All language subtitles for 25 ze sedesaty cheskoslovenska nova vlna 2.ENG

Prvn� ve�ejnopr�vn�
�estm�r Kopeck�

in co-production with
Slovak Film Institute, Cinemart and UPP

presents

25 from the Sixties,
or the Czechoslovak New Wave

A documentary film
Part II

Script

Sound

Editing

Directors of Photography

Production Manager

Produced by

Directed by

In the mid-sixties the New Wave
briskly pours over to Slovakia.

Despite the previous generation
of older FAMU graduates

like Uher, Barabas, Solan, Holy,

there come their followers
Havetta, Hanak, Jakubisko.

We could also mention
Ivan Balada and Juraj Herz

but they were Slovaks
who stayed in Czech

and in Slovakia they made
several TV films,

like Balada's Lady, or Herz's
Sweet Games of the Last Summer.

Perhaps the most vigorous entry
among Slovakian filmmakers

came with Juraj Jakubisko
and his film Crucial Years.

Turn to me. Boom!

A game. Life is a battlefield.

The idea is not mine, it was
written by Jarda Ucen

and Koliba production
gave it a thumb up.

The original title was Runway.

It was a story of two brothers,
a painter and a pilot,

the pilot died during the Cuban
missile crisis and the silly painter

who had painted nothing but
abstract pictures, realized

that his art must serve
socialism and peace.

Dohnal read it and said:
Man, what is the film about?

I said: How can you not know?
See, this here is the beginning

As a boy I came to a beehive
and we played with toy guns,

and then I lived with this girl
who worked in an asylum

and we'd fool around
with a stuffed arm

So I kept telling him stuff
about every single scene

and as I finished, he said:

Alright, let's write down all
these things you've told me.

And that's how Crucial Years
came to existence.

It was an autobiography because
Jana was my girlfriend back then

and we'd gone
through many things together.

She was an artist
and had a gorgeous long neck.

Once I was in a production room

and there came Vlado M�ller who
had just acted in The Hangman.

He says: I've just finished
post dubbing, got a job for me?

The production manager said:

This young director is about
to make a new film, read it.

And M�ller called the next day
saying: I'm in.

Then we had to cast the other
character and wanted Abrham.

We rehearsed with him, he even
brought some girls to act there

but right before shooting
he came and said:

Juraj, I can't do this. I was
asked to act in Spring Waters

and it's a unique opportunity.
It may be the role of my life.

So there came Jirka Sykora,

totally different from what
I'd had in mind; no hunk, see?

Unlike the handsome Abrham
but then I thought why not?

If you manage to make people
like this chubby guy, good on you,

you're a director, right?
It might be a good film then.

I thought it lacked
an explosion of light

and back then I didn't
consider tones and shades.

So, as we were shooting from
a tower next to a church

sharply lit by the sun from behind
it created a huge light contrast

and later during some screening
Juraj says: Where is the tower?

All we could see was some ghost

but it looked much better
than some realistic image.

Hey, Jana

You like me. You're crazy
about me, aren't you?

These visual jokes come out
of a natural, full-bodied image.

The 16mm film copied from
another 16mm film resulted

in an image of a convincing verity
sunk in a grainy picture.

Crucial Years were labeled
the worst camera work in Koliba

however I knew this would
not only help me move forward

but I also knew this was me.

I'm also hard to see through.

Helge belongs to the generation

affected by a conference
in Banska Bystrica.

His School for Fathers gained
some official acclaim

but in Great Solitude he was
forced to change its ending.

This concession affected all
his following film works

and it was as late as in 1967
with his film Shame

when he returned to the original
moral ground of School for Fathers.

Shame is a story
of a corrupted communist

and this topic preceded what
the whole 1968 year was about,

about searching for a moral
responsibility for the 50's and on.

What's going on?

Comrade chairman, sorry
but this is an order.

- What order? - An order to bring
Mr Kvasica to the hearing

Did you hear it? What Mr? He's just
as much a comrade as you are.

- Sorry, comrade chairman.
- So what's going on?

Here's an order from the prosecutor.

We started to prepare Shame
when I was a member of FITES

and things went pretty smoothly.

I can't remember any major obstacles
concerning the screenplay.

It was quickly approved, quickly
shot but the story came too late.

If it had been presented in 1967

I wouldn't have wished to be
in shoes of the responsible director.

A rape. I've got a daughter myself.
That man deserves to...

But if you just knew
how hard he can work.

The worst agricultural cooperative
around and all of a sudden...

Go take a look at what he's
managed to conjure up.

The only obstacle came from
the county council in Mikulov.

They asked for a screenplay
which had never happened before.

Although I had made two films
there they recommended me

to shoot this film somewhere else

because the story puts Mikulov
to shame and we should be careful

because the symbolism of the Mikulov
castle resembles the Prague Castle.

So I went to see them and eventually
we came to an agreement.

This here is my old friend,
we worked at the same workbench.

- He's got troubles getting a flat.
- But we don't allot flats.

I know but how about
a public interest?

There are strict rules concerning
a recognition of a public interest.

- You think this comrade... Hromek.
- Comrade Hromek might fit in?

What is this jack-in-office thing?
There are rules and there is a man.

A director is responsible
for everything,

he cannot make any excuses because
he can change circumstances.

And I support a concept
of a political film.

