Czech New Wave

[Floyd]

Taking Off was on Sundance not long ago a few times and I fell in love. Lynn Carlin may be my favorite actress ever, okay besides Julie Christie. I watched it about four times.

[patrick]

For those in the Philadelphia area, The Valerie Project will be performing a live score to Valerie & Her Week of Wonders at the International House on Saturday, June 18th. I'll be there.

Here's a list of other performances coming up:

16 June 2007 at 8:00pm
International House, Philadelphia, PA

23 June 2007 at 8:00pm
Southbanke Centre/ Meltdown Festival, London

30 October 2007 at 8:00pm
Museum Of Modern Art, NYC

[petoluk]

woops, this is what you get for watching multiple topics...

but when I'm here I'd like to recommend a great movie i saw today: Happy End by Oldrich Lipský, don't now if it's released on dvd with English subtitles though.

Happy End is indeed available on DVD in Czech Republic, unfortunately, the disc is not English friendly.

Here you can find the tech specs & a bunch of screenshots from that DVD...

Cheers!

Peto

[ogygia avenue]

A lot of my more cinema-literate friends have hyped the Czech New Wave to death. I really don't get it. A lot of the films that I've seen strike me as the kind of thing where you had to be there to understand their significance. The animation is great, but I found a lot of the films shocking for the sake of being shocking and kind of sophomoric -- like what would happen if John Waters took himself really, really seriously. I'm thinking mostly of Daisies here, where I was hoping the denouement would somehow involve the Maries falling off a cliff to their certain doom.

Don't even get me started on Valerie, which I found incredibly skeevy. (That shot of the three naked girls fondling the sheep at the end was disgusting.)

Could someone help me understand why this movement is considered "important"?

[MichaelB]

The animation is great, but I found a lot of the films shocking for the sake of being shocking and kind of sophomoric -- like what would happen if John Waters took himself really, really seriously. I'm thinking mostly of Daisies here

I'd say you're thinking entirely of Daisies, as I'd really struggle to fit that generalisation to any of the other key New Wave titles. There's nothing remotely "shocking for the sake of being shocking" in the quietly humanist early work of Miloš Forman, Jiří Menzel or Ivan Passer, and you'd have to be an unrepentant Stalinist to be shocked by Jan Němec's The Party and the Guests, Jaromil Jireš' The Joke or Karel Kachyňa's The Ear. And they're much more typical of the New Wave than Daisies.

Also, animation didn't really form part of the New Wave at all - Peter Hames largely ignores it in his book, aside from the unavoidable Jan Å vankmajer, but Å vankmajer didn't consider himself part of the New Wave either.

Good intro here.

[zedz]

Ditto. The Czech New Wave was so diverse that the brush you're tarring it with must be the size of a barn. Daisies and Valerie (and maybe The Cremator) are the films that spring to mind when I think about how eccentric the movement could be, but they're unrepresentative of the movement as a whole, which took in serious drama (The Fifth Horseman Is Fear), charming character-based comedy (Loves of a Blonde, Capricious Summer), historical epic (Valley of the Bees), edgy satire (The Joke, The Ear) and high-Euro art-film (Return of the Prodigal Son). The only real common denominators for me are a freedom of expression, filmmakers avoiding traditional storytelling modes and structures (as in the loose, discursive formats of Forman and Passer or the stylised, self-referential structures of The Joke or The Cremator) and an unusual degree of attention to naturalistic performance (and I acknowledge that this is wildly generalising, as any number of films move in the opposite direction, so maybe we're just looking at a new kind of stylisation, but I think performance may have been the area of the movement's longest lasting legacy).

[domino harvey]

Some of these movies, I'm thinking of Daises but it's fairly rampant as in any New Wave cinema, are somewhat dependent on recognizing the political undertones and satire in the film, which may escape comprehension on first pass without any contextualizing. Even the little text extra on the Facets disc adds a little context to the initial response. Even if you find nothing of cinematic interest in the film (which breaks my heart), surely you can see the value from a historical standpoint?

The nudity in Valerie is so innocent and harmless that I suspect you're really just bringing preconceived notions to the film. If you found that film vaguely sexist (which seems to be the suggestion from your post, one I disagree with), what about trying a film like Loves of a Blonde, one of the most feminist works in the Criterion Collection?

[MichaelB]

This really belongs in the Rediculous Customer & Critic Reviews thread, but I couldn't resist posting it here - it's part of an IMDB comment on Valerie by "littlesiddie":

The only thing that makes this movie worth watching is the central character, Valerie, who is just stunning in her achingly sweet, pouting, wide-eyed pubescence. She's a real charmer, for sure.

It's hard to believe that a movie like this could be made nowadays in these ultra-pedophile-sensitive days. I must admit that I felt a little degraded myself, being asked to ogle a 13 year old's budding breasts and naked bottom. Not that that stopped me from ogling them. Make no mistake, I'm no prude.

Apart from Valerie, the rest of the movie really isn't worth mentioning

On the other end of the scale, here's Tanya Krzywinska's far more eloquent and considered take.

[ogygia avenue]

The nudity in Valerie is so innocent and harmless that I suspect you're really just bringing preconceived notions to the film.

Point taken. When this was revived in Boston, about half the audience was middle-aged men in raincoats. ::ahem:: I waxed and waned with my appreciation of the film -- which I don't necessarily find sexist -- until I got to the orgy at the end. The orgy in and of itself didn't bother me, but boy howdy that shot of the three naked women and the sheep just skeeved me out no end.

I do appreciate the suggestions. Enough people whose taste I respect and admire appreciate the Czech New Wave as a whole, and I'd hate to write off an entire movement based on two directors.

