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Czechoslovak New Wave
The Czechoslovak New Wave (also Czech New Wave) is a term used for the Czechoslovak filmmakers who started making movies in the 1960s. The directors commonly included are Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Ivan Passer, Pavel Juráček, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Jaromil Jireš, Evald Schorm, Hynek Bočan, Juraj Herz, Juraj Jakubisko, Štefan Uher and others. The movement was sometimes called the "Czechoslovak film miracle". Overview The films touched on themes which for earlier film makers in the communist countries had rarely managed to avoid the objections of the censor, such as the misguided youths of Czechoslovak society portrayed in Miloš Forman's '' Black Peter'' (1963) and ''Loves of a Blonde'' (1965), or those caught in a surrealistic whirlwind in Věra Chytilová's '' Daisies'' (1966) and Jaromil Jireš' '' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders'' (1970). The films often expressed dark and absurd humour in opposition to social realist films of the 1950s. The Czechoslovak New W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Firemen's Ball
''The Firemen's Ball'' (or ''The Fireman's Ball''; cs, Hoří, má panenko - "Fire, my lady") is a 1967 comedy film directed by Miloš Forman. It is set at the annual ball of a small town's volunteer fire department, and the plot portrays a series of disasters that occur during the evening. The film uses few professional actors – some characters are played by the firemen of the small town where it was filmed. By portraying the prevailing corruption of the local community and the collapse of even well-intentioned plans, the film satirized the communist system. ''The Firemen's Ball'' was the last film Forman made in his native Czechoslovakia before he relocated to the United States. It is also the first film he shot in color, as well as a milestone of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Plot The bumbling volunteer fire department in a small Czechoslovak town organizes a ball in the town hall, including a raffle and a beauty pageant. The firefighters also plan to present a small ceremon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Peter (film)
''Black Peter'' (original Czech title: ''Černý Petr'', known also as ''Peter and Paula''Jaroslav Boček, Šárka Bartošková, Luboš Bartošek, Jan Hořejší and Jiří Havelka: "Modern Czechoslovak film", 1965. Editor: Stanislav Zvoníček, published in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Film Institute. ''ARTIA'') is a 1964 film directed by Miloš Forman. It won the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival. Plot Petr, a Czech teenager, begins working as a trainee in theft prevention at a grocery store. He is criticized by his employer for being too conspicuous and then, when he suspects a man of stealing, is too nervous to confront the man so he just follows him through the streets and then returns home, where his father admonishes him because the shop manager had come looking for him. His father peppers him with questions about how he acted and why he did not do anything to stop the man. Petr likes Pavla, who is dating Mara. Petr and Pavla go for a swim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Closely Watched Trains
''Closely Watched Trains'' ( cs, Ostře sledované vlaky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Jiří Menzel and is one of the best-known products of the Czechoslovak New Wave. It was released in the United Kingdom as ''Closely Observed Trains''. It is a coming-of-age story about a young man working at a train station in German-occupied Czechoslovakia during World War II. The film is based on a 1965 novel by Bohumil Hrabal. It was produced by Barrandov Studios and filmed on location in Central Bohemia. Released outside Czechoslovakia during 1967, it won the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968. Plot The young Miloš Hrma, who speaks with misplaced pride of his family of misfits and malingerers, is engaged as a newly-trained train dispatcher at a small railway station near the end of the Second World War and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. He admires himself in his new uniform and looks forward, like his prematurely retired train driver fathe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe. Several major Hollywood productions have been made here, including ''Mission Impossible'', '' The Bourne Identity'', '' Casino Royale'', '' G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra'', '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', ''The Zookeeper's Wife'', and others. Founding Czech film history is closely connected with that of Prague's entrepreneurial Havel family, and especially with the activities of the brothers Miloš Havel (1899–1968) and Václav Maria Havel (1897–1979) (Václav was the father of the Czech President of the same name). In 1921, Miloš Havel created the A-B Joint Stock Company by merging his own American Film distribution company with the Biografia film distributors. At first, A-B studios were located in the garden of a Vinohrady brewery. However, with the emerging sound film, new modern s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Film And TV School Of The Academy Of Performing Arts In Prague
The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague ( cs, Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze) or FAMU is a film school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It is the fifth oldest film school in the world. The teaching language on most courses at FAMU is Czech, but FAMU also runs certain courses in English. The school has repeatedly been included on lists of the best film schools in the world by ''The Hollywood Reporter''. In the 1960s and 1970s, several young directors from Yugoslavia were FAMU students (Rajko Grlić, Srđan Karanović, Emir Kusturica, Goran Marković, Goran Paskaljević and Lordan Zafranović). All of these directors would become very successful in the following decades, prompting the coinage of the term ''Praška filmska škola'' ("Prague film school"), or ''Praški talas'' ("Prague wave"), which is sometimes considered a prominent subgenre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slovak Language