This is why I was attacked
by Vaclav Havel once...

There was this magazine Kveten

and once I discussed film there
with Vojtech Jasny,

arguing about a form and a content.

Jasny supported a form,
I supported a content

When Vaclav Havel justly stepped in
with a disputative article claiming

that my dull opinions don't deserve
discussions but I can't help myself.

I think that film as an art must be
a part of the society I live in.

- How old are you?
- 14. Didn't they tell you?

I'm here to help you if you wish.
Are you feeling any pain?

Speak, you dummy, when
this gentleman is talking to you.

No, I don't feel any pain.

Have you taken her to a doctor?

Come on, doctors and police,
we never get anywhere else.

If you'd kept quiet, you stupid cow
there'd be no fuss.

I think Helge himself considered
Shame a part of a loose trilogy

School for Fathers, Great Solitude
and Shame where even cast repeats.

The interesting thing is that Helge
liked to cast Slovak actors,

probably due to
their expressive acting

but at the same time he never casted
non-actors for roles of countrymen.

He always relied on traditional
directing methods and acting.

So, did you see it?

What the hell was that?
A baby. Who messed this up?

Ask this engineer who reported.

- Just tell him.
- I know it was lame.

But if it weren't for this girl
justice would sleep on.

You didn't want to hear
about any of the filth here.

Eventually the film was critically
acclaimed, mainly abroad.

I simply like that film because
it brought me back to my roots.

Its intention is honest
and the film itself is pretty good.

I gained a lot more self-esteem

and as a director
I felt much better.

That's why it felt so bad when
it cut me off my next filmmaking.

Hey you!

Show up!

Why are you so quiet?

I know you all.

You wanna get rid of me? You wish.

To get rid of me?

This is me. Me!

May I offer you a lift, Madam?

- Why don't you take us.
- I don't have a licence.

No way, it's illicit.

Jiri Krejcik as well as other older
directors did not go the easy way.

In the 40's he made
his first excellent films

like A Week in the Quiet House,
or Conscience.

During the 50's his works
sometimes lost its quality,

like Frona, but in the late 50's
he is back on a track

with Higher Principle, a film
which belongs to our treasures.

From the mid-sixties he joined
the New Wave and made films like

Boarding House for Single Gentlemen
a A Hard and Fast Marriage.

I want you to answer
this important question:

Is the railway here for people,
or is the railway here for people?

Stop it, will you? Give me the ticket.

- Hang on, he hasn't replied yet.
- Give it to me.

Let's go, this is demeaning.

I based this short film story very
loosely on a real event

which took place in Ceska Trebova.
That was A Hard and Fast Marriage.

I was raped.

Raped? You're saying it
as if you've just bought candies.

Any woman could say that. I mean,
every other woman could.

When I mentioned the metamorphosis
of a social conscience,

a conscience of people who were
in charge of cultural sphere,

I meant dramaturgists like
Sebor, Bor, Novotny etc.

Those were fantastic men,
very open to discussions.

And when they intervened, they
were doing so very gently.

What is it you have there? Let me see.

Name Krejcik means there comes
a film which is not average.

Of course I was to find out later on
our cooperation wouldn't be easy.

See, Mr Krejcik is a choleric
person, just like me.

And the final version of the script
must be adjusted so he feels secure

because he never improvises
during the shooting itself,

everything must be precisely
prepared in advance.

So things would often get pretty
heated during the preproduction.

- Well, that's a proper hole.
- He must have had bigger tongs.

Drop the joking,
we all have the same tongs.

A drink and drive case again.

Sir, I am taking this driver's
license away from you.

Me and Mr Krejcik went to a police
office and its head-chief told us:

Gentlemen, we cannot ban it
but of course neither support it.

I mean if you cast young Pucholt
for the role of the young cop

we will have problems recruiting
new young policemen,

we can offer them only a small wage

plus if they see the Pucholt guy,
no one will ever join us.

Calm down. We've got our means
that make even scholars calm down.

Perlustration!

I knew Krejcik would also
cast Kmoch's bandmaster

who was an amazing natural talent,
as well as Iva Janzurova.

Actually as luck would have it
the whole cast was a great crowd

willing to help each other.

See, officer, we can never win
over the crime with people like you.

You'll save us, I bet.
Breath deep, come on.

Officer, why don't people like us?

I think Krejcik got to like
Forman's early films

so he casted Hana Brejchova, Jana's
sister as the main character

and I was to play the bride.

He gathered us in the Film Club
and we started rehearsing.

But Hana wasn't a professional,
she was overacting and shy

so he had to recast her role.

He took me to hairdresser,
had them dye my hair blond,

we shot some camera tests over night
and I got the role of the raped Hana.

- She seduced him!
- Why would she do it? Come on.

She seduced him and you back her up.

What a nerve,
coming into our kitchen.

- I can't leave her outside, come.
- What a slut.

- What did you just say?
- She didn't mean it.

Jesus, this is too much.

I recommend you to tell your
daughter to be very careful

when talking about seduction.

Very careful!

I love Krejcik because
he can get totally obsessed.

He says: You've got to
munch on the cake piece by piece.

He loves the expression "munch"
so I obey his instructions

and it takes him to next scenes.

I knew a garage foreman who gave
a woman his watch and 300 crowns

and after he took it away from her
that bitch reported a rape.

