful young woman (Lída Baarová) who prepares to sell herself into marriage to obtain money for a treatment to save her dying lover (Ladislav Bohá). This is one of the first films by the great Vávra, a leading fixture in Czech cinema who, at the age of 95, is still directing films. "Vávra evokes sophisticated romantic detachment . . .the fluid and meticulous camera style and gorgeous photography in blacks and grays make this one of the best pre-World War II Czech films"—Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. ( 84 min ) ^ Top
Thu, Dec 27, 2007 at 7 PM	FAITHLESS MARIJKA DIRECTOR: VLADISLAV VANCURA CZECHOSLOVAKIA A breathtaking drama about life lived on the edge of civilization, FAITHLESS MARIJKA takes place in the wilds of the Carpathian mountains, where a young woodcutter must journey into the forest and leave his young wife (Anna Kelebejová) with another man (Petro Birak). Shot against the striking vistas of the Western Ukraine using local people as actors, this film also features a score by prominent Czech composer Bohuslav Martin, subsequently a long-time New Yorker. In Czech, Ruthinian, Slovak and Yiddish with English subtitles. ( 76 min ) ^ Top
Sun, Dec 30, 2007 at 7 PM	THE DISTANT JOURNEY DIRECTOR: ALFRED RADOK CZECHOSLOVAKIA Confronting the horrors of history head-on, Radok and his crew shot this first feature film about the Holocaust just three years after the war ended. The film combines actual footage with innovative reenactments and Expressionist camera setups to create a vivid, immediate look at the concentration camps. "The most brilliant, the most powerful and horrifying film on the Nazis' persecution of Jews that this reviewer has yet seen [as of 1950]...A quality of nightmare and madness builds up as the film goes along, until the final episodes of mass destruction cause a hypnosis of insanity."—NEW YORK TIMES. "Audacious and grotesque, the movie looks back to Caligari and forward to the unsettling puppet animation of Jan Svankmajer."—VILLAGE VOICE ( 103 min ) ^ Top