2017 SPECIAL ENGLISH ISSUE for FREE 001 W Rived
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001 Eva Zaoralová: Editorial 001 000 Forum – Czech film/Interview 002 Jaromír Blažejovský: New Deprived 002 Individuals Will Rise — On the Czech fiction films of the past season 008 Ondřej Pavlík: How Olga Hepnarová 008 Traveled the World in a Praga Truck 012 Malvína Balvínová: The Situation 012 of Contemporary Czech Feature Animation Films 016 Jan Křipač: About Slowness, 016 Music and the Absence of Acting Gestures — Interview with 2017 � SPECIAL ENGLISH ISSUE � FOR FREE Vít Zapletal 018 Jaroslav and Malvína Balvínovi: 018 The Oddsockeaters Is an Adventurous Gangster Film — An interview with Galina Miklínová, the film’s director, graphic artist and co-screenwriter, and Petr Horák, the head of Alkay Animation Prague studio, a co-producer 022 Miloš Kameník: Not Being Silent 022 About Violence — An Interview with Tereza Nvotová 000 Films 030 Jan Němec: The Wolf from Royal 029 Vineyard Street (Michal Kříž ✕ Jan Bernard) 034 Jan Hřebejk: Teacher 033 (Jaromír Blažejovský) 038 Galina Miklínová: 037 The Oddsockeaters (Malvína Balvínová) 042 Filip Remunda, Robert Kirchhoff: 041 Steam on the River (Jana Hádková) 044 Miroslav Janek: Normal Autistic Film 043 (Vojtěch Rynda) 046 Bohdan Sláma: Ice Mother 045 (Jan Jaroš) 048 Julius Ševčík: Masaryk 047 (Vojtěch Rynda) 050 Tereza Nvotová: Filthy (Michal Kříž) 049 000 Books 054 Censorship Made Transparent 052 (Jan Svoboda) 001 001 Eva Zaoralová: Editorial 000 Forum – Czech film/Interview 002 Jaromír Blažejovský: New Deprived Individuals Will Rise — On the Czech fiction films of the past season 008 Ondřej Pavlík: How Olga Hepnarová Traveled the World in a Praga Truck 012 Malvína Balvínová: The Situation of Contemporary Czech Feature Animation Films 016 Jan Křipač: About Slowness, Music and the Absence of Acting Gestures — Interview with Vít Zapletal 018 Jaroslav and Malvína Balvínovi: The Oddsockeaters Is an Adventurous Gangster Film — An interview with Galina Miklínová, the film’s director, graphic artist and co-screenwriter, and Petr Horák, the head of Alkay Animation Prague studio, a co-producer 022 Miloš Kameník: Not Being Silent About Violence — An Interview with Tereza Nvotová 000 Films 029 Jan Němec: The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street (Michal Kříž ✕ Jan Bernard) 033 Jan Hřebejk: Teacher (Jaromír Blažejovský) 037 Galina Miklínová: The Oddsockeaters (Malvína Balvínová) 041 Filip Remunda, Robert Kirchhoff: Steam on the River (Jana Hádková) 043 Miroslav Janek: Normal Autistic Film (Vojtěch Rynda) 045 Bohdan Sláma: Ice Mother (Jan Jaroš) 047 Julius Ševčík: Masaryk (Vojtěch Rynda) 049 Tereza Nvotová: Filthy (Michal Kříž) 000 Books 052 Censorship Made Transparent (Jan Svoboda) 002 Editorial You have just opened the Special English Issue of the Sláma, Miroslav Janek and many others, whose films you can Film a doba magazine (www.filmadoba.eu) which in its orig- learn about in this very issue. It includes a summary comment inal Czech version is a quarterly aiming to promote Czech on last year’s Czech films by the critic and film theory teach- film culture. The Special English Issue is prepared twice a er Jaromír Blažejovský, interviews with up-and-coming direc- year in order to inform international fans of Czech cinema tors and their views on film, their poetics and the practical about the situation in the Czech Republic. Film a doba is the aspects of shooting or their thoughts on the problems of the oldest specialized film magazine published in Czechia and is present-day world. An interesting excursion into the field of connected to the most important artistic currents of inter- animation, which has been one of the mainstays of Czech national cinema, in particular to the beginnings and the hey- cinema, is provided by the text on the latest Czech animat- day of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Its pages helped form ed film, The Oddsockeaters, and the international reaction it the theoretical background for the works of filmmakers who received. You will naturally also read the opinions of promi- are known beyond the borders of the former Czechoslova- nent Czech film critics on current film production in Czechia. kia and who in the past often received awards from promi- Many of the reviewed films have already been presented to nent European film festivals. Names such as Jan Němec, Věra audiences at Berlinale, Tribeca, Rotterdam and at other film Chytilová, Evald Schorm, Pavel Juráček, Juraj Jakubisko, Jiří festivals. Of particular note is the review of the book-length Menzel (Best Foreign Language Academy Award for Closely study by the film historian Lukáš Skupa on film censorship in Watched Trains), but also those of an earlier generation— Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. František Vláčil, Otakar Vávra, Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos (Best Should this issue pique your interest, please feel free to Foreign Language Academy Award for The Shop on