Sixties were basically about people
recognizing real values,

accelerating truth and honesty.

Most of the films were critical but
at the same time they had a vision.

No matter how harsh things they
described, there was always hope

because there was a hope
inside the filmmaker himself.

In this special moment I am sure
you want to thank all those people

who love you the most,
who have worked for you,

who have been looking after you,

trying to make your life better
then their own has been.

Surely you want to make their lives
joyous by being happy.

I do.

Hey, down to the village?

Can't you recognize me?

Films in the 60's would often take
literature as a source of topics

which is logical because literature
was also experiencing a boom,

writers like Hrabal, Paral, Lustig,
Askenazy, or in Slovakia Tatarka,

Bednar, Mnacko, they all brought
up new views of the world

and naturally they became
an inspiration for filmmakers.

Among Slovakian filmmakers
there was an exception,

Grecner's The Return of Dragon

was based on an older prose
by Dobroslav Chrobak.

After writing his novel Chrobak
was accused of plagiarism

by doctor Felix who was giving
Chrobak a really hard time.

The main motif of Dragon
is a loss of dignity

which is Chrobak's inner fight
to gain back his reputation.

I thought this topic was worth it

because one becomes a hero only
by starting something impossible.

He's come back to you.

Dragon is back.

If you remember Grecner's version

Dragon is not returning,
he is actually leaving.

It is a totally skeptical view
of an individual's attempts

to become a part of a society
which once hurt him badly.

It is not one of typical folklore
films as we know them from 50's.

Artistically and emotionally
it heads toward paganism.

Dragon is a potter which is one
of the oldest trades.

There are simplified,
stylized costumes.

Even in the context of 60's
the film is strange and unique.

I consider folklore
a soul of a nation.

I wanted to portray this
but at the same time

I wanted to get rid of
its official concept as we knew it.

I think the symbiosis
of folk and modern art

was best portrayed by Slovak
surrealists who announced

Janko Kral was their guru.

The message of this nation's soul
is hidden in Slovak ballads, songs

and in their primary folk costumes.

I wanted to respect these three
columns when making Dragon.

A real folk art is not as showy
as presented on stages back then.

There is a poor region which has
the most beautiful ornament,

sober, simple and eloquent.

The richer the region,
the more degenerated folk costume.

I refused to use all ornaments
with an exception of a red thread.

The simplest Slovak folk costume
is made of an ordinary white linen

seamed by a red thread.

After watching first dailies
at Koliba I was totally desperate.

It had nothing to do with
what I'd attempted to make

although Krajcovic
created a perfect set,

to me it seemed artificial,
as if made of plaster.

I was at my wit's end.

I showed some scenes to Barabas
and asked him what to do now.

So we discussed this topic

and I remembered The Sun in a Net
and Szomolany's zoom lens thinking

only zoom lens can help us focus
on a human face and soul

and neglect everything around
or create an ordinary surrounding.

We shot 90% of the film
with the zoom lens

and it helped us create quite
a mysterious atmosphere.

Casting a Czech actor into
the leading role caused a scandal

among Slovak actors because for some
reason they required a Slovak

as if a nationality could
be visually captured.

The whole story of Dragon is based
on Dragon being a foreign element

who does not belong
to the local community.

I told Valach: Your face blends
perfectly with Slovak surroundings,

I can't see any reason for him
being pushed away by the others

and I need a face which apparently
doesn't come from the village

so the locals have
a reason to hate him.

And that's how I got
to cast Lukavsky.

I asked Zelienka to compose
something purely pagan

and he asked me to give him
some more details so I said:

I'll lend you my recording
of Stravinski's Oedipus Rex.

Dragon should enter the scene
as something dangerous, mysterious

which tells you to be careful
because here comes a magician.

I think Zelienka is
a congenial composer,

he saw the rough cut once, went
home and came with a score

which just mesmerized me,
this was exactly how I felt it.

Without this score the film
would be very dull

but the music brings a tension
from the beginning till the end.

A story of powerful passions,
strong characters

with deep imagery and poetics,
that is Marketa Lazarova,

a literary work by Vladislav Vancura

who would celebrate
his 75th birthday this year.

Our camera visited a camp
of its feature colleague

who is filming this story.

The screenplay was written
by Frantisek Pavlicek

and director Frantisek Vlacil.

Marketa Lazarova was perhaps
the most distinct literary adaptation

not only due to its demandingness
and long-run preparations

but because filmmakers managed
to find a key to transform

a unique literary work enriched
with a beautiful language

into a monumental
visual piece of art.

For sure it worked thanks to Vlacil
who never studied filmmaking,

he was an artist able
to visualize the literary model.

Also we mustn't omit
Frantisek Pavlicek's contribution.

Milan Kundera once said

that Marketa Lazarova
is a ready screenplay itself

but it turned out to be wrong,
the novel had to be rewritten.

Vlacil did not plan to make
a historical film

he would speak about period films
which is a more precise expression.

Period in terms of describing
period cycles, desires,

or period twists of human mentality.

It is a brand new concept
of a historical film,

very individualized, poetic, lyrical

and extremely expressive even when
it describes pain, suffering, hurt.

Plus there is a concept of a clash
between pagan and Christian view,

or German and Czech element.

