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For the past few months, i've discovered so many important Czech movies from the 60's. Needless to say that cinematic modernism took place during that decade, but it seems to me the French (perhaps with a good reason) had almost taken all the credit for it. I've watched every movie i could find from the folks of Les Cahiers du Cinéma, and i'd gladly watch that New york Herald tribu-une scene over the beginning of Pulp Fiction, anytime!

However, one of my favourites Criterions are those of Forman's and Passer. I was so charmed by the wittiness of the characters, the thematical subtelties and formal innovation these movies offered, so i decided to check out anything from the 60's Czech repertoire i could find on DVD. I discovered a truly amazing period of cinema, it's a real shame it isn't frequently mentioned in the history books! Lesser know Auteurs like LIPSKY, JIRES and especially VERA CHYTILOVÃ

dobrý den!

Daisies is one wild, anarchic, brilliant film that I simply can't get enough of. I was an international student studying film at FAMU when I saw it and quite a few other lesser known Czech New Wave films, many of which I can't even remember the name of anymore. I'd have to look them up. Unfortunately, most of them were not available anywhere on DVD or VHS. What a pity.

When we were studying films from the Čech Nový Vlna one of my professors told us how in the 60s many of the innovative and experimental Czech films were being shown in other Slavic Iron Curtain countries such as Poland and Ukraine, and that the audiences in those countries were completely baffled by them and generally hated them. As time went on a label spread throughout these Slavic nations to describe any film that's esoteric or challenging as a "Čech Film." He said if you travel to some of those countries today many people still use that label when describing a "difficult" film. Very amusing, and after seeing something like Daisies you can hardly blame them.

Have you seen any of the work of Jan NÄ›mec? I was particularly impressed with Démanty Noci (Diamonds of the Night) (1964) about two young Jewish boys who escape from a train taking them to a concentration camp and are hunted down. I know that makes it sound like an action picture, but it's not at all, it's far more profound than your average action picture. I have no idea if any of his films are readily available on DVD, but I'll look into it.

Jan Němec:
Coming from Second Run
Party and the Guests
(O Slavnosti a hostech)
A film by Jan Nemec
Czech Republic / 1966

Czech New Wave is like Film Noir: I haven't yet seen a bad one. But then, I imagine that at this point only the cream of the crop is making it onto DVD abroad. Wish we had a Czech forum member to run point.

Diamonds of the Night is available on a Czech disc from Filmexport Home Video - it's double-billed with Miloš Forman's debut diptych Konkurs and also has a ton of extras, though sadly these are unsubtitled. (The main features have English subtitles, though they're slightly overzealous in the case of Diamonds, as they translate all the German dialogue as well as the Czech - surely the point is that the boys can't understand their captors?)

I reviewed it in more detail here.

As for more Němec on DVD, The Party and the Guests will fill a major gap, as the pickings are otherwise pretty slim. I recently watched his 2001 film Late Night Talks with Mother, which is out on Facets (and gets a surprisingly good presentation given that label's notoriety), which has one or two striking moments but is mostly rambling self-indulgence. There's also the 1965 New Wave compilation Pearls of the Deep, also out on Facets, but apparently the transfer and subtitles are tooth-grindingly poor.

But to end on a more upbeat note, there's a staggering amount of Czech stuff available on DVD for those who aren't fazed by Region 2 PAL (though most discs aren't region-coded) and ordering from the country itself (I use these guys, who haven't let me down yet, and their site does at least have a rudimentary English-language option). I badly need to update this, but as of last summer these titles were available with English subtitles - it's pretty much standard practice to include an English option, presumably because it massively increases the potential market.

Fantastic post MichaelB!

I have surfed Eastern European sites on several occasions, trying to get an impression of what is available with subs. So, your list is hugely appreciated. Thanks.

I'd also recommend Ivan Passer's Intimate Lighting, available from Second Run.

iangj wrote:I'd also recommend Ivan Passer's Intimate Lighting, available from Second Run.

