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Pavel Landovský
Pavel Landovský (11 September 1936 – 10 October 2014), nicknamed Lanďák, was a Czech actor, playwright, and director. He was a prominent dissident under the communist regime of former Czechoslovakia. Biography Landovský was born in Havlíčkův Brod in 1936, and after finishing his studies at the secondary technical school of mechanical engineering, he tried four times to enter the Faculty of Theatre in Prague, without success. He started his acting career as a supernumerary actor in the regional theatre in Teplice and continued to perform in regional theatres in Šumperk, Klatovy, and Pardubice. The first play that he wrote, ''Hodinový hoteliér'', premiered at the Činoherní klub theatre in Prague on 11 May 1969. In 1971, the communist regime banned him from film and television. He continued acting at Činoherní klub and other theatres. Landovský was one of the initiators of the human rights petition Charter 77 and along with Václav Havel and Ludvík Vaculík, w ...
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Havlíčkův Brod
Havlíčkův Brod (, until 1945 Německý Brod; german: Deutschbrod) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administrative parts Villages of Březinka, Herlify, Jilemník, Klanečná, Květnov, Mírovka, Poděbaby, Šmolovy, Suchá, Svatý Kříž, Termesivy, Veselice and Zbožice are administrative parts of Havlíčkův Brod. Jilemník and Zbožice form two exclaves of the municipal territory. Etymology The Czech word ''brod'' means "ford". The town was firstly named Brod and then Smilův Brod ("Smil's Ford") after its founder Smil of Lichtenburk. In the 14th century it was renamed Německý Brod ("German Ford") because of its predominantly German population. Because of Anti-German sentiment after World War II, the town was renamed Havlíčkův Brod ("Havlíček's Ford") in honor of the writer Karel Havlíček Bor ...
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Ludvík Vaculík
Ludvík Vaculík (23 July 1926 – 6 June 2015) was a Czech writer and journalist. He was born in Brumov, Moravian Wallachia. A prominent samizdat writer, he was best known as the author of the "Two Thousand Words" manifesto of June 1968. Pre-1968 President of Czechoslovakia and Communist Party leader Antonín Novotný and his fellow conservatives had begun taking a more repressive approach toward intellectuals and writers after the Six-Day War of June 1967. The following month, Vaculík, then still a member of the Communist Party, attended the Fourth Congress of the Union of Writers. Others in attendance included communist party members Pavel Kohout, Ivan Klíma, and Milan Kundera, as well as non-Party member Václav Havel. Vaculík made an inflammatory speech in which he rejected the leading role of the party as unnecessary and criticized it for its restrictive cultural policies and failure to address social issues.Crampton, ''Eastern Europe'', 323. Havel recalled the mixed re ...
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Adelheid (film)
''Adelheid '' is a 1970 Czechoslovak drama film directed by František Vláčil, based on a 1967 novel of the same name by Czech writer Vladimír Körner. The story is about the complicated relationship between Czech man Viktor and German woman Adelheid, and about relationships between Czechs and Germans in postwar Czechoslovakia in general. Plot Discharged Czechoslovak lieutenant Viktor Chotovický ( Petr Čepek) returns to his homeland after spending much of the war in Aberdeen, Scotland employed at a RAF desk job. He has been appointed the trustee of an empty manor formerly occupied by the German family of a notorious Nazi war-criminal imprisoned by the Czechoslovak authorities. Viktor meets the Nazi's beautiful daughter Adelheid Heidenmann ( Emma Černá), who is forced to work as a cleaning lady at her own mansion. Her brother is an SS officer who allegedly disappeared in the Eastern Front. Viktor makes Adelheid his captive maid, and soon falls in love with her. His heart is ...
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Marketa Lazarová
''Marketa Lazarová'' is a 1967 Czechoslovak epic period drama directed by František Vláčil. It is an adaptation of the novel '' Marketa Lazarová'' (1931) by Vladislav Vančura. The film takes place in the middle of 13th century, and tells the story of a daughter of a feudal lord who is kidnapped by neighbouring robber knights and becomes a mistress of one of them. ''Marketa Lazarová'' was voted the all-time best Czech movie in a 1998 poll of Czech film critics and publicists. Theodor Pištěk designed the costumes for the film. Plot Part 1 The sons of Kozlík, a robber clan leader, ambush a group travelling to Mladá Boleslav in winter. The new Bishop of Hennau, an ally of the Bohemian king, escapes, but his young son Kristian and his assistant are taken. Mikoláš, one of Kozlík's sons, finds the neighbouring clan leader Lazar scavenging the site but spares his life as he prays to Christ. They both have a holy vision involving Lazar's virgin daughter, Marketa. At ...