We can spot some traces
in Vancura's novel already

but Vlacil truly underlined it.

This film cannot be compared

to any other in the history
of the Czech cinematography.

Stand up!

Let him stand.

Except making costumes which
I personally value the most,

I was also in charge of setting up
the whole production design.

I have to say I managed to create
a very unique Czech film

because I invited awesome artists
to take part in this project.

Zbynek Sekal made the crucifix,

Koblasa made milestones
by the royal roads,

Vozinjak made the amulet tree.

Vlacil never talked to me too much,

for the first half a year he'd just
check up on me if I was in bed,

he'd sit on a chair next to me
and talk about 13th century,

about king Premysl Otakar II,

he'd retell me the whole royal
story that had never been shot.

Sometimes he'd show me his script
drawn picture by picture,

I was represented by a mane
of hair with a nose sticking out.

Even today I am able to tell
historians many interesting things

about 13th century.

We would wear costumes
as often as possible.

Theodor Pistek was upset because
the costumes were hand-made,

I wore a cap made of a snake skin.

We actually inhabited the costumes
and the whole set

so when we got back to a civil
reality, it felt weird

because we belonged to 13th century
not to 20th century.

You shall be standing here

looking into your brother's face
until the moment he dies

and then you shall be buried
alongside him.

Vlacil essentially changed
a historical film genre

by snipping it off 19th century.

The historical genre represented by
Vavra or Krska had been developing

in accordance with a paradigm

defined by the revivalist movement
in 19the century.

It picks up on graphic motives,

on interpretations of social
groups or individual characters.

Suddenly here comes Vlacil
and turns it all upside down.

We should also mention other
people who worked on this film,

like cameraman Bedrich Batka,
or composer Zdenek Liska.

They all contributed to the intense
result, visual as well as sound.

Valley of the Bees was perhaps a bit
unjustly overshadowed by Marketa.

It was written by Vladimir Korner

who made use of some props
from Marketa Lazarova set.

A new creative tandem
Vlacil Korner was born here,

together they made another
excellent film Adelheid

which unfortunately also
ended up in a vault.

I am not brave enough to watch you
fall down, turn into tinder and pus.

I have come to make you my judge.

This current process which attempts
to democratize our life

has not come from comrades from
the Presidium of the Communist Party

but from the members
of the Central Committee,

one of them was from Prague, other
one from Brno, from some village,

other one was from some factory
and they have done so independently.

A political liberalization in 1968

opened the door for Karel Vachek's
feature documentary.

As a student he was a chronic
complainer and later he paid for it.

His graduation film Moravian Hellas
was made in a non-traditional way

and later he used this method

when making a documentary about
a presidential election in 1968,

a merciless portrayal of adored
leaders of the Prague Spring.

The transition must have been tough
for comrade Novotny but I think

that as a real politician he should
have come to this opinion earlier.

Why didn't he do it?

Because of his disaffection with
life, with evaluation of reality,

it convinced him that he might
have been done wrong.

I met Borovicka on the street,
it was the spring and I asked him:

Could I make a film?

And he said: Come tomorrow,
you'll get a camera.

The atmosphere was very similar
to the one after 1989.

Those in charge were so new

you could just approach them
with a smile and it scared them.

They would do anything for a friend
who came to talk to them.

And once you approached them
with a positive attitude which I did

they'd help you get
to anybody you wished to meet.

I caught Dubcek on the street,

we were waiting for him in front
of the Central Committee building

and he invited us in
instead of some French TV.

I'm not sure. We're having lunch
now and then we'll arrange it.

I have to check the list
of invited comrades

because we're planning a plenary
of the Communist Central Committee.

- We'll wait for you here then.
- Please, do.

In that time they got 16mm cameras,
recorders which did not hum

so Novotny and others felt good
when being recorded at the Castle.

That's how 16mm cameras
appeared in the Czech Republic.

Suddenly I see Ort-Snep running
around the chambers with a camera

and it felt like a miracle.
We wanted to make the most of it,

plus we got to use
directional microphones.

- What distance can it record?
- Depends on the surrounding.

Up to 10 meters. If he walks like
10 meters behind a guy on a street.

Where was it made? I see.

From car to car? No, it can't.

Before the shooting I met Passer

and he said: You've got to get there
even if it was through a keyhole.

And I remembered the keyhole
when they told us to leave

and said to the soundman:
Get the mike to a keyhole!

Let's apologize for all the
processes with subversive centres,

but we'll proudly acknowledge:

We mustn't forget to mention
cameraman Josef Ort-Snep,

Vachek's close colleague

who was capable of being
right in the middle of events

and thanks to him we see things
in the film the way they are.

The declaration of workers
in culture published yesterday,

especially as concerns
the characteristics

and the range of features typical
of the president of the state,

about how they oppose a soldier
as the head of the state.

I discern shots that shine.

Then I take them out and go on
chronologically like an idiot,

and when I cannot keep chronology
any longer I make a kind of charade.

There's nothing else you can do.

Okay, we had a bad start,
so the event at the end-

novelist often do this-

the key event that Svoboda had been
elected we put in the beginning,

he was elected there and only then
we set the election in motion.

Suddenly it got the rhythm
and we got the ball rolling.

More or less chronologically.

They always listen to
what MPs are talking about.

That's good. That's all I have.

