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From Vera Hitilova's Daisy Bloom to Yuray Hertz's The Cremator.
Footage from the film The Cremator (1966). Director: Yuray Hertz.
Now, it's time to delve into the gems of Czechoslovak New Wave cinema, which is intimately associated with local directors such as Jan Němec (1936-2016) and Jan Švankmager (1934). During the brief political thaw in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, many streaming platforms had themed screenings specifically for the movement. These films embody the innovative avant-garde spirit of the prestigious Prague Film School (FAMU). One unconvinced anecdote says that Orson Welles (1915-85, American film director) once said that no one but FAMU could teach directing. Here are some of the great czechoslovak films of this period.
The Blonde's Love
Loves of a Blonde，1965 . Czechoslovakia
Director: Miloš Forman (1932-2018, Czech-American film director)
Starring: Hanna Brejchová (1946, Czech actor), Vladimíra Pucholta (1942, Czech-Canadian actor), Vladimír Menšik (1929–88), Ivan Kheil (1928, Czech actor)
Most Americans probably know Milosz Foreman, who directed the Oscar-winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) or the evil biopic The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), and his early films in his home country were a must-see. In The Blonde's Love, a young woman named Andula (Hana Brykhova) works in a provincial factory, and in a small town, the dusty ballroom party is a decadent social scene until she meets a young pianist. After he leaves, Andura decides to follow her one-night stand to the city to surprise him and his family. It was a gentle and ironic observation of gender differences and the complex economic situation faced by young Czechs at the time.
Andura's path to love is very difficult. It wasn't until a debauched pianist came to her factory town that her cravings were temporarily relieved. The film takes a gentle and humorous look at Andura's journey, and from the initial painful romance to the inevitable disappointment, Blonde Love immediately became a Czechoslovak New Wave classic, and Miloš Foreman received his first Oscar nomination.
Daisy Bloom
Daisies，1966 . Czechoslovakia
Director: Věra Chytilová (1929-2014, Czech film director)
No film embodies the bold experimental spirit of the movement like The Kaleidoscope of Vila Hitilova's films, often through physical acts. Two young women, posing as obedient schoolgirls, lured men to take them out to dinner. With their subsequent anarchist antics, excessive overeating, and party-busting behavior, they called society's narrow notions of women a farce. Watching this film is not only the excellent performance of the two main actors (from non-professional actors), but also the strange costume of Ester Krumbachová (1923-96, Czech screenwriter and costume designer) and the innovative photography of Jaroslav Kucera (1929-91, Czech cinematographer), including jumping clips, sudden changes in color, and the insertion of experimental animation.
Perhaps this is the most anarchist scene in the New Wave, where Vera Hitilova's absurdist farce tells the tragic fate of two reckless young women. They think the world is "spoiled" and begin a series of pranks in which nothing, food, clothing, men, and war are valued. Daisy Bloom is a film with a political aesthetic and adventurous spirit, and is widely regarded as one of the great works of feminist cinema.
The Crusader
The Cremator，1969 . Czechoslovakia
Director: Juraj Herz (1934-2018, Slovak film director)
A year after the Warsaw Pact army marched into Prague, The Grotesque story of Juraj Hertz is imbued with a suffocating sense of oppression and a slightly black absurdist humor. In an extremely chilling way, Rudolf Hrušinský (1920–94, Czech actor) played Karel Kopfrkingl, a morbid and calculating crematorium manager in Prague in the 1930s who believed he was saving humanity through death and that death was the only true relief from human suffering. The cinematography technique of Stanislav Milota (1933-2019, Czech cinematographer) – with its distorted lenses and unusual shooting angles – is another highlight of the film.
The iconoclastic urai Hertz of the Czechoslovak New Wave, depicts the horrors of totalitarian ideology in this gruesome, black comedy. When Kopffkinger was recruited by the Nazis, his increasingly crazy worldview drove him to craft a shocking final solution. The director combines the black humor of the darkest gallows with bewildering expressionism – converging into disturbing perspectives, distorted shots, discordant quick editing. The controversial and long-banned masterpiece, The Cremator, is one of the sharpest and most puzzling portrayals of evil in film history.
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This article is originally created by the public account [ABAGo] manager Happy Big Fat
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