#czechoslovak cinematography

[hulkowaaa]

Princ a večernice (1978), rež. Václav Vorlíček

[hulkowaaa]

💫✨️😍

Princ a Večernice (1978)

[waste-it-on-something-useful]

The Cassandra Cat (Czech: Až přijde kocour, also known as When the Cat Comes, 1963), directed and co-written by Vojtěch Jasný, cinematography by Jaroslav Kučera

[new-wave-czech-films]

"Daisies" is a Czechoslovakian film directed by Věra Chytilová in 1966. The movie is about two young women named Marie I and Marie II, who rebel against the societal norms and engage in various absurd and playful activities. The film is known for its non-linear narrative structure, experimental cinematography, and satirical commentary on consumerism, gender roles, and the political situation in all of Czechoslovakia at the time. The movie is a quirky journey, exploring themes of nihilism, government anarchy, and feminism. The film's experimental narrative structure, as well as its use of editing techniques, such as jump cuts and unconventional camera angles, influenced many American filmmakers. The film's portrayal of rebellious and non-conformist female protagonists also influenced the feminist movement in the US film industry. One example of this film breaking the societal standards especially for women, is when the two protagonists initiate a food fight at a very fancy dinner. We see Marie get up onto the table and make a mockery out of the rich feast as she wraps the drape around her and walks down the table strutting and giggling. Its influence can still be felt in contemporary films that explore themes of feminism, rebellion, and non-conformity. "Věra Chytilová’s 60s masterpiece Daisies is a brilliantly surreal trip into an aesthetic paradise, and a utopia where women are liberated from the conservative conventions of etiquette." (Olivia Single, AnOther) Vera Chytilova was a Czech filmmaker and one of the most important figures of the Czechoslovak New Wave movement of the 1960s. She was known for her experimental approach to filmmaking. This was Chytilova's most famous film. Described as an irreverent feminist manifesto. The film was controversial at the time of its release and was banned by the Czechoslovak government for its perceived subversive content. Throughout her career, Chytilova was known for her bold and provocative style, as well as her commitment to pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in filmmaking. She was also a vocal advocate for women's rights and gender equality, and her work continues to inspire filmmakers around the world today. "Marie I and Marie II, dancing in front of an apple tree and then eating one of its fruits. The parallel between the film and an Edenic fall from grace is distinct – here, they lounge in their lingerie and pajamas surrounded by apples and croissants, a perfect depiction of the cardinal sins of sloth, gluttony and lust. In addition to being a wry comment on conditioned morality, the film consistently offers fashion inspiration;" (Olivia Singer, AnOther) Overall, Chytilova broke many film standards in Czech film making and inspired many people by doing so. Her confidence shone through in her personality as she worked effortlessly to protect and abide by her believes in feminism and women empowerment through her work. "Daisies" is a perfect depiction of breaking conformity and showing what keeping someone to such a high standard will do to them mentally. This movie is a 10/10 in my book and I highly recommend watching it.

[escapismthroughfilm]

#76

[chaoticvictorianspirit]

Not to get weird about old cinema pieces and dox my nationality on main, but!! Listen, old Czechoslovak movies are something else.

And yes, this is a real one, still regaded as a classic. Some things you might be interested to know:

- the movie's turning 60 this year, it came out in 1963

- the original title is Až přijde kocour, in translation When the cat comes, which is also one of the titles this movie recieved in English. One of four, actually. Why there are so many titles for this thing is a mystery to me, but alas, say hello to your new favourite piece of cinematography: When the cat comes / The Cassandra cat / That cat / The cat that wore glasses!

- sounds like a silly premise with no depth, right? Well the film got banned in '68 for it's central theme - a clear critique of the communist regime.

- it won, like, a shit ton of prizes from different festivals, including two major prizes at Cannes movie festival where it premiered in '63

- the cast consists of some of Czechia and Slovakia's most beloved actors to date and the work of the producer Vojtěch Jasný has recieved world renown

- over 20 different cats took turns portraying the role of Mokol

- let's not forget!!! Mokol gets a cat girlfriend in his own b-plot!!!

- the L'Immagine Ritrovata film studio in Bologna, Italy, digitally restored the movie just last year

- the music in this is ridiculously good btw

- it's actually super fun to watch and kinda trippy, much like many Czechoslovak movies from that era, and is definitely worth the 100-minute run time if you're in the market for something unique and slightly unsettling (in that yummy yummy way only old camera work can bring out)

- I couldn't find it anywhere streaming for free, but this site seems to have it available with eng subtitles for less than 3£/$ (fair warning I haven't tried the site myself so pay at your own risk) https://dafilms.com/film/10646-the-cassandra-cat

Also here are some more screencaps from the movie as a treat!