[Cold Bishop]

...As well as echoing domino's sentiments on Valerie, I have to add that if Closely Watched Trains doesn't win you over, I don't know what will.

[MichaelB]

...And to echo domino's sentiments on Valerie, I have to add that if Closely Watched Trains doesn't win you over, I don't know what will.

Intimate Lighting? Here's my take on it, anyway.

[domino harvey]

When this was revived in Boston, about half the audience was middle-aged men in raincoats. ::ahem::

Unfortunately that's the danger when a director decides to portray young nudity, just see the recent divided response to Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence. Wasn't it the New York Times who said that film would be considered a great movie if she could shake the feeling that it was child porn or something equally ridiculous?

[MichaelB]

Unfortunately that's the danger when a director decides to portray young nudity, just see the recent divided response to Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence. Wasn't it the New York Times who said that film would be considered a great movie if she could shake the feeling that it was child porn or something equally ridiculous?

Christopher Tookey in the Daily Mail labelled it "pretentious piffle for paedophiles", a phrase that's stuck in my head for some reason. But I suspect he wouldn't be that keen on Valerie either.

[Cold Bishop]

Point taken. When this was revived in Boston, about half the audience was middle-aged men in raincoats. ::ahem::

This is a case of people exploiting the film, not the film being exploitative. It could be a documentary on African tribes, if word gets out that there's plenty of child nudity in it, those same middle-aged men in raincoats will get it.

It reminds me of a time I was searching for the Valerie Uk dvd, and found a site in the US that had it for extremely cheap. Looking around, I saw stuff like Asia Argento's The Heart is Decietful...', Innocence, and even a cheap priced Maladolescenza (a film which is oop, pretty much impossible to find now in the us without paying ridiculous prices, and one which I eventually gave up on seeing since it seems as it may very well be the skeevy sort of film masquerading-as-art-film you're talking about), as well as a few children films, and teen movies - I think I even saw a few Criterions cheaper than I've ever seen, but lord knows I can't remember or imagine which ones. As the pattern among the films they sold dawned on me, I soon realized it was the type of site which sell "nature" videos of naked children to people as a way around child-porn laws and labels. Naturally, I immediately left the site disgusted, bargain or no bargain.

Moral of the story: These creeps will use whatever material they can get their hands on, no matter how un-erotic it is, as long as it means they don't break the law.

[MichaelB]

I couldn't actually remember the sheep shot being discussed above, so I've just watched the final scenes of Valerie again, and...

The orgy in and of itself didn't bother me

Glad to hear it - let's face it, this isn't exactly Caligula, is it?

, but boy howdy that shot of the three naked women and the sheep just skeeved me out no end.

Actually, the three women are fully clothed (OK, the clothes are a tad diaphanous, but nothing is actually revealed), and the shot in question is rather sweet - it's essentially three young women stroking a lamb, no more, no less. What on earth was going on in your mind that you remembered it as some kind of naked bestial orgy?

UPDATE: Here's the shot in question:

[Poncho Punch]

I think I even saw a few Criterions cheaper than I've ever seen, but lord knows I can't remember or imagine which ones.

Walkabout or bootlegs of Salo, perhaps?

[ogygia avenue]

What on earth was going on in your mind that you remembered it as some kind of naked bestial orgy?

Well, it struck me as a bit unusual that in the middle of an orgy scene you'd suddenly have a shot of some (scantily clad) women and a sheep. Then again, I'm a bit of a prude.

Domino: I do respect Daisies for its historical importance, but when push comes to shove I just didn't like it. (If this makes you less sad, I did like the student film the director made, which showed with Daisies when I saw it.)

I've put Closely Watched Trains and Loves of a Blonde on hold at the library. This thread has been interesting for me since I sense I may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater in terms of this scene. This should be interesting.

[MichaelB]

Well, it struck me as a bit unusual that in the middle of an orgy scene you'd suddenly have a shot of some (scantily clad) women and a sheep. Then again, I'm a bit of a prude.

It's not really an orgy, though, is it? I've always read it as a ritualistic quasi-pagan celebration of life and nature, and my repeat viewing last night did nothing to change my mind.

Certainly, the lamb (and it's very definitely a lamb, with all the spiritual connotations that that implies) didn't seem the least bit out of place to me - it's entirely in keeping with the spirit of the film as a whole.

[tavernier]

Ivan Passer retro at MOMA in March.

[fake_username]

I also haven't seen a Czech New Wave film that I've really disliked — Celebration in the Botanical Garden does come close, however — and it's just under the Japanese New Wave as my favorite movement in the '60s. I'm almost positive that The Cremator just received a brand new release; now that looks stellar!

It will probably never happen, but a Stephan Uher Eclipse set would be just about the most amazing thing that Criterion could ever release. A set featuring A Sun in a Net, If I Had a Gun and Organ would be priceless. Doubt they own the rights, but I recommend those to anyone would can manage to find a copy of his work.

[tartarlamb]

I'm almost positive that The Cremator just received a brand new release; now that looks stellar!

I'm assuming you mean the new Dark Sky R1 release. The overall quality is excellent. But if the awful cover and the lack of extras weren't enough to drive you to the Second Run release, then the yellow subs (Blegh!) probably should.

[Cinephrenic]

They all seem to be credited to Janus Films, which is good.

[fake_username]

I'm assuming you mean the new Dark Sky R1 release. The overall quality is excellent. But if the awful cover and the lack of extras weren't enough to drive you to the Second Run release, then the yellow subs (Blegh!) probably should.

That's right, I forgot there was a Second Run release, which I would buy if I decided to get a copy of The Cremator; for some reason, I thought that it was previously unreleased. Cover art and lack of extras generally don't bother me, but yellow subtitles suck!