Vachek was preparing some projects
between Hellas and Affinities,

one of them was a feature film

but none of the projects
got to be carried out eventually.

Surely it was because of his
unconventional view of reality.

Barrandov management as well as
the communist nomenclature

were reluctantly willing to accept
Forman or Chytilova,

but Vachek's directive
film expression

based on a grotesque and ironic
distance was unacceptable.

I pledge allegiance to the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

and matter of socialism.

I shall perform my office
in the interest of all the people.

I shall attend to benefit of our
republic, observe its Constitution

and other laws
of our socialist state.

Another "lonely runner"
of the New Wave was Juraj Herz.

Unlike his colleagues he studied
at DAMU, not at FAMU.

One of his classmates
was Jan Svankmajer

and they shared an affection for
broadside ballads and its poetics,

horror stories, old freak shows

and it was all reflected
in Herz's short film The Junk Shop

and later he used it in his most
important film of the sixties,

The Cremator based on
a book by Ladislav Fuks.

Gentle, 17 years ago we met
here on this blessed place.

Things have not changed at all,
perhaps except the leopard here.

The late one must have been torn
out of his animal fetters

by the kind Mother Nature.

Me, Fuks and Mrs Kalabova
used to meet once or twice a week

for two years in cafe Slavia,

discussing the script
piece by piece.

I'd say what I wanted
and he would rewrite it

and so the script slowly developed.

We were actually changing
the whole novel this way

and our kind dramaturgist Kalabova
almost never said a word

but when she did speak out,
she'd say something important.

- What is this?
- You aren't scared, are you?

And this is Plajeaux,
the mass murderer.

He would go murdering
every day and every night.

When preparing The Cremator
I got to know Sartre's work.

Back then only the first
two parts were available.

The first part is written
in a very conventional way,

the second part looks like this:

Charles came to a window,
took his cigarette, threw it out,

turned to Marie drinking her coffee
and told her this and this.

But Charles was in Paris
while Marie was actually in Madrid.

Something like this.

And I loved the blending
within one sentence

and thought this could
be used in a film as well.

When writing a technical screenplay
I blended several scenes,

I mean one scene starts somewhere

but it actually belongs
to the next scene,

the same goes for dialogues etc.

You'e never seen boxing, me neither
because I find boxing too rough.

Well, I can't wait.

One, two, three.

So you know what a real
masculine sport looks like.

But I've always considered
boxing a rough sport.

Or, let's say hard but it's alright.
We need strong brave men.

Boxing is a martial art.
Fist to fist.

He has always said:
There were two options.

Either a color version without him
or a black and white one with him.

Eventually he picked me
so it was black and white.

I personally hate color

because it feels as if you printed
texts in books in color,

a blue sky, green pastures:

The same goes for a film,

I think a viewer should get
a chance to color it himself,

or he shouldn't be distracted
from the story by some colors.

This is a mechanism for
a rapid cremation

of a bigger amount of people.

It helps many souls free themselves
from fetters of this existence

and fly up into the space
and dissolve in the ether.

I think this is a big opportunity
because in my crematorium

it takes 75 minutes to transform
a corpse into a pure ash

and each corpse has
its own cremator.

Fuks was convincing me
to cast Mr Somr for the lead role

and I said Mr Somr is a great actor
but he is not Kopfrkingl.

Hrusinsky is Kopfrkingl.

Back then he'd sit every night
in Evropa pub, drinking beer

and I'd go drink with them
so once I gave him the script there

and after reading it he said:
There's nothing for me to play.

I kept convincing him
and as I got probably too annoying

and he wanted to drink his beer
peacefully, eventually he said yes.

He came to the shooting set,

and the first three days
he was really grumpy

because we were taking
only short shots in those days.

Then he realized that there actually
might be something to play there,

his grumpiness turned into a good
mood, we became friends

and as really good friends
we eventually finished the film.

I was used to discussing score
with my composer second by second,

with Liska it was the same,
he just kept nodding

and as he was leaving he said:
Should it be spooky or nice?

And I said: I'm spooky
enough, be kind, please.

So they were recording the score

and the music played
where I didn't want it to

and other way around,

he added some waltz
to a murder scene, it was awesome.

He was an excellent dramaturgist.

In the end the main character
goes completely nuts

and leaves for Tibet where he
plans to manufacture huge cremators.

We took some new shots
with Standa, the cameraman.

We were shooting in cafe Repre
by the huge art deco windows

and behind those windows
there were Russian tanks.

In the scene this old lady
asks the young girl:

What happened to Mr Kopfrkingl?

And I moved the camera a little

and the women were
replaced by the tanks.

By means of a long focus

we took a long shot of angry,
grayish, depressed people,

tanks are passing them by
and suddenly among all the people

there pops out a smiling face.

Kopfrkingl is coming back
with the Soviet Army.

When our manager saw this
he almost fell down his chair

and said: This must be cut out.

He cut it out and said
he would put it into a vault.

The film was quickly banned
anyway but this piece got lost.

There is a lot of work ahead
of you. For the nation and mankind.

I'm glad you have come.

Let me step right among you.

Vihanova belongs to belated
debutants of the sixties.

Her film Squandered Sunday
was made in 1969

although she had made interesting
films already as a student,

for example Fugue on Black Keys

a story about covert racism
in the Czech society.