So would I - my review is here.

And this discussion has shamed me into updating my English-subtitled Czech films on DVD list - it's still far from complete, but I've added loads of titles, including quite a few 2006 releases.

(I will update my site with some more reviews soon, I promise - the last three months have been insanely busy, but hopefully there'll be a lull reasonably soon. And I'm very happy to do requests, which might galvanise me too).

Michael, that's a terrific site you got there. Keep up the good work!

Netflixed Daisies because of this thread. Another bottom-notch transfer from Facets, is this the only release with English subs in any region?

There's also an R2 japanese edition, the colors are more accurate but without English subs.

Here's a comparison link

too bad, thanks for the link!

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

but when I'm here id 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.

If it's on DVD, Filmexport Home Video (Czechoslovakia) will sure be the first label to release it, though there's no sign of it yet.

Since you mentioned Oldrich Lipský, i gotta point out his incredible hommage to the western/musical genres in Lemonade Joe (1964), truly one of a kind movie!! Here's the beaver link

BusterK.
Yeah, i got that dvd but i haven't seen it yet, i really look forward to it!

alfons416 wrote:BusterK.Yeah, i got that dvd but i haven't seen it yet, i really look forward to t!

Which DVD are you talking about.. Happy End or Lemonade Joe?

lemonade joe was i talking about.

btw does anyone know a english-friendly czech online dvd shop?

alfons416 wrote:btw does anyone know a english-friendly czech online dvd shop?

Yes - they're my regular supplier.

Ahoj!!

The secondrun newsletter came out with release dates for

Romeo, Juliet, and Darkness (Feb. 12) and The Party and Its Guests (Feb. 19).

Yes - they're my regular supplier.

I've been trying to order the Nemec dvd through them for ages, but I can't get them to accept visa payment (I've tried three different cards) - anybody else here had the same problem (and what did you do). Or is there an alternative place to buy the nemec dvd you could recomend?

Numéro 2 wrote:

Yes - they're my regular supplier.

I've been trying to order the Nemec dvd through them for ages, but I can't get them to accept visa payment (I've tried three different cards) - anybody else here had the same problem (and what did you do). Or is there an alternative place to buy the nemec dvd you could recomend?

If you mean Diamonds of the Night, I had no problems at all - they accepted my Visa details and sent me the order!

There are other online sources - I list them at the bottom of this page - but can't recommend any of them because I have no personal experience myself.

(I tend to pick a regular online supplier for each region and stick with it until/unless I have a bad experience - and dvdr.cz have been fine for me so far).

I love the films of Jan Svankmajer. Last year's LUNACY is a wonderful riot in de Sade cum surrealism and then there's CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE, which is Svankmajer's masterpiece and is also available on DVD. It's a must-see, radical, funny and mind-expanding.

Stan Czarnecki wrote:Last year's LUNACY is a wonderful riot in de Sade cum surrealism.

Not quite - as Svankmajer explains in the accompanying featurette, he decided to substitute saliva for semen in the early black mass scene. And "saliva surrealism" has a certain alliterative ring to it.

Not directly New Wave-related, but I read that Jiri Menzel has adapted Bohumil Hrabal's I Served the King of England into a film. Is it too early to begin pestering criterion about getting the R1 rights? We could always use more Menzel!

I finally watched Taking Off (1971) for the first time on 35mm (no less) in our local Cinematheque. The copy was outstanding, with fine grain and eye-popping colors. Hopefully this restored copy will inspire Universal to give this masterpiece the digital treatment it deserves.

The movie is somewhat similar to Milos Forman's own Audition (1963), but its narrative and comic timing are way more sophisticated (co-written by Jean-Claude Carrière). It was also photographed by Miroslav Ondrícek (another Czech New Wave ), the cinematographer of Intimate Lighting (1966), Loves of a Blonde (1965), etc.

Does anyone know why this movie is still unreleased? I heard there are some copyright issues with some songs featured in the film..

Good news about Second Run's The Party and the Guests here...