František Čáp (7 December 1913 – 12 January 1972), also known as Franz Cap in Germany, was a Czech and later a Yugoslav
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
and
screenwriter
A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
. He directed 32 films between 1939 and 1970. Having created Slovene film classics such as ''
Vesna'', ''
Ne čakaj na maj'' and ''
Our Car'', he is also one of the most popular directors of early Slovene cinema in 1950s and the 1960s.
Life
Čáp was born in
Čachovice (now in central
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
).
As an already established professional, he moved to
Ljubljana
{{Infobox settlement
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in 1952, following an invitation by
Branimir Tuma, director of
Triglav Film.
In 1957, he moved to
Portorož
Portorož (; ) is a Slovenian Adriatic seaside resort and spa settlement located in the Municipality of Piran in southwestern Slovenia. Its modern development began in the late 19th century with the vogue for the first health resorts. In the earl ...
, a coastal town in southwestern Slovenia, where he lived until his death.
Work
Prior to his arrival in Yugoslavia, Čáp was praised as the young star of Czech cinema. During World War II he directed a dozen light romantic dramas and melodramas, among them the internationally acclaimed ''
Nocturnal Butterfly'' which won a prize at the Venice film festival, and ''
Men Without Wings'' which won a prize for Best Director in Cannes. His last Czechoslovak film ''
The White Darkness'', his personal favorite, put him in conflict with the communist authorities. After the criticism his film received by workers jury at Zlín film festival, Čáp called the jury "morons who don't understand
isfilms". This didn't go well in
communist Czechoslovakia and he was banned from directing movies. He fled to West Germany, where he directed three films, including ''
All Clues Lead to Berlin'' which was distributed to many countries. He arrived in Yugoslavia by invitation of the director of a Slovene film production company Branimir Tuma, to help in the development of the Slovene film industry in the 1950s.
[Vrdlovec, Zdenko (2013), ''Zgodovina filma na slovenskem'', Ljubljana: UMco.]
In the 1950s and 1960s, Čap directed five films for Triglav film and another six co-productions and non-Slovene productions. Čáp's first Yugoslav film, romantic comedy ''
Vesna'' (1953), had elements of
Heimatfilm and pre-World War II Czech and Austrian melodrama, and proved highly successful both artistically and commercially, as did its sequel ''
Ne čakaj na maj'' (1957).
''Vesna'' remains one of the most popular Slovene classics. It took the place of the first commercial film—and the first comedy—in Slovene cinema, and was precisely the urban, modern and technically exquisite film that Triglav film had hoped for when it employed Čap.
Čap's second Slovene film was a war drama ''
Trenutki odločitve'' (Moments of Decision, 1955) about the urgency of reconciliation between partisans and white guards, a topic with which he produced the first censored film in Slovenia.
[Stanković, Peter (2013), ''Čapovi slovenski igrani celovečerci'', ''KINO!'' 21.]
During his "Yugoslav era", Čap did not only engage in Slovene productions, but in various other acclaimed productions and co-productions. He directed ''
Am Anfang war es Sünde'' (''Sin'' / ''Greh'', 1954, Saphir Film) and the romantic drama ''
La ragazza della salina'' (''Sand, Love and Salt'' / ''Kruh in sol'', 1957), which featured
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (26 September 1924Come da lui stesso dichiarato a 1'10" dquesta intervista/ref> – 19 December 1996) was an Italian actor. He is generally regarded as one of Italy's most iconic male performers of the 20t ...
. For Bosna film, he directed a drama about juvenile delinquency ''
Vrata ostaju otvorena'' (''The Door Remains Open'', 1959), introducing
Milena Dravić, one of the leading film stars in Yugoslavia, in her very first film role, and another comedy ''
Srešćemo se večeras'' (''Meet You Tonight'', 1962).
In 1956, Čáp shot ''
Die Geierwally'' (''The Vulture Wally''), based on the novel by
Wilhelmine von Hillern, in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, while ''X-25 javlja'' ("X-25 Reports", 1960), a World War II spy thriller set in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
, saw extensive international theatrical release as well.
However, after his poorly received comedy ''
Naš avto'' (''Our Car'', 1962), Čáp was unable to find work in Yugoslavia and he turned to direct for television. He was engaged in directing a TV series and two TV films for German and Austrian televisions.
In Slovenia where he lived, though, he was only able to participate in one more production, directing a short film ''
Piran
Piran (; ) is a town in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. A bilingual city, with population speaking both Slovene and Italian, Piran is known for its medieva ...
'' (1965).
Criticism and reception
Contemporary Slovene film criticism widely accepts that the 5 films that František Čap directed in Slovene, ''Vesna'', ''
Trenutki odločitve'', ''Ne čakaj na maj'', ''
X 25 Reports
X, or x, is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ex'' (pronounced ), plural ''exes''."X", ' ...
'' and ''
Our Car'', introduced a Hollywood type of narrative and cosmopolitan appearance to 1950s Slovene cinema. Though struggling with negative criticism in his own time, today Čáp is praised as a craftsman who helped the undeveloped Slovene and Yugoslav cinema – at the time infected with dilettante technical standards, problematic focus on local issues and stiff literary adaptations – to rise to the level of an exquisite craft with universal intelligibility.
Some critics viewed it as "genre cinema" — as Čáp mostly directed comedies, thrillers, and melodramas — though these do not correspond strictly to genre rules. "Mainstream cinema" is a term that more accurately describes its aim to attract the audience by means of a classical, easily intelligible narrative, and by emphasizing the story and dramatic structure, not so much qualities of cinema as an art form.