Strangely enough she, a woman,

situated her debut film based
on a novel by Jiri Krenek

into a military settings.

But the main theme of a moral
decay of an army officer

was described as a decay
of human mentality as such

and a feeling of estrangement

in the middle of a mentally
emptied society.

Anything you don't understand?

- Me?
- Yes, you.

I understand everything, lieutenant.

Even minister's order concerning
upgrading your knowledge of math?

I want you to report in my office
first thing on Monday morning.

I want you to report in my office
first thing on Monday morning.

On Monday I have an army
shooting competition, lieutenant.

Although the main character
is a soldier I figured

the problem concerns all humans

even though in this case
a military mindset is determining.

However, the soldier's problem
could happen to anybody,

it would just perhaps lack
the extreme conclusion.

Krenek was a professional soldier
and his colleague did shoot himself.

What were you doing
in a military area?

- We weren't in a military area.
- Sure we weren't

Let's go, ladies.

Keep the bullshit to yourselves
and kindly answer my questions.

Let me warn you that whatever
you say can be used against you.

This film was stylized into
a blunt black and white picture,

full of absurd situations
and random writings.

I knew we would inhabit
the Josefov quarter with old hags,

gypsies, stray dogs and military
uniforms, nothing else.

Except a few erotic elements
represented by those young girls

there was an isolated, strange
and literally necrotizing world.

There is the leitmotif of a gypsy
and the dog pawing in a sand

and it repeats again and again.

The situation in Josefov
was worse than the previous year,

due to the Russians we had
a limited access to certain places.

Half of the soldiers were Russian
so the atmosphere was pretty tense.

But I have to say that our soldiers
were very open and helpful.

Did you just cut
your hand, Mr Arnost?

Wow, look how well you speak.
Say Black bug's blood.

Black bug's blood,
black bug's blood.

There is this scene

where the lieutenant walks
down the stairs into a cellar,

he turns the light on
and starts shooting at rats.

They brought the giant rats
from the Prague sewerage,

they were crawling up walls

and one of them was sitting
some three meters from me

on a pile of a coal dust,
observing me with her red eyes.

I aimed at her, shot and missed!

And the moment the bullet
just zoomed past its nose,

the rat jumped up
and straight into my face.

Fortunately I put the gun here
and she gnawed into its handle.

So I shook it down
killed it with the gun.

We finished the copy of the film
by the end of 1969,

Prochazka invited some people,
Mr Hoger, Mr Tregr,

I also invited some people
and they all praised the film.

I'm not sure now who exactly
told me about the ban,

I think it was Prochazka who said
it was banned from distribution.

Somebody claimed that the negative
approach to life we present

cannot be shown to wide public.

Now say Black bug's blood
but silently so no one can hear us.

Black bug's blood.

- And now even quieter.
- Black bug's blood.

Hynek Bocan started as
an assistant of older directors

and later in his own films

he always attempted to create
an unsystematic characterization

of the Czech nation's nature.

His debut was Kundera's adaptation
Nobody Will Laugh,

followed by Private Torment
based on a novel by Paral

and then Honor and Glory
based on Karel Michal's novel.

In 1968 he got to read
The Decoy by Karel Misar

and turned it into a film which
is even today considered brutal.

The story once again tells us
about the situation in our society,

this time on the background
of a reformatory.

Scepticism and brutality
of relationships in the institute,

not only between inmates

but also between instructors
and the young delinquents,

it metaphorically describes
relationships within our society

in general.

We went shooting
locations to Jezeri

when general manager Harnach
called our production manager

and said: Mr Beranek, this film is
a nonsense, it won't be approved,

let's call it off while we can.

And Beranek's reaction was really
brave: We're just about to wrap up.

In fact, we had had only two days
of work. But Harnach let it go.

Beranek arrived to Jezeri
and told us about it

so we were sitting there and
I said: This is a big chance.

We can actually make a film
without any restrictions

And so we shot this paraphrase
of the Soviet army in Prague.

We knew it wouldn't be
approved anyway.

Still it caught me by surprise.

We had to modify
53 out of 90 scenes.

A strange thing was that it
didn't really change the film.

Its message stayed the same,
a prototypical look at society.

As for casting, it used to be
director's business back then.

There were no casting studios.

We'd give auditions
for non-actors

but we'd even travel to see
mining apprentices

because ads probably wouldn't
have been of much help.

Jirka Samal was the director
of photography here.

Technique-wise it was
a pretty interesting work

because we'd gradually use
more and more coarse grain

and the final quarter shows
the most coarse image.

A viewer might not realize this
but as the image changes

it brings a documentary-like
truthfulness into the film.

We used a handycam a lot,
it was quite unique back then

but Samal knew how to work it,

the locations were real

so the whole thing turned out
to be almost naturalistic.

There was this chairman
of the Barrandov communists

who hated me for that
and once he told me:

I used to be a commissioner
of all prisons in the 50's

but none of them was as awful
as that reformatory of yours.

But he also said: But these
rebellions and stuff,

could you make
some sequences out of it?

We'd screen it in reformatories

not for children but for
the staff. It's so edifying.

Bocan's The Decoy was actually
finished as late as in 1990

when they made a post dubbing.
The same fate met other films,

Balada's Ark of Fools, or
Vihanova's Squandered Sunday.

