Jan Kříženecký (20 March 1868 – 9 February 1921) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

cinema pioneer, film director,

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

and photographer.

Life

He studied architecture, but didn't finish his studies. His brother Rudolf became a famous architect. Since his youth Kříženecký was interested in photography. Since 1903 he worked as professional photographer documenting the soon to be demolished houses in the streets of Prague for Municipal Building Authority. In 1896 he first saw

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: Buildings * Lumière, a building used by the Bibliothèque publique d'information in Paris, France * Lumiere (skyscraper), a cancelled skyscraper development in Leeds, ...

cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the ...

in Prague. In 1898 he bought his own cinematograph together with his friend Josef František Pokorný. He started showing Lumières' as well as his own short documentary films at pavilion in Prague's Výstaviště during Architecture and Engineering Exhibition in June 1898. Kříženecký staged, directed, developed and showed his films by himself. Lumière brothers even bought some of his short movies. He was the only professional Czech filmmaker until 1908. His filmmaking career ended in 1912. After that he worked as a projectionist for cinemas Louvre (1912–1915), Kino (1915–1916) and Světozor (1916–1921). He died forgotten in 1921 and none of the four Czech film magazines at that time reported his death. His achievements were re-discovered by film historian Karel Smrž in 1930s. Many documateries about his life were made, including ''Jak to začalo'' (1968, dir. Květa Lehovcová), ''Jan Kříženecký'' (1968, dir. Bohumil Veselý), ''Praha Jana Kříženeckého'' (1981, dir. Miro Bernat), ''Jan Kříženecký'' (1983, dir. Vojtěch Trapl). The character Kolenatý in

Jiří Menzel Jiří Menzel () (23 February 1938 – 5 September 2020) was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films ...

's ''

Those Wonderful Movie Cranks ''Those Wonderful Movie Cranks'' () is a 1978 Czech comedy film directed by Jiří Menzel. The film was selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 52nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film has al ...

'' (1978) is based on Kříženecký.

Czech Film Archive The National Film Archive (, abb. NFA) is a film archive located in Prague, Czech Republic. It was established in 1943 (From 1943 to 1945 known as Filmový archiv, from 1945 to 1989 Československý filmový ústav, then from 1990 to 1992 Český f ...

released a DVD ''Short films of Jan Kříženecký'' in 2018.

Selected filmography

Staged films

*''Dostaveníčko ve mlýnici'' (1898) *''Smích a pláč'' (1898) *''Výstavní párkař a lepič plakátů'' (1898) *''Nejlepší číslo'' (1907)

Documentaries

* ''Purkyňovo náměstí na Královských Vinohradech'' (1898) * ''Polední výstřel z děla na baště sv. Tomáše'' (1898) * ''Svatojanská pouť v českoslovanské vesnici'' (1898) * ''Alarm staroměstských hasičů'' (1898) * ''Výjezd parní stříkačky k ohni'' (1898) * ''Útok pražského dělostřelectva'' (1898) * ''Poklepy na základní kámen pro pomník Františka Palackého'' (1898) * ''Rychlovlak v Podbabí'' (1898) * ''Defilování vojska o Božím těle na Královských Vinohradech'' (1898) * ''Přenesení kolébky Františka Palackého z Hodslavic na výstaviště'' (1898)

Bibliography

* * *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krizenecky, Jan 1868 births 1921 deaths Czech film directors Czech cinematographers Photographers from Prague Cinema pioneers People from Austria-Hungary