Confession
Pavol Sýkora
A prison film with a touch of Existentialism follows daily routines of a young woman and her fellow inmates.
A
Film Archive
A prison film with a touch of Existentialism follows daily routines of a young woman and her fellow inmates: gatherings at the yard, work, hygiene, and quiet stares out of the barred window. Her fate was sealed long before she committed any crime because neither her family, nor our society could give her a hand when she needed it.
Down to the Cellar
Jan Švankmajer
A little girl is confronted with her fears in the cellar, because it’s haunted not only by the neighbours but by objects, too.
Down to the Cellar
Animated Film
ČSSR
1982
15 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
A little girl is confronted with her fears in the cellar, because it’s haunted not only by the neighbours but by objects, too.
Franziska Bruckner
Franziska Bruckner
Hands
Jozef Zachar
A non-narrative, poetic film examines different ways our hands can be utilized.
Hands
Documentary Film
ČSSR
1963
10 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Jozef Zachar
Viktor Svoboda
Alfréd Benčič
Jozef Zachar
Eugen Kiss
A non-narrative, poetic film examines different ways our hands can be utilized – they can show aggression, but also create beauty; they can help children to explore the world, and they can be raised as a sign of surrender. Images are juxtaposed to underline the importance of what is outside of the frame – the human agent.
History of 8s
Václav Táborský
1968, another eight in a long row of fateful years.
1968, another eight in a long row of fateful years: 1618, the Defenestration of Prague. 1918, the founding of Czechoslovakia. 1938, the Munich Agreement.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
Jabberwocky
Jan Švankmajer
Everything has its use. And a life of its own, too.
Everything has its use. And a life of its own, too. A wardrobe wanders through the forest, harbouring a nursery where toy dolls and household articles compete in an over-the-top, destructive show accompanied by Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky”. Jan Švankmajer’s production ranks among the classics of surreal object animation.
Ines Seifert
Ines Seifert
Men from the Gader Valley
Ladislav Kudelka
The film follows hard work of a group of woodcutters who dwell in the forest far away from civilization.
Men from the Gader Valley
Documentary Film
ČSSR
1963
10 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
The film follows hard work of a group of woodcutters who dwell in the forest far away from civilization. They live in silence which is interrupted only by sound of chopping axes and falling trees. A haunting soundtrack to their toil was composed by a pioneer of electro-acoustic music, Ilja Zeljenka.
Oratorio for Prague
Jan Němec
The major key of enthusiasm turns into the minor key of crushed hopes in this film, shot clandestinely and smuggled abroad.
Oratorio for Prague
Credits
Claude Berri, Jean-Pierre Rassam
Jan Němec
Ladislav Štaidl
Stanislav Szomolányi
The major key of enthusiasm turns into the minor key of crushed hopes in this film, shot clandestinely and smuggled abroad.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
Pearls of the Deep – Segment: At the World Cafeteria
Věra Chytilová
Based on Bohumil Hrabal’s short stories, “Pearls of the Deep”, an eponymous omnibus film was produced in 1966 and became a manifesto of the Czech New Wave.
Pearls of the Deep – Segment: At the World Cafeteria
Credits
Filmové studio Barrandov
Věra Chytilová
Jan Klusák
Jaroslav Kučera
Jiřina Lukešová, Miroslav Hájek
Věra Chytilová
Blažej Bernard
Věra Mrázková, Vladimír Boudník, Alžběta Laštovková, Václav Chochola, Jan Vala, Aleš Košnar, Bohumil Hrabal
Based on Bohumil Hrabal’s collection of short stories, “Pearls of the Deep”, an eponymous omnibus film was produced in 1966 and became a manifesto of the Czech New Wave. Věra Chytilová adapted one of the stories, which begins in the “World” cafeteria with a drunken wedding and a young woman’s suicide. Starting in half-documentary neon light, the film increasingly takes on somnambulistic characteristics.
André Eckardt
André Eckardt
Photographing the House-Dwellers
Dušan Trančík
A traditional, multigenerational family gathers in front of a partially built country house at various occasions.
Photographing the House-Dwellers
Credits
Dušan Trančík
Vladimír Holloš
Dušan Trančík
Dušan Trančík
Eduard Palček
A traditional, multigenerational family gathers in front of a partially built country house at various occasions. Metamorphoses of the building itself, family growth, amusing and sad events, all of it calls for collective photography. Admiration of simple man’s diligence complements ironic emphasis on a paradox of grand illusions vs. everyday reality – comforts of socialism which came at a heavy price.
The Wake
Vlado Kubenko, Peter Mihálik, Dušan Trančík
What is the political significance of the death of Jan Palach, who publicly burned himself in protest against the “sister state” invasion of the ČSSR?
Credits
L’ubomír Jurčo
Vlado Kubenko, Peter Mihálik, Dušan Trančík
Alexander Strelinger, Pavel Čilek, Ervín Potocký, Alojz Hanúsek, Vladimír Holloš, Jozef Müller
Anna Forischová
Vlado Kubenko, Peter Mihálik, Dušan Trančík
Alexander Pallós, Július Santoris
Igor Fábry
What is the political significance of the death of Jan Palach, who publicly burned himself in protest against the “sister state” invasion of the ČSSR?
Tobias Hering
Tobias Hering
Water and Work
Martin Slivka
This directorial debut by a pioneer of ethnographic film is a survey on technical monuments utilizing water drive as a source of their power.
This directorial debut by a pioneer of ethnographic film is a survey on technical monuments utilizing water drive as a source of their power. A look back into the world of yesterday using suggestive montage of images and music composed by Ilja Zeljenka based on electronically preserved original sound of water engines.