All these films were locked
in a vault semi-finished

and final works were done
some twenty years later.

Evald Schorm was considered
the great thinker of the New Wave

and Pavel Juracek was
its screenwriting star.

There may be a hidden line
of his screenwriting co-operations

but already in 1962 he started
working on a script called Gulliver

inspired by Gulliver's Travels

and it developed into a film called
A Case for a Rookie Hangman.

When we look at this
last Juraceks film

where excellent actor Kostelka

in the lead role passes through
a tunnel into his subconscience

where he meets all the characters
who haunted also writer Juracek

we can see this is about
twinges of conscience.

Again there appears an Escherian
motif, a floor which disappears,

worlds, spaces and times blending.

A real world, half a meter above
another world which is not real.

Of course it is also a wonderful
allegory of a government

which is totally separated
from ordinary people,

presenting a view of what
a normalization could mean.

In this sense the film
is almost prophetic.

Each of us has his own Mrs Muller

whose light used to
shine on us in the beginning.

I said: Good evening, Mr Muller,
it is me, Lemuel. Lemuel Gulliver.

Lemuel Gulliver from Dlouha Street.

But it wasn't Mr Muller.

What I appreciate most
is the very first chapter

where he actually paraphrased

and set Swift's work
into the Czech context

and at the same time
he made use of his knowledge

of Jung's depth psychology

because the hero's descent
towards himself is very deep

in the sense of using details
from a psychological field

like symbols, objects, or even
a description of a landscape.

I'm sorry but if you're
silent because of me

Gentlemen, you must understand

I know Pavel really suffered,
he couldn't sleep,

bringing this film to the world
was like a real labor pain for him.

But he was well prepared
and so responsible

he would never come to a set
and say I'm not ready to work.

As a writer and a director in one

he made it easy for a production
manager to sort out problems

because Juracek would take a break

and in half an hour he would
rewrite the whole scene,

not only with regards to weather

but often this new version was
even better than the previous one.

Good day, professor. I've come
to ask you about a dream.

I dreamt Marketa drowned because
I stole a mug full of money.

I dreamt I was left
all alone in this world

and met a full dressed hare.

And professor, I killed this hare.

Cameraman Kalis was very skilled

and I think he helped Juracek
a great deal with his technique

because Juracek's strong point
was writing, not a camera work.

- What is your name?
- Lemuel Gulliver.

Your name is Oskar.

Read this!

For Oskar the hare's loyal service,
Prince Munody.

Gentlemen, you don't think
I am a hare, do you?

We got an approval to go
and find Laputa island abroad,

so we went to France
to see Mont Saint-Michel island,

unfortunately the situation here
got a bit too complicated,

shooting abroad was out of question
and we only took some pictures.

Later we made a collage

of a castle in Cesky Krumlov
with photos from Mont Saint-Michel

and in the end it looked good.

As for constructing execution
machines and thinking machines,

I introduced Juracek to my friends
from a hockey team Paleta vlasti,

they were all artists
like Hugo Demartini, Bedrich Dlouhy

and these sculptors created
all these weird machines.

Who else could visualize
a thinking machine, right?

A thinking mechanism. Hand drive.

This is where ideas come out.

They asked me about its capacity,

I told them a healthy man can
create up to 10000 ideas a day

but it wasn't enough for them.

And so someone figured this machine
could be powered by a horse gear.

They want to use a head of cattle
but I won't allow this, sir.

This machine cannot be
powered by an ox.

Pavel had big problems
with finishing works

because the normalization
was getting tougher and tougher

and more and more people were
asking him to cut out this sentence

or the whole scene
and he bravely fought for both.

I think the film is from 90%
what he wanted it to be.

Local idiot called Jump-up
rode me out of Balnibar country.

Once again I felt embarrassed
and turned to this idiot:

Listen, Jump-up, is the watch
going backwards or not?

And he replied: Come on,
what is all this fuss about?

Can't you just enjoy its ticking?

Hanak started as
a documentary filmmaker.

In the second half of the 60's

he made a series of great
documentary essays

and his method of gathering
material, fragments of reality

and shaping them into a new form,

it was also reflected
in his feature debut 322,

which is extracted from a place

between a documentary
and a feature film.

Citizens, for crossing the road
use zebras only.

Lady in a black coat, yes,
you, walk back. And try again.

Young lady, is this what
they taught you at school?

This does not apply to you.
Don't smoke on a street.

I was stroke by Jan Johanides
and his book Privacy.

I guess I'd read the book once
but very thoroughly

and I didn't want to read
it ever again

because I was so fascinated
by its story.

The main character gets
into an extreme situation

and has to recapitulate
and reevaluate his whole life

so it wasn't just me
who felt this way back then.

The whole society needed it.

And I wanted to preserve
a spirit of Johanides' story.

He trusted me and let me
do things my way.

I filmed Johanides' work,

he was full of authentic
experiences and I felt it too,

it was an image of Bratislava
as I knew it in the early 60's.

The main shift in the story was

that the main character
in the film was a communist

which was not very in,
especially in The New Wave,

and as I talked to my two Czech
colleagues they flinched a bit.

Where does Maria Valkova lie?

Valkova? If she lied in the East
part, she's not here anymore.

She's my mother.

What's her name?
Let me check in the book

I personally feel very attached
to Hanak's feature debut 322.