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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 f ...
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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 are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura. Early life Menzel was born in Prague in 1938 to Josef Menzel and Božena Jindřichová. His father Josef was a journalist, translator and children's book writer. Menzel studied directing at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in Prague. His teachers at the academy included Czech Director Otakar Vávra. Career Menzel was a member of the Czech New Wave cinema in the 1960s. His first feature film, '' Closely Watched Trains'', won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967. The film was a World War II drama based on a book by Bohumil Hrabal. His film ''Larks on a String'' was filmed in 1969, but w ...
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Vaněk Plays
The Vaněk plays are a set of plays in which the character Ferdinand Vaněk is central. Vaněk first appeared in the play ''Audience'' by Václav Havel. He subsequently appeared in three other plays by Havel (''Protest'', ''Unveiling'', and ''Dozens of Cousins''), as well as plays by his friends and colleagues, including Pavel Landovský and Tom Stoppard. Today, the Vaněk plays are among Havel's best-known works. In English, they are principally known through the translations of Marketa Goetz-Stankiewicz. Origins Ferdinand Vaněk first appeared in the play ''Audience'' in 1975 as a stand-in for Havel. Vaněk, like Havel, was a dissident playwright, forced to work in a brewery because his writing has been banned by the Czechoslovak Communist regime. In the course of the play, it becomes clear that the brewmaster has been asked to spy on him. A long, rambling, comic dialogue proceeds, in the course of which the brewmaster eventually becomes a sympathetic figure, rather than ...
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Divadlo V Dlouhé
Divadlo v Dlouhé is a repertoire theatre with a permanent group of actors established in 1996 as a set financed by the Municipality of Prague. The group of actors comprises graduates of the ''Theatre Academy of Musical Arts'', part of the actors have studied in the ''Department of Alternative and Marionette Theatre'' of this Academy. The young group is highly talented in terms of dance and music. The repertoire spans from great dramatic stories to non-traditional cabarets. The Theatre holds the ''Child in Dlouhá / Dítě v Dlouhé'' festival at which the most interesting plays for children's theatre are featured. Divadlo v Dlouhé was nominated several times for Alfréd Radok Award in the category Theatre of the Year. Grabbe's ''Don Juan and Faust'' and ''Sestra Úzkost'' won the category Performance of the Year. The theatre is headed by Daniela Šálková. The key directors are Hana Burešová and Jan Borna. The most prominent actors are Miroslav Táborský, Jan Vondráček, ...
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National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre ( cs, Národní divadlo) in Prague is known as the alma mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art. The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition, which helped to preserve and develop the most important features of the nation–the Czech language and a sense for a Czech musical and dramatic way of thinking. Today the National Theatre consists of three artistic ensembles: opera, ballet and drama. They alternate in their performances in the historic building of the National Theatre, in the Theatre of the Estates and in the Kolowrat Theatre. All three artistic ensembles select their repertoire both from classical heritage, and modern authors. Initial design and construction, 1844 to 1881 The cornerstone of the National Theatre was laid on 16 May 1868, but the idea of building a theatre dates back to the autumn of 1844 at the gatherings of patriots in Prague. ...
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Theatre On The Balustrade
The Theatre on the Balustrade (Divadlo Na zábradlí) is situated in Prague, Czech Republic. The theatre was founded in 1958. Its founders - Helena Philipová, Ivan Vyskočil, Jiří Suchý and Vladimír Vodička named their professional theatre after a street leading from the square to the river. Its first production, a musical collage titled ''If a Thousand Clarinets'' (Czech: ''Kdyby tisíc klarinetů''), was premiered on 9 December 1958. Three months later Ladislav Fialka and his mime group joined the company with their production ''Pantomime on the Balustrade'', and brought back fame to the almost forgotten theatre genre. Drama and mime companies coexisted at the theatre till Fialka's death in 1991. In the early 1960s, with the arrival of director Jan Grossman, set designer Libor Fára and a stage hand and later dramaturg and playwright Václav Havel, the Theatre on the Balustrade became the centre of the Czech form of the absurd theatre (V. Havel: ''The Garden Party'', '' ...
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Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent dismantling of the command economy and conversion to a parliamentary republic. On 17 November 1989 (International Students' Day), riot police suppressed a Student activism, student demonstration in Prague. The event marked the 50th anniversary of a violently suppressed demonstration against the Nazi storming of Prague University in 1939 where 1,200 students were arrested and 9 killed (see International Students' Day#Origin, Origin of International Students' Day). The 1989 event sparked a series of demonstrations ...
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