Jaroslav Kučera

The first part of the block will be dedicated to the monograph Vojtěch Jasný: The Film Poet in Exile (2020) authored by the film historian Jiří Voráč. The monograph is centered on the legendary director’s life and career after his emigration to Western Europe and to the US after 1968, which have so far received little attention. In exile, Jasný established himself as a film director (he authored over thirty cinema and TV films and documentaries), stage director, photographer, and film studies lecturer. The first part will be followed by the screening of Jasný’s documentary Why Havel? co-produced by himself and Miloš Forman in Canada and Czechoslovakia in 1991. As remarkable as this reflection of the paradoxical transformation of a dissident into a president in the carnival-like atmosphere of the euphoric post-revolution period with the first question marks already appearing may be, it did not meet the expectations of the head of state.

In this suspense story, the main character, Johann Neudorff (Gotz George), immigrated to Argentina from Germany after World War Two, and has become a successful businessman there. He is unconcerned with the nature of the government there, which at the time of this film (1978) is a military dictatorship. His comfortable existence is disrupted when he discovers that his beloved daughter Laura (Emilia Mazer) has become the lover of a political activist (Miguel Angel Sola) who is on the military's hit list. When his daughter is kidnapped, Johann attempts to use his government connections to free both her and her lover. However, his son Alfredo (Alex Benn) undermines his efforts, and Johann himself is incarcerated in a military prison, but not before he discovers that his daughter and her lover are both dead, killed by the regime.

In this suspense story, the main character, Johann Neudorff (Gotz George), immigrated to Argentina from Germany after World War Two, and has become a successful businessman there. He is unconcerned with the nature of the government there, which at the time of this film (1978) is a military dictatorship. His comfortable existence is disrupted when he discovers that his beloved daughter Laura (Emilia Mazer) has become the lover of a political activist (Miguel Angel Sola) who is on the military's hit list. When his daughter is kidnapped, Johann attempts to use his government connections to free both her and her lover. However, his son Alfredo (Alex Benn) undermines his efforts, and Johann himself is incarcerated in a military prison, but not before he discovers that his daughter and her lover are both dead, killed by the regime.

Ines and Hans try to save their crumbling marriage with a vacation trip. With three children, the grandmother, and some hamsters in the overloaded car to Sardinia.

Deputy of cartography enterprise Mr. Ciruvka tries to seduce the colleague's assistant to destabilize his confident in a run for the director's chair. But things can go wrong.

When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a swamp...

When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a swamp...

The little mermaid rescues a prince from drowning and falls in love with him. To be with him, she makes a deal with the evil sorceress: her beautiful voice against a life on land. It seems to work at first, the prince is enchanted with her lovely appearance. But the memory of a foreign princess still haunts him: The one who found him on the beach where the mermaid had left him, and whom he (of course) believes to be his saviour. To resolve this mistake is too much for the mute little mermaid, and not even her father, king of all seas, can help her in the impending catastrophe.

The little mermaid rescues a prince from drowning and falls in love with him. To be with him, she makes a deal with the evil sorceress: her beautiful voice against a life on land. It seems to work at first, the prince is enchanted with her lovely appearance. But the memory of a foreign princess still haunts him: The one who found him on the beach where the mermaid had left him, and whom he (of course) believes to be his saviour. To resolve this mistake is too much for the mute little mermaid, and not even her father, king of all seas, can help her in the impending catastrophe.

To Moscow have arrived the participants of the international conference of the zoophilologists and also the international jury which is to elect for the world festival the best performance of the program of Moscow circus. Mrs Whistler (Iva Janzurová), British associate professor, makes her understood with the animals in their language but the Czech professor Ruzicka (Jirí Sovák), though he is capable of using the animals language, prefers teaching the animals the human language. Ruzicka's friend, the poodle Archibald, speaks "in Human" very well. The scientific dispute ends with a bet - if Ruzicka teaches the circus elephant to sing, Mrs Whistler will eat up her hat.

To Moscow have arrived the participants of the international conference of the zoophilologists and also the international jury which is to elect for the world festival the best performance of the program of Moscow circus. Mrs Whistler (Iva Janzurová), British associate professor, makes her understood with the animals in their language but the Czech professor Ruzicka (Jirí Sovák), though he is capable of using the animals language, prefers teaching the animals the human language. Ruzicka's friend, the poodle Archibald, speaks "in Human" very well. The scientific dispute ends with a bet - if Ruzicka teaches the circus elephant to sing, Mrs Whistler will eat up her hat.

A sincere provincial young man, Frantisek Koudelka leaves to work in Prague. For the trip he buys a computer made horoscope with biorhythms charts, marked according to his date of birth, there are trappy, precarious, unsuccessful and even critical days and few successful days. The clumsy luckless person Frantisek has finally a guidance for his life.