The negative reviews of Čáp's work occurred mostly during the times of 1960s, 70s and 80s Yugoslavian film criticism. The orthodox communist reviewers saw in it a bourgeois threat to socialist values, and a conservative return to the middle class phantom concepts (e.g. The idea of innocent romantic love).
They also minded Čáp's comedies' prevailing themes of spoiled youth and their sexual awakening in ''Vesna'' and ''Ne čakaj na maj''.
[Štefančič, Marcel (2005): Na svoji zemlji. ''Zgodovina slovenskega filma'', Ljubljana: UMco.]
The name object of early criticism, however, was the misrepresentation (or lack of representation) of Slovene culture in Čáp's cinema, especially in the hugely popular comedies. A number of reviewers saw Čáp as a foreigner who has never assimilated to Slovene culture. They resented that the films were not specific enough and could be set anywhere in Central Europe. These reviews seem traditionalist and xenophobic from contemporary point of view. Contemporary Slovene film theorists have largely praised Čáp's "foreignness" or "otherness", reasoning that his ignorance for regional values and conflicts has actually helped him to maintain the necessary objective distance and his particular sense of film direction and storytelling.
Čáp and Slovene language
Contrary to complaints regarding the generic nature of the films, it is well recognized that Čáp contributed drastically to the adaptation of the Slovene language for cinematic use. The dialogues were fluent and had substance, there was plenty of wordplays, verbal comedy, urban slang and authentic regional accents. The dialogues from Čap's comedies came into general usage and became items of universal joking across generations and nation. Whereas Slovene in pre-Čap cinema had not functioned well, Čáp invented a slang liberated from constraints of purism and theatricality. Thus the director, while being attacked for directing un-Slovene films by many reviewers, in fact enriched Slovene language and culture.
[Krečič, Jela (2013), “Vesna in Ne čakaj na maj: kako smo v sivini realsocialističnega vsakdana prišli do komičnega duha”, ''KINO!'' 21.]
Selected filmography
* ''
A Step into the Darkness'' (Czech: ''Krok do tmy'') (1937) - screenwriter only
* ''
Virginity
Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereo ...
'' (Czech: ''Panenství'') (1937) - screenwriter only
* ''
Fiery Summer'' (Czech: ''Ohnivé léto'') (1939)
* ''
Grandmother
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, or Grandma and Grandpa, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maxi ...
'' (Czech: ''Babička'') (1940)
* ''
Jan Cimbura'' (1941)
* ''
Nocturnal Butterfly'' (Czech: ''Noční motýl'') (1941)
* ''
The Dancer'' (1943)
* ''
Mist on the Moors'' (Czech: ''Mlhy na Blatech'') (1944)
* ''
The Girl from Beskydy Mountains'' (Czech: ''Děvčica z Beskyd'') (1944)
* ''
Men Without Wings'' (Czech: ''Muži bez křídel'') (1946)
* ''
Sign of the Anchor'' (Czech: ''Znamení kotvy'') (1947)
* ''
Muzikant'' (1948)
*''
White Darkness'' (1948)
* ''
Crown Jewels'' (German: ''Kronjuwelen'') (1950)
* ''
All Clues Lead to Berlin'' (German: ''Die Spur führt nach Berlin'') (1952)
* ''
Vesna'' (1953)
* ''
The Beginning Was Sin'' (German: ''Am Anfang war es Sünde'') (1954)
* ''
Moments of Decision'' (Slovene: ''Trenutki odločitve'') (1955)
* ''
The Vulture Wally'' (German: ''Die Geierwally'') (1956)
* ''
Don't Whisper'' (Slovene:
Ne čakaj na maj) (1957)
* ''
Sand, Love and Salt'' (Slovene: ''Kruh in sol'') (1957)
* ''
The Door Remains Open'' (Serbo-Croatian: ''Vrata ostaju otvorena'') (1957)
* ''
X 25 Reports
X, or x, is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ex'' (pronounced ), plural ''exes''."X", ' ...
'' (Slovene: ''X 25 javlja'') (1960)
* ''
Meet You Tonight'' (Serbo-Croatian: ''Srešćemo se večeras'') (1962)
* ''
Our Car'' (Slovene: Naš avto) (1962)
* ''Mafia – Die ehrenwerte Gesellschaft'' (1966, TV miniseries)
* ' (1968–1969, TV series)
Awards
* ''
Nocturnal Butterfly'' - Targa di segnalazione at 1941
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
* ''
Men Without Wings'' -
Grand Prix at
1946 Cannes Film Festival
The 1st annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 20 September to 5 October 1946. Twenty-one countries presented their films at the "First Cannes International Film Festival", which took place at the former Casino of Cannes. Only one year after t ...
* ''
Vesna'' - The Critics' Choice Award at the 1954
Pula Film Festival
Pula Film Festival () is an annual Croatian film festival, established in 1954. It is held in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula Arena. Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival and is usually held in the summer, in July or Aug ...
* ''
Moments of Decision'' -
Big Golden Arena for Best Film at the 1955
Pula Film Festival
Pula Film Festival () is an annual Croatian film festival, established in 1954. It is held in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula Arena. Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival and is usually held in the summer, in July or Aug ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cap, Frantisek
1913 births
1972 deaths
People from Mladá Boleslav District
People from the Kingdom of Bohemia
Czech film directors
Czechoslovak film directors
Czech screenwriters
Czech male screenwriters
Yugoslav film directors
Yugoslav screenwriters
German-language film directors
Slovenian film directors
LGBTQ film directors
Czech LGBTQ screenwriters
Directors of Palme d'Or winners
Golden Arena for Best Director winners
20th-century Czech LGBTQ people
Czechoslovak emigrants
Immigrants to Yugoslavia