[[[PS: kinda unrelated but after having had this conversation way too many times I just really wanna point out one fact - Czechoslovakia doesn't exist anymore. It will have been 30 years since the official dissolution in just two days actually! I have met quite a few people from the UK and US who seemed shocked to learn this, so I just wanted to mention it here for anyone who might not know. Not in any way meant to sound condescending, I understand the history curriculum in other countries probably doesn't mention much about Czechoslovakia post WW2, it's fine if anyone didn't know! If it makes you feel better, a friend of mine keeps mixing up Chamberlain and Chaplin, so really, no judgement.]]]

[hanyaraksa]

Sedmikrasky- “a necrologue about a negative way of life”

I first saw this film when I was about 13 and it's hard to put into words how big of an impact it had on a young girl just entering adolescence. It was only then that I began to see more and more often that the world in which I live is not built for me and does not belong to me, therefore the story of two young women who take advantage of its corruption for their own benefit and fall into a spiral of hedonistic madness appealed to me so much. I was and still am infatuated with girls' disobedience to a world led by men. Me and my best friend at the time wanted to base our entire personalities on the main characters.

The main characters, Marie I and Marie II were everything I wanted to be, I wanted to be as brave as they are and not to take into account what others think about me, despite the fact that I see the cruelty and decay of this world, as an individual, I am not able to with it fight or fix it, so why can't I use my short stay on earth for my own pure pleasure?

“Sedmikrasky (eng. Daisies)” was directed by the one-of-a-kind Czech avant-garde filmmaker Věra Chytilová and is considered one of the most important films from the Czechoslovak New Wave. It was filmed two years before the Prague Spring, or more precisely in 1966. It was highly criticized by the right-wing. The authorities found it harmful to their ideas, which resulted in it being banned from theaters or export in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and the director herself was banned from working until 1975. This movie is full of consumerism and a negative attitude towards the authoritarian system, the girls did not provide a moral example, they refused to play the roles that society required of them. Chytilova herself described it as "a farce on parasitism", it is also seen as a satire of the decadence of the bourgeoisie. the film was also, a counterattack to the Stalinist regime.

Chytilova collaborated on screenplay with Ester Krumbachova, who was a screenwriter, costume designer, stage designer, author and director, and has worked in productions such as 1970's “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders”.  

The movie begins with a montage showing the movement of machines and bombs falling to the ground causing explosions, in the background we can hear rhythmic music that sounds a bit like a march.

Then we meet the two main characters Marie I and Marie II, which are a reflection of Anne I and Anne II of the “Seven Deadly Sins” by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. Young girls move like robots or dolls and are accompanied by creaking sounds. Chytilova ridicules the absurd demands on women in the male dominated society, and with this action she emphasizes how silly is the patriarchal ideal of femininity, which does not exist, but is only a performance. The way girls behave indicates the infantilization of women by society. However, Marie I and Marie II will later use this infantilization for their own benefit.

The girls sit on the beach, Marie II puts a wreath of daisies on her head, these flowers are a symbol of purity and innocence, and the wreath of flowers in Slavic culture was supposed to symbolize virginity. Another frequently recurring symbol is green apples (the apple of temptation). Marie I blows a trumpet. The girls find the world spoiled, so why can't they be spoiled as well? Suddenly they find themselves in a clearing in the middle of which there is a tree with forbidden fruit. Marie II takes a peach from it. Then the girls are in their room, Maria II spits the pit from her mouth.

The first of the girls' “pranks” is a date in a restaurant with an older man whom they use to satisfy their gluttony and then leave him at a train station. The man is so blinded by their affection towards him that he is unaware of their obvious pretending and playing with him.  They are not like real humans, they are more like images, which also highlights how women are perceived in society. What is the point of my existence if not to be looked at?

Wherever they go, they wreak havoc. They make a fuss in the bar, they use men more and more often, they play with them, men are practically only a source of food and entertainment for them, and their telephone numbers are written on the walls of their flat, which also changes beyond recognition with the unfolding action of the film.

One of the scenes that touched me a lot was when a woman working in a restaurant that girls go to tells them in the toilet that they don't have time for her anymore, to which the Maries reply that they are in a hurry not even looking at the woman, only correcting their makeup in the mirror, the woman looks at them kindly and sings "youth, why do you run away so quickly, why, as I recall you, an eye tears" but they ignore it rejecting the fact that one day they will have to grow old as well.

One of the most common sins they commit is gluttony. In one of the scenes they are lying on their bed, their apartment looks like a tornado passed through it, in the background you can hear the voice of a man who professes Marie II love from the telephone receiver. The girls treat these confessions like a background noise, a radio broadcast and are too busy feasting.

