Three digitally restored Czech film classics (Cutting It Short, Markéta Lazarová and All My Good Countrymen) as part of 3 You Must See strand on the BFI Player. Watch for free as part of a subscription free trial. To access your special offer, simply visit player.bfi.org.uk/subscribe and enter code MadeinPrague upon signup to claim an additional free month of BFI Player Subscription, and discover the greatest global cinema on demand.
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Made in Prague: Czech film Classics – EXCLUSIVE OFFER
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In collaboration with the BFI Player, Národní filmový archív, Prague and Second Run.
Cutting It Short
Jiří Menzel, Czechoslovakia 1980, 93 mins, English subtitles
Cast: Magda Vášáryová, Jiří Schmitzer, Jaromír Hanzlík and Rudolf Hrušínský
The Oscar winning director Jiří Menzel’s (Closely Observed Trains) adaptation of Bohumil Hrabal’s novel is a warmly nostalgic look at small town life driven by autobiographical insights and observation.
A much loved piece of classic Czech cinema tells a delightful comic story based on the work of Bohumil Hrabal, in which Menzel and Hrabal (whose collaboration on Closely Observed Trains earned them an Oscar) recreated the 1920s world of Hrabal’s childhood in the Nymburk brewery. The peaceful family harmony provided by the balance between Maryška, his charming, outgoing and emancipated mother and Francin, his earnest but shy and reserved father is shattered by the unexpected arrival of eccentric uncle Pepin, a loud storyteller and globetrotter. Look out for many memorable set pieces such as the cutting of Maryška’s magnificently long hair to the dismays of the male population of the town, her subsequent public punishment and a chimney climbing scene straight from the Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton playbooks. A pure delight, it is a lyrical film evoking childhood memories full of ridiculous situations, quirky humour and tempting looking beer. A new digital 4K restoration by Národní filmový archív, Prague.
Markéta Lazarová
František Vláčil, Czechoslovakia 1967, 162 min, English subtitles
Cast: Josef Kemr, František Velecký, Magda Vášáryová, Ivan Palúch, Vlastimil Harapes, Vladimír Menšík
Voted the best Czech film ever made, Vláčil’s groundbreaking 13th century epic is a story of a fierce inter-clan rivalry and the doomed love affair between Mikoláš Kozlík and Markéta Lazarová which evokes comparison with directors as diverse as Bergman and Kurosawa. In adapting Vladimír Vančura’s experimental novel, Vláčil aimed to create the psychology of a past age, even drawing on anthropological studies, forcing viewers to experience the atmosphere of a distant past with uncommon intensity. Using black and white widescreen cinematography, an unorthodox structure, a variety of different narrative techniques underscored by Zdeněk Liška´s music, Vláčil focuses on the evocation of the struggle between Christianity and paganism, humankind and nature, love and violence, creating a multi-layerd poetic parable about the tragedy and sublimity of human destiny. A powerful and passionate film, its battery of poetics and associational effects create a visual style unique in the history of Czech cinema. The 4K digital restoration by the Národní filmový archív, Prague.
All My Good Countrymen
Vojtěch Jasný, Czechoslovakia 1968, 116 mins, subtitles
With Radoslav Brzobohatý, Věra Galatíková, Vlastimil Brodský, Eva Blažková
Extraordinary poetic… the masterpiece of Vojtěch Jasný – father of that brilliant flowering of Czechoslovak cinema.
The New York Times
A bitter-sweet, affectionate and pointed picture of a life many Czechs would have recognised. A key film from the Prague Spring
Time Out
The chronicle of a small town, it is a poetic depiction of the drama of human destiny in conflict with power, violence and cruelty. The world of men penetrates the world of nature to create a full, emotional view of life under totalitarianism.
Jasný’s enduring masterpiece chronicles the saga of Czech villagers forced into collective farms by their new Communist rulers. In the wrong hands, law and power are used with unprecedented ruthlessness. Neighbours become informers, incompetent people decide the future of others and little remains of the elation which reigned at the end of the war. At the centre is farmer Frantisek who refuses to submit, is imprisoned and in the end takes up the management of the deteriorating collective farm. The most heartfelt portrait of the countryside and its inhabitants, it depicts the drama of human destiny in conflict with power, violence and cruelty which had a pronounced influence on later films like Edgar Reitz’s Heimat and Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon.
The winner of both the Best Director and the Jury Prizes at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival film, it was banned ‘forever’ by the Communist regime. The 4K digital restoration by the Národní filmový archív, Prague.
