SEPTEMBER 12 - SEPTEMBER 26
EAST OF EDEN: THE IMAGINARY IN CZECH CINEMA 1964 - 1983
- Daisies (1966)
The Czech New Wave of the 1960s brought the cinema of Czechoslovakia to international attention & acclaim with films by Milos Forman, Ivan Passer and Jirí Menzel depicting a fresh, new "cinema of the everyday" (which arrived in stark contrast to the party-line "Socialist Realist" work produced there since the post-war period). However, also at this time emerged a number of filmmakers who went further in their depiction of the Czech experience to incorporate the fantastical, the satirical and the downright absurd in their works. It is from this aesthetic persuasion that this program stems.
Stylistically, this program ranges from the unsettling, b&w '60s arthouse cinema of The Ear & The Cremator to the colourful avant-garde of Daisies & Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. It includes rarely screened shorts by Jan Svankmajer, one of the most idiosyncratic Czech filmmakers, whose oeuvre traverses folklore, political allegory and the avant-garde, as well as an introduction to the under-valued, eccentric world of Jan Schmidt and Pavel Jurcek.
These films were influenced variously by Czech folklore and literature (notably Franz Kafka), the fractious politics of the time, and the decadent Zeitgeist of the 1960s. The program, comprising imported 35mm prints from the Czech National Archive, presents a number of key works as well as some lesser-known films from an an extraordinary body of cinema, sadly never matched again, either in or outside Czechoslovakia.
This program has been made possible with the generous support of the Embassy of the Czech Republic, Canberra.
SEPTEMBER 12 - 7.00 pm
The Ear
Karel Kachyna (1970) 94 mins
The relationship between a government minister and his dissatisfied wife is severely tested when the former suspects that authorities have planted a bug in their home. Detailing one emotionally harrowing evening in the life of the couple, Kachyna's daring & remarkably pared down, second-to-last collaboration with prolific scriptwriter Jan Procházka was suppressed for 20 years for overtly addressing the purges of liberal-leaning politicians under the dawning Husák political regime. Imported 35mm print.
SEPTEMBER 12 - 8:45 pm
The Cremator
(Juraj Herz) 1968 Czechoslovakia 87 mins
A quietly deranged & increasingly violent individual, chillingly portrayed by Rudolf Hrusinsky, Karl Kopfrkingl is a professional cremator at a Prague crematorium in the early days of the Nazi occupation. The fact that production of the film was halted during the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 further charges its already potent political undertones with an added horror that has nothing to do with its extraordinary gothic aesthetic. Imported 35mm print.
SEPTEMBER 19 - 7.00pm
Svankmajer Shorts
Three rarely screened Jan Svankmajer shorts. All imported 35mm prints.
Castle of Otranto (1973-79) 20 mins. A mockumentary-animation based on the first gothic novel, by Horace Walpole.
The Fall of the House of Usher 1981) 15 mins. Svankmajer's first Poe adaptation uses real settings - stones, walls, trees, furniture - to tell the tale of the cursed titular house.
The Pit, the Pendulum & Hope (1983) 15 mins. A nightmarish retelling of Poe's classic story from the perspective of a prisoner of the Inquisition.
SEPTEMBER 19 - 8:00pm
Daisies
(Vera Chytilová) 1966 Czechoslovakia 76 mins.
Two girls go on an anarchic rampage, joyously exploiting a string of hapless men that get in their way. An experimental dadaist mash-up, Daisies is a deliberate revolt against dominant narrative genres & modes of representation. Initially banned by Czech authorities, the film won the Grand Prix at Bergamo, Italy and brought Chytilová to international attention. The gleeful climax, where the girls destroy a banquet setting, is a riotous enactment of pure pleasure. Imported 35mm print.
SEPTEMBER 19 - 9:30 pm
Valerie & Her Week of Wonders
(Jaromil Jires) 1970 Czechoslovakia 77 mins
In this gothic fable - part "B" horror, part fairytale, part soft-porn adolescent Valerie encounters a horrific & wondrous adult world. Magical earrings are the link to a fantasy world in which vampires, priests, grandmothers & carnival parades combine to expose the eccentricities & psychological complexities of her new stage of life. Imported 35mm print.
SEPTEMBER 26 - 7:00 pm
A Case for the Young Hangman
Pavel Juracek (1969) 102 mins
After knocking down a rabbit in a suit, a man embarks on a strange journey where he encounters an Academy of Invention whose members are all silent, a community that has eliminated the month of November (for medical reasons!) & other disturbing occurrences. This little-seen absurdist adaptation of Gulliver's Travels was banned shortly after it's release & ended Jurácek's film career. It was only allowed to be screened after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 (tragically only months after the director's death). Imported 35mm print.
SEPTEMBER 26 - 8:55 pm
Late August at the Hotel Ozone
Jan Schmidt (1967) 77 mins
This Jurácek-scripted film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the male species has seemingly disappeared. Nine Amazonian women try to survive, spending their time foraging for food and hunting animals until one day they encounter a man the last man on earth in possession of a most interesting object. With stunning b&w photography, this is a chick-flick for the postmodern age. Imported 35mm print. Preceded by Josef Kilian Pavel Jurácek & Jan Schmidt (1963) 38 mins. Often regarded as one of the finest evocations of Kafka, this darkly comic film follows a young man who wanders the streets of old Prague and gleefully encounters a "cat rental" shop.