They jump out of a moving train, steal money, but the truth is that they are still missing something and are not entirely happy, but they try not to think about it. Marie II turns on the gas in their  apartment at one point, but is saved by the fact that she forgot to close the window. They think a lot about their existence and feel misunderstood and isolated from the rest of the world. 

“-Do you feel it? -What? -How quickly the life passes”

Finally, they go to the countryside with the intention of spreading their chaos on a larger scale, but  nobody pays attention to them there, they want desperately to be noticed. Eventually they find a banquet hall overflowing with food, and they immediately start eating and drinking, they have a food fight as well. They break plates and glasses and finally climb onto the huge crystal chandelier then begin to swing on it.  

Suddenly they fall from the chandelier right into the lake and start to drown, but no one wants to help them, they shout that they don't want to be spoiled anymore.

Then chytilova shows viewers what their attempt to fix everything might look like.  They break into the banquet hall again and try to clean up the mess they made. But what is broken cannot be saved. They try to fix the shattered plates and clean all the food. When cleaning they whisper: “we will polish it and clean it and we will be so happy”,” because we are polite, happy and hardworking”, “thanks to our work we are both so happy”. Eventually they lay down on the table after their  hard work and say: -We are both so happy. Say that we are happy -Are we pretending this? -No. We are really happy -But it is not a problem Then the crystal chandelier falls on them and the scene cuts to a war footage. Vera Chytilova dedicates this film “to those who fall ill over a trampled salad”. The Maries themselves would certainly not describe themselves as feminists, but their anarchist approach to a system that is unfair to them may be considered feminism. Many people say that this film focuses on criticizing the actions of these young girls, but I believe that it is a criticism of the world that surrounds them, and the very presentation of women and their rebelliousnes in chytilova's film is really modern.

Both Maries use their inferior position in society and their hyper-femininity for their own purposes, It is their way of finding themselves and surviving in a world that doesn't make any sense.

The Czechoslovak New Wave is divided into two types: symbolic/allegorical, such as Vera Chytilova's films, and realistic films, such as those of Milosa Forman, but they are united by the observation of man and the analysis of his nature, as well as a deeper analysis of humanity and reality.

“Sedmikrasky” is edited to look like a collage. From seemingly incoherent shots, a fragmented plot with elements of a morality play emerges. The film is sometimes black and white, and at other times it flashes in different colors, lots of jump cuts and discontinuity. The editing of the film is as rebellious as the main characters are. It resembles images that can be seen in dreams.

[annoyingthemesong]

SUBLIME CINEMA #435 - CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS

One of the great films of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Jiri Menzel passed away last year of COVID and I didn’t even know it. He was responsible for some fantastic work, including the banned Lark on a String which was shot soon after this one, but then was forced into a government induced purgatory for decades. Closely Watched Trains and Loves of a Blonde are two of my favorite Czechoslovakian films from that period but Milos Forman ended up with an illustrious career outside of his home country, while Menzel sharpened his craft under the censorship regime. 

[khudrang]

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) dir. Jaromil Jireš

[hopefulkidshark]

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

T 1970 ‧ Horror/Fantasy ‧ 1h 17m

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a 1970 Czechoslovak surrealist fantasy horror film co-written and directed by Jaromil Jireš, based on the 1935 novel of ...

Valerie, a thirteen-year-old girl, lives with her grandmother after the death of her parents. She is harassed by a monster who stole the earrings given to her by her mother.

Release date: February 23, 1972 (France)

Director: Jaromil Jireš

Languages: English, Czech

Screenplay: Jaromil Jireš, Ester Krumbachová, Jiří Musil

Cinematography: Jan Čuřík

Distributed by: Janus Films, Ustredni Pujcovna Filmu

Starring

Jaroslava Schallerová

Helena Anýžová

Petr Kopřiva

Jiří Prýmek

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (film) - Wikipedia

Helena Anýžová as cousin Elsa in Valerie a týden divů / Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) dir. by Jaromil Jireš.

[movierx]

Helena Anýžová in Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) dir. Jaromil Jires

Cinematography: Jan Čuřík

[hulkowaaa]

Západní Berlín ve filmu Mravenci nesou smrt (1985), rež. Zbyněk Brynych/West Berlin in Ants bring death (1985), dir. Zbyněk Brynych

[lafiguraentutapiz]

Daisies.  Věra Chytilová. 1966

[stargazer-kea]

Daisies  (1966)

Directed by Věra Chytilová

[antinomiclove]

Valerie a týden divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) (Czechoslovakia, 1963, 73 mins., dir. by J. Jireš) 

[hail-to-the-goalies]

one of the best moments in Czechoslovak cinematography: "dad?? do snakes fart?"