Slovak () , is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. It is part of the Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch. Spoken by approximately 5 million people as a native language, primarily ethnic Slovaks, it serves as the official language of Slovakia and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Slovak is closely related to Czech, to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree, as well as Polish. Like other Slavic languages, Slovak is a fusional language with a complex system of morphology and relatively flexible word order. Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by Latin and German and other Slavic languages. The Czech–Slovak group developed within West Slavic in the high medieval period, and the standardization of Czech and Slovak within the Czech–Slovak dialect continuum emerged in the early modern period. In the later mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult Film
A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated viewings, dialogue-quoting, and audience participation. Inclusive definitions allow for major studio productions, especially box-office bombs, while exclusive definitions focus more on obscure, transgressive films shunned by the mainstream. The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art. The term ''cult film'' itself was first used in the 1970s to describe the culture that surrounded underground films and midnight movies, though ''cult'' was in common use in film analysis for decades prior to that. Cult films trace their origin back to controversial and suppressed films kept alive by dedicated fans. In some cases, reclaimed or rediscovered films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Joke (novel)
''The Joke'' ( cs, Žert) is Milan Kundera's first novel, originally published in 1967. It describes how a student's private joke derails his life, and the entwined stories of his lovers and friends grappling with the shifting roles of folk traditions and religion under Communist Czechoslovakia. Plot Like most of Kundera's novels, the book is divided into seven parts; the parts switch among the viewpoints of four characters. Ludvik Jahn was expelled from school and the Communist Party for his irreverence. Jaroslav is an old friend with a cimbalom band which Ludvik had once played in. Helena Zemánková is a radio reporter going to interview Jaroslav, and the wife of Ludvik's old nemesis. Kostka is a Christian foil for Ludvik who spars with his life philosophy. The novel opens with Ludvik back in his hometown in Moravia for the first time in years, startled to recognize the woman cutting his hair, though neither acknowledges the other. He reflects on the joke that changed his life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himself as a French writer and insists his work should be studied as French literature and classified as such in book stores". Kundera's best-known work is ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being''. Prior to the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the communist régime in Czechoslovakia banned his books. He leads a low-profile life and rarely speaks to the media. He was thought to be a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was also a nominee for other awards. He was awarded the 1985 Jerusalem Prize, in 1987 the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and the 2000 Herder Prize. In 2021, he received the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor. Biography Kundera was born in 1929 at Purkyňova 6 (6 Purkyně Street) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Joke (film)
''The Joke'' ( cs, Žert) is a 1969 Czechoslovak film by director Jaromil Jireš. It is considered one of the last films of the Czech New Wave movement. Based on Milan Kundera's 1967 novel of the same name, ''The Joke'' tells the story of Ludvík Jahn, a man expelled from the Czechoslovak Communist Party for an idle joke to his girlfriend, and the revenge he later seeks through adultery. The film was produced during the political liberalization of the 1968 Prague Spring and contains many scenes which satirize and criticize the country's communist leadership. Amos Vogel wrote that the film was "possibly the most shattering indictment of totalitarianism to come out of a Communist country". Plot The scientist Ludvík Jahn returns to his hometown after two decades away. He is interviewed by Helena, an attractive older woman whom he begins to seduce. Jahn then discovers Helena is married to Pavel, an old rival. Jahn flashes back to his college days and his love for Markéta, a devout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French New Wave
French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconoclasm. New Wave filmmakers explored new approaches to editing, visual style, and narrative, as well as engagement with the social and political upheavals of the era, often making use of irony or exploring existential themes. The New Wave is often considered one of the most influential movements in the history of cinema. The term was first used by a group of French film critics and cinephiles associated with the magazine '' Cahiers du cinéma'' in the late 1950s and 1960s. These critics rejected the ''Tradition de qualité'' ("Tradition of Quality") of mainstream French cinema, which emphasized craft over innovation and old works over experimentation. This was apparent in a manifesto-like 1954 essay by François Truffaut, ''Une certaine tenda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
