Jan Němec (12 July 1936 – 18 March 2016) was a Czech filmmaker whose most important work dates from the 1960s. Film historian Peter Hames has described him as the "
enfant terrible
''Enfant terrible'' (; ; "terrible child") is a French expression, traditionally referring to a child who is terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to parents or others. However, the expression has drawn multiple usage in careers of ...
of the
Czech New Wave."
Biography
Němec's career as a filmmaker started in the late 1950s when he attended
FAMU. At that time, Czechoslovakia was a communist state subservient to the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, and
artistic and public expression was subject to censorship and government review. However, thanks largely to the failure of purely propagandist cinema in the early 1950s and the presence of important and powerful people such as
Jan Procházka within the Czechoslovak film industry, the 1960s led to an internationally acknowledged creative surge in Czechoslovak film that became known as the
Czech New Wave, in which Němec played a part.
Professional
For graduation, Němec adapted a short story by
Arnošt Lustig
Arnošt Lustig (; 21 December 1926 – 26 February 2011) was a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.
Life and work
Lustig was born in Prague. As a Jewish boy ...
based on the author's experience of
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. Němec would return to Lustig's writing to direct the influential film ''
Diamonds of the Night'' (1964), also based on the Holocaust.
That film follows the fate of two boys who escape from a train taking them to a concentration camp. It is noted for its dramatic subjectivization of the experience of the Holocaust using experimental techniques including flashbacks, simulated hallucinations, and an unusual double ending that leaves the viewer in doubt as to the fate of its protagonists. It was his first major success, and while it passed the censors' reviews, it helped lay the foundation for the political movement that was coming. The film has since been called an aesthetic and technical milestone in the exploration of human experience under extreme conditions.
His best known work is ''
A Report on the Party and the Guests
''A Report on the Party and Guests'' ( cs, O slavnosti a hostech, also known in English as ''The Party and the Guests'') is a 1966 Czechoslovakian political satire film directed by Jan Němec. It was banned in Czechoslovakia from 1966 to 1968 f ...
'' (1966). Its plot revolves around a group of friends on a picnic who are invited to a bizarre banquet by a charismatic
sadist, played by Ivan Vyskočil, who eventually bullies most of them into blind conformity and brutality while those who resist are hunted down. The film received a particularly bad reception from the authorities as Vyskočil in the film had a remarkable likeness to
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, though according to Peter Hames this was accidental. Moreover, the cast consisted of various dissident Czechoslovak intellectuals of the day, including
Josef Škvorecký
Josef Škvorecký (; September 27, 1924 – January 3, 2012) was a Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. He spent half of his life in Canada, publishing and supporting banned Czech literature during the communist era. Škvorecký was awarded the ...
. The film was viewed as being so subversive to the
Communist state
A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comi ...
that
Antonín Novotný
Antonín Josef Novotný (10 December 1904 – 28 January 1975) was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, and also held the post of president of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968. An ardent hardliner, Novo ...
, the president, was said to "climb the walls" on viewing it and Němec's arrest for subversion was considered.
However, before the political fallout from this was able to take effect, he managed to have one more feature approved: ''Martyrs of Love'' (1966). Perhaps in consideration of the previous troubles he had suffered, the film was completely apolitical, but nevertheless its surrealist lyrical style did not endear it to the authorities. In 1967 Němec made a short film ''Mother and Son'' (1967) during three days at Amsterdam film festival. The film won an award at the
Oberhausen Film Festival.
He was in the middle of shooting a documentary about the Prague Spring for a US producer when the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia occurred. He smuggled his footage of invasion to Vienna, where it was broadcast on Austrian television. He edited the footage together with the Prague Spring documentary and released the film as ''Oratorio for Prague''. It received standing ovations at the New York Film Festival in the fall of 1968. Němec's footage would eventually be used by countless international news organizations as stock footage of the invasion. Philip Kaufman's film adaptation of ''
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' ( cs, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Although written in 1982, the no ...
'' (1988) used footage from the film; Němec also served as an advisor.
Němec was fired from Barrandov and subsequently only made a short documentary film about ambulence ''Mezi 4 - 5 minutou'' in 1972. He emigrated in 1974. He was given a warning by the government that "... if he came back, they would find some legal excuse to throw him in jail."
From 1974 to 1989, he lived in Germany,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, the
Netherlands
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, Sweden, and the United States. He stayed in the United States for twelve years.
Unable to work in traditional cinema, he was a pioneer in using video cameras to record weddings, including documenting the nuptials of the Swedish royal family.
After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, he returned to his native country, where he made several films, including ''Code Name Ruby'' (1997) and ''Late Night Talks with Mother'' (2000), which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno.
In 1996 he became a professor at his
alma mater, FAMU.
In 2014, he protested against the president of the Czech Republic
Miloš Zeman
Miloš Zeman (; born 28 September 1944) is a Czech politician serving as the third and current President of the Czech Republic since 2013. He previously served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. As leader of the Cze ...
by returning the medals given to him by the first president of the Czech Republic
Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...
.
Personal life and death
He married costume designer and screenwriter
Ester Krumbachová
Ester Krumbachová (12 November 1923 – 13 January 1996) was a Czech screenwriter, costume designer, stage designer, author and director. She is known for her contributions to Czech New Wave cinema in the 1960s, including collaborations with di ...
in 1963; they divorced in 1968. In 1970 he married singer
Marta Kubišová; they divorced in 1973. He married his third wife Veronica Baumann, a Czech language teacher, in 1984; they divorced in 2003. He married film editor Iva Ruszelakova shortly after. In May 2003, Němec became a father.
Němec died of an illness on 18 March 2016; he was 79.
Filmography
Director
*''The Loaf of Bread'' (1960) short film
*''
Diamonds of the Night'' (1964)
*''
Pearls of the Deep
''Pearls of the Deep'' () is a 1966 Czechoslovak anthology film directed by Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Evald Schorm, Věra Chytilová and Jaromil Jireš. The five segments are all based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal. The film was released in C ...
'' (segment "Podvodníci", 1966)
*''
A Report on the Party and the Guests
''A Report on the Party and Guests'' ( cs, O slavnosti a hostech, also known in English as ''The Party and the Guests'') is a 1966 Czechoslovakian political satire film directed by Jan Němec. It was banned in Czechoslovakia from 1966 to 1968 f ...
'' (1966)
*''
Martyrs of Love'' (1967)
*''
Oratorio for Prague'' (1968)
*''
The Flames of Royal Love'' (1990)
*''
Code Name: Ruby'' (1996)
*''
Late Night Talks with my Mother'' (2001)
*''
Landscape of My Heart'' (2004)
*''
Toyen
Toyen (born Marie Čermínová; 21 September 1902 – 9 November 1980), was a Czech painter, drafter, and illustrator and a member of the surrealist movement.
In 1923, the artist adopted the professional pseudonym Toyen. The name Toyen has b ...
'' (2005)
*''
The Ferrari Dino Girl'' (2009)
*''
Heart Beat 3D'' (2010)
*''
The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street'' (2016)
Actor
*''Vstup zakázán'' (1960) - Young Border guard (segment "The Chase")
*''The Murder of Mr. Devil'' (1970)
*''
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' ( cs, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Although written in 1982, the no ...
'' (1988) - cameraman filming the tanks in Prague
*''68'' (1988) - Dezsö Horváth
*''Corpus delicti'' (1991) - Suitor
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemec, Jan
1936 births
2016 deaths
Czechoslovak film directors
Recipients of Medal of Merit (Czech Republic)
Film directors from Prague