No Woman is allowed into Karlstejn Castle! Yet the enamoured Daniele Kolářová and the equally enamoured Jana Brejchová manage to spend one night in disguise in the Castle despite the strict royal ban.

Jealous of her vapidly "good" sister's popularity, poisonous Viktoria doses pretty Klara's tea with a slow-acting fatal substance. As the latter grows hysterically weak, the former finds success increasingly compromised by guilt, blackmail, and the pesky need to kill others lest she be exposed.

Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which belongs to a married lady, spending time in the company of young and hot Lieutenant Emil. Emil literally puts a knife to Maurice throat - or the lady will get back the exact same hat immediately, or he will arrange such a scandal that no wedding will not happen ...

"Desire Caught by the Tail" - One can not understand this piece as meaningful and meaningful unity and should be careful not to read too much into it. Picasso himself said he wanted to suggest sensations through the verbal sound itself.

An elderly lady has a trauma and simply must celebrate Christmas every day of the year, to the dismay of her family and relatives.

An experimental retelling of the story of Adam and Eve which then progresses into an allegorical depiction of the loss of innocence.

Essay film from Czech director Vojtech Jasný on his home country.

The title "All My Good Countrymen" is not without irony as this epic tale of Czech village life from shortly after the end of the Second World War concentrates on the activities of a group of friends who are not beyond reproach in siding with a politically corrupt regime for material advancement. Are these the "good countrymen" of the title or does it refer to the rest of the village who scorn these petty authority figure with silent contempt?

A beautiful, underachieving, 18-year-old orphan considers various suitors, ponders philosophy, and takes a young girl under her wing.

Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.

Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.

A manifesto of sorts for the Czech New Wave, this five-part anthology shows off the breadth of expression and the versatility of the movement’s directors. Based on stories by the legendary writer Bohumil Hrabal, the shorts range from the surreally chilling to the caustically observant to the casually romantic, but all have a cutting, wily view of the world.

Dobře placená procházka (English title: Worth While or A Well Paid Walk) is a Czech musical and film.

The Opening of the Wells with music by the Czech composer, Bohuslav Martinu was supposed to be part of Laterna Magika II.: Tour programme in 1960. However, it was banned by the communist committee tasked with judging the performance from “a politically correct” point of view. The committee claimed that Radok’s manners and morals were behind the times, and that the director did not show the ultra-modern techniques of Czechoslovakian agriculture. The premiere was postponed and Radok was fired from the Laterna Magika Theatre. His young colleagues (including Milos Forman) were officially asked to finish the rehearsals without the controversial part, and to make other minor changes in other scenes (these changes were made). Alfred Radok considered this to an unforgivable betrayal, as he expected them to leave the theatre to support him.

Several parties—a prostitute, aging football players, working girls, two men playing pool, and a hedonistic young man—each coalesce in a tavern.

A tense, brutal story of two Jewish boys who escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Ultimately, they are hunted down by a group of old, armed home-guardists. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.

While a woman is in the hospital preparing to deliver her child, her husband has all day to reflect upon his wife and their relationship. As he tends to his job as a television repairman, Slavek fondly remembers how he first met Ivana and the days they spent getting to know one another. Slavek also grows increasingly aware of the environment that surrounds him and questions the society his new child will be entering. Loaded with a repeated plea for social change, this is the first feature from Czech writer/director Jaromil Jires.

Some people with a strange cat arrive in a small village. The cat wears glasses, and when someone takes them off, she can color people, according to their nature and mood. The grown-ups of the village consider the cat to be dangerous, but the kids just love her…

Some people with a strange cat arrive in a small village. The cat wears glasses, and when someone takes them off, she can color people, according to their nature and mood. The grown-ups of the village consider the cat to be dangerous, but the kids just love her…

Farmers get away from their arguments by embarking on a religious pilgrimage, enjoy a picnic en route, and on their return decide to form a cooperative.

Telling the prisoners of a death camp. Boxer Tony Majer, who got into a concentration camp for a fight with the Gestapo, remembers the murderous work in quarries, on the cruel torture of the Nazis and prison solidarity that helped him survive.

A poignant overview of how short life can be, this interesting drama from Czech director Vojetch Jasny is divided into four separate segments. In the first skit, a young child's impressions are observed as his newborn baby sister becomes a part of the family. In the second, a young woman falls in love for the first time one summer, and in the third, a tough, older peasant woman battles against the farming cooperatives. Finally, in the last segment, everything comes full circle as a woman who is about to become a grandmother dies while her daughter-in-law has not yet given birth.

Everything Ends Tonight is a Czech movie.