The Czech New Wave and Pseudo Cinéma Vérité
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The Czech New Wave and Pseudo Cinéma Vérité: Techniques Used by The Forman Group to Create RealisticLooking Films by Ava Burnham The Czech New Wave was a film movement that occurred in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s – a time when the country was under communist rule. The government was stringent in many ways and filmmakers were required to keep their films within the socialistrealist tradition, glorifying the government and its communist values. To ensure this, communist authorities would censor films to verify that their content was appropriate and in accordance with these principles. However, several filmmakers during the time, such as Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer, and Jaroslav Papoušek of the Forman Group, looked for ways to make films that were critical of the communist society while appearing not to violate censorship guidelines. To do this, the Forman Group used a cinéma vérité approach to filmmaking, attempting to make their films appear to be capturing life as it is without much directorial input. Peter Hames, author of The Czechoslovak New Wave, quotes filmtheorist Stephen Mamber’s definition cinémaverité as “the act of filming real people in uncontrolled situations. Uncontrolled means that the filmmaker does not function as a “director” nor, for that matter, as a screenwriter.” (Hames, 106) Although the actors in the Forman Group films are directed and scripted to some degree, the Forman Group strove to use cinémavérité techniques to make their films feel more like real life (Hames, 106). 1 Four films created during this time that exemplify this cinéma verité style are Competition (Miloš Forman, 1963), Loves of a Blonde (Miloš Forman, 1966), Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, 1969), and The Firemen’s Ball (Miloš Forman, 1968). Although in reality these films were planned out and scripted somewhat, techniques such as simple narrative structure, employment of nonprofessional actors, improvised dialog, limited camerawork and editing, and the deployment of a nonverbal soundtrack make them seem like cinéma vérité. This approach not only appealed to the Forman Group as a way to avoid being censored by the Czech authorities, but also as a captivating film technique from a stylistic standpoint. As Ivan Passer says, “I don’t like the ambitious films which end in a compromise. I like those little films which are as if by accident important. Those which you suspect of being more important than they at first glance appear to be.” (Hames, 108) In this spirit, all four films are characterized by relatively simple narrative structures. Plots are centered around everyday people and occurrences, and time is minimally condensed. Furthermore, unlike in films with traditional narrative structures, several of these films have no clear main character, and the ambitions of the characters are not always defined. In Intimate Lighting Bambas and Petr fantasize about leaving their mundane lives to pursue music, but by the following day they seem to have no real intention of doing so. Additionally, other characters such as Štěpa and the Grandma do not have clear ambitions and goals or a traditional character arc. As summarized by Peter Hames: [Intimate Lighting] is a film which bears the stamp of apparent improvisation. It describes the visit of Petr, a classical musician, to the country house of his friend Bambas, who is the head of a provincial music school. As with Forman and Papoušek, Passer is concerned with presenting a situation, not a story, and there is minimal narrative content. (Hames, 133) 2 Similarly, Competiton, Loves of a Blonde, and The Firemen’s Ball are about everyday people and their plots are simple and span only a number of days or even hours. While some scenes in The Firemen’s Ball show the development of the failed beauty contest and ceremony, many are simply footage of the dance, capturing the event and showing regular townspeople having a good time. Additionally, unlike traditional narrative stories, The Firemen’s Ball has no apparent main character. As Peter Hames says, “The Firemen’s Ball is a movie without a central hero. As we know, a hero is often used as a device to illustrate certain sins...there is nobody like this in Firemen.” (Hames, 84) Instead the film is about the entire scene, focusing on no one in particular, as would be the case in a cinéma verité documentary “recording” of an event. Although the events in all of these films aren’t truly random, the crowd and looselystructured scenes make them appear to be. In conjunction with this simple and freestyle narration, the Forman Group liked to hire nonprofessional actors for their films to make them more realistic. Although scenes were scripted in advance, actors would only have