Main get in touch with the magazine’s executive editor Michal Kříž Street)—can be found in journals published in France, Italy, at [email protected]. the UK and the USA, and the work of these creators finds its continuation in filmmakers such as Jan Svěrák (Best Foreign Eva Zaoralová Language Academy Award for Kolja), Jan Hřebejk, Bohdan fILM A DobA Production and distribution Critical quarterly journal dedicated to film and the times since 1955, Vydavatelství Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci Special English Issue Printed by Published by Spolek přátel Filmu a doby, z. s. with financial support of the Mi- Tisk Kvalitně, s. r. o. nistry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the State Cinematography Fund Sokolská 971/193, 190 00 Praha Editor-in-chief fILM A DobA Eva Zaoralová Branická 620/124, Braník, 147 00 Praha 4 e-mail: [email protected] Executive editor �.filmadoba.eu Michal Kříž � filmadoba Writers Free of charge Jan Křipač, Martin Šrajer Place of Issue Date of Publication Editorial board Prague, Czech Republic June 30, 2017 Michal Bregant, Jan Bernard, Petr Gajdošík, Saša Gedeon, Pavel Horáček, Milan Klepikov, Karel Och, Alena Prokopová, Jan Svoboda, Zdena Škapová Cover photo I, Olga Hepnarová (by Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Gazda) Graphic design and layout Lukáš Kijonka a Michal Krůl � Kolektiv Studio ISSN: 0015-1068 Registered with the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Translation Republic under No. E 1569 Michal Spáda, Jekatěrina Křipačová The English issue was released in collaboration with the National Film Language editing Archive’s web portal Film Review (www.filmovyprehled.cz). Jeffrey Keith Parrott Proofing Hana Ucekajová 001 Forum – Czech film ↳ Red Captain (A Company) New Deprived Individuals Will Rise ��� On the Czech fiction films of the past season Jaromír Blažejovský Czech cinema has witnessed a breakthrough: in 2016, after 1989. The original film was written by Lucie Konášová, 15.6 million moviegoers visited domestic cinemas (which is replaced for the sequel by Marek Epstein, while both films the most since the sharp decline back in 1994, the beginning were directed by Jiří Strach. The once fresh idea made for of commercial television in the country), out of which ap- a painful sequel: the story takes a long time to take off, it is proximately 4.6 million people went to see domestic titles. gloomy rather than cheerful and the theological jokes have Compared to the previous year, the numbers more than dou- lost their former elegance. The now aged, exhausted and bled. There were around sixty feature films produced, around hung-over angel Petronel, accompanied by the fiend Uriáš, a third of which were documentaries. From the critical point stumble through the snow-covered streets of Český Krumlov of view however, this was the artistically weakest season in on the eve of the day of Saint Nicholas in search of a mis- many years. placed apple from the tree of knowledge. They scare naughty children and together with the schoolgirl Anežka face attacks The top of the box office charts is occupied by Angel from a cruel gang of carol singers. In the meantime, Anežka’s of the Lord 2 (Anděl Páně 2, by Jiří Strach). It was seen by mother Magdaléna is being exploited by an evil capitalist in more than a million viewers, which means nothing more or a nearby factory. The angel and the fiend both make clum- less than that a lot of people were curious about the sequel sy attempts to win the single mother’s favor; she however to the original made-for-TV filmAngel of the Lord (Anděl grows fond of a street sausage peddler. The conclusion is Páně, 2005), the prettiest classic Czech fairy tale film made made sweeter by the inclusion of torrents of Christmas mu- 002 Forum – Czech film ↳ In Your Dreams (Cinemart) sic and Christmas emotions. The one preserved point is the because a joke is either funny or it’s not, but it cannot fake effort to show likable characters as alcoholics: while in the emotions. Contemporary Czech films nevertheless do man- original film it was the young nobleman who kept drinking age to combine kitsch and humor. This is because they are himself senseless, the sequel starts with the angel Petronel cheerful rather than actually humorous. hung-over after a party. Intoxication is normal is the message of the Angel of the Lord to children. It is unavoidable not only Fairy Tales for Emma is well-executed Christmas in Czechia but also in the Christian heaven. kitsch. The filmmaker Rudolf Havlík is a businessman and traveler rather than a director, a Czech celebrity with enough A surprising success (almost 400,000 moviegoers) was contacts and resources to make a film. His second work is recorded by another comedy for mature audiences and se- more focused and disciplined but also more conventional nior citizens, Tiger Theory (Teorie tygra, 2016), the delayed than his debut, All My Tomorrows (Zejtra napořád, 2014). directing debut of the producer and journalist Radek Bajgar.