a loose idea of their lines, and were expected to improvise. As Forman says about casting for Loves of a Blonde: Because of our good experience with nonprofessional actors in Black Peter, I concentrated on finding a nonprofessional cast this time too. Of course you’ve got to know your people awfully well. You have to figure them out first so you know how they’ll behave in different situation, what they’re capable of doing.” (Hames, 62) For this reason Forman decided to cast mostly friends and family in Loves of a Blonde. Andula is played by Hana Brejchovà, Forman’s former sisterinlaw, and the 3 man who plays Milda’s father was the uncle of Forman’s cameraman’s wife. (Hames, 62) Additionally, Forman recalls that, “Papoušek and Passer literally picked up the lady who played the mother’s part – on a streetcar...they noticed her because she had a kind of sparkle.” (Hames, 62) This actress likely had the personality of Milda’s mother in real life, making her a convincing and wellsuited person for the role. Additionally, the Forman Group employed mostly nonprofessional actors as extras in the crowd scenes such as the dances, factories, and audition venue in Competition. Forman explains that he found the factory where Andula works by going to Zruč and asking at a factory if they could cast the factory manager in their film. The man they found, Mr. Kolb turned out to be ideal for the role and Forman explains how this style “[is] not really acting. It’s a kind of showingoff. But it’s that much more authentic.” (Liehm, 1975, 64 66). The people hired were not professional actors, but they played roles similar to their own lives, giving these films a sliceoflife effect. However, the complete casts for these films were not entirely made up of nonprofessional actors. Forman explains how finding the right balance of professional and nonprofessional actors is important, and finds that mixing them together can be the best way to create the semiimprovised scenes he wanted. For example, Forman needed to hire the three middleaged reservists for Loves of a Blonde, and first looked to cast exclusively nonprofessionals. Although in pairs the three actors he found were perfect, as a threesome he found the chemistry no longer worked. To fix this, Forman hired one professional actor to put in the mix. “I chose two and replaced the third with a skilled professional actor [Vladimír Menšík]. Suddenly their scenes were a hundred percent 4 better. Menšík helped the two nonactors; and they, in turn, began to have an influence on Menšík” (Liehm, 1975, 64) Because of the nonprofessional actors and improvisation, the dialog comes across as particularly believable and nonconstructed. For example, at the beginning of Intimate Lighting the conductor is likely improvising his instructions to the band. However, Passer likely cast him because he had prior experience with music and conducting. Furthermore, the improvised dialog likely expresses the real opinions of the actors. For example, when the reservists discuss strategies for sleeping with Andula, Jana, and Zdena, the actors toss around suggestions, such as getting the women drunk, based upon what they would really assume about women’s behavior. Moreover, since the scene is largely unscripted, the actors are only able to express what they know or assume about getting with younger woman, giving the conversation a certain real validity. Additionally, their conversation is repetitive and includes trivialities such as who will pay the bill, making it feel unedited and realistic. Similarly, Andula and her friends react to the reservists’ advances in a way that expresses their true opinions. Although they want to be considered attractive, they do not have a real interest in sleeping with the middleaged men. When they notice the men staring at them, Zdena says, "What if they ask us to dance?” and they all laugh at the supposedly unappealing notion. However, when the wine is not delivered to their table, they are unable to hide their disappointment. Zdena says “Really girls, I’m so relieved,” in a disheartened tone and the others agree in an equally unconvincing way. Similarly, the opinions Milada Ježkovà, the actress who plays Milda’s mother, are expressed through her improvised dialog. As a middleaged woman influenced by cultural 5 standards about gender roles, Milada can easily articulate a true disapproval of women like Andula. In Loves of a Blonde she repeatedly makes judgements about Andula such as “She shouldn’t jump when a boy invites her to visit” and “where were you planning to stay?” The repetitive nature of her criticisms also increases the believability of the dialog, as well as the conversational dynamic between her, Milda’s father, and Milda. When they argue amongst each other, all three have a tendency to repeat themselves and cut each other off in an unedited and unscripted fashion.