Here the main character as well
as topic are unique and uncommon

because it is about a man
who seemingly lacks all qualities

necessary for a film character.

He actually impersonates
mediocrity, commonness

but the more we get to know him
the more we realize he is a proof

of a drama hidden inside everybody,

every one of us lives his
big story, deals with big things.

As for characters in my films,

I myself wrote some of them,
sometimes I had a co-writer,

many of them were written
for concrete actors.

Mr Lohnisky used to play
episodic roles in Czech films

but I casted him into
the main role and he was great.

He didn't have to act because
of his own inner authenticity.

Mrs Vinicka, the biggest star
of then East-European cinema

was a beautiful woman
and an amazing person.

She was surprised when I told
her not to act but to believe

even though her partner
was Mr Abrham whom I admired.

He was just fantastic.

Many of the non-actors
who worked on my films,

they'd speak in their own
words, live their own lives,

like Vlado Weiser who couldn't
be listed as a co-writer

but the words and situations
come from his own life

- Are you a boy or a girl?
- A human being.

- Don't be cheeky, your ID.
- What's this? Are you on duty?

- No.
- Well, come with me, then.

It was by a documentary
style of shooting

that The New Wave contributed
to innovating feature films.

Feature films were in a crisis

and documentaries helped
bring them back to life.

Celebration in the Botanic Garden
is the only film which defies

the tendencies to portray gloomy
and skeptical visions of 1969.

It is a powerful geyser of joy
of life and playfulness

which assembles student mischief
from Havetta's school years,

world of flower children, slapstick.

It is a paradox that this playful
and nostalgically optimistic film

was made by the first one
to pay for normalization.

Havetta died in 1975.

Celebration is a different film

and today when we speak about
a postmodern type of film,

Celebration shows many features
of something that came much later

and nobody understood it.

Although now we appreciate Havetta's
faithfulness to his country,

his childhood, his home,
he was not accepted in his times.

He was accused of using
Czech instead of Slovak humor.

There were those who loved and
those who hated this kind of film.

Among those who hated it

were rather those whom
I considered friends or fans.

We loved what they called
an intimate, or naive art,

a kind of mystical art,
a direct relationship.

See, mystique creates a direct
relationship between a man and God.

And this direct relationship
to sources with a mystical aspect,

Havetta's perception of folklore,

it was closely connected with his
strong experiences from childhood.

A man should love his country,
or his nation, to hell with this.

We wanted to love our identity,

something we belong to with
our soul, with our tradition

and it was much more important.

This is what folklore is about,
a creative need to exist,

to return to something original
like light, soil, trees, water.

Something pagan which at the same
time contains instructions for use

but it does not lack the intensity
of the original experience.

That's why there are bees, trees,
a botanic garden, wine, euphoria,

an enthusiasm about life itself.

This enthusiasm is not biased,
it is purely original.

You, take a look at yourself.

Now I've got the job, pension

Havetta was choosing from Slovak
actors and went for those

who were capable of
an instant expressive acting.

He tried Blazkovic
and it was the right guess.

I'm fed up with this.

How do I look, huh?

Then there were non-actors,
people he knew from his village,

or people he met somewhere,
some of his friends, often artists.

Artists are capable of fooling
around in a very honest way.

The circumstances of shooting
Celebration in the Botanic Garden

were congenial, they wrote it,
shot it and lived with it

just as if they were celebrating
in the botanic garden.

The title not only expresses
what they meant to say

but also their attitude towards
their lives, work, methods,

it's all in the title
and the crew lived up to it.

During the shooting it was often
more important for filmmakers

to get Vladimir Popovic paint
a wall in the background

than to control actors
in the first plan.

I have always been fascinated

by the absolute freedom in this
film which is so hard to achieve.

It is easy to be playful in your
life but it's so hard in art

because of all the conventions
and rules you learn at school,

from colleagues, other films.

Havetta's ability to set himself
free when making Celebration

was the most important thing
to me, it was a geyser of freedom

with no limitations whatsoever.

All those characters were my
friends or people I knew,

my mum would collect material
for me, I'd visit her very often

and went see those people as well.

The main character Frantisek
Slimacek died in the age of 92.

He was the real hero of Countrymen

because he experienced it
and I got to know him.

My dad was his teacher.

Dyer Otcenas chairman of KSC,

smallholder Zejvala, chairman
of a minority co-op

and foreman Macala,
the municipal secretary

have taken up authority
with all implications

and the world has split into two.

I was driving with Jasny
through Vysocina hills

where he wanted to find it.

For two weeks he'd talk
about stars and pipes

but we never found anything.

But then Carda Kucera appeared

and I'll never forget our trip
to the cartographic institute

where they showed him
all their postcards

and he rummages in the pile
of pictures for almost an hour,

then he picked three postcards,
put them on a table

and the first location portrayed
eventually became our location,

a village Bystra by Policka.

When we agreed on the title,
that was it, the horseshoe,

even visually it was a perfect fit.

It was early evening and I started
to dance with joy there

and as I was dancing, people
started to leave the pub,

one of them was Mr Uncovsky,

who later became my advisor,
a director of local amateur actors.

Mr Uncovsky, can we do it here?

And he said: You can do
whatever you want to.

We didn't talk too much
and Kucera said:

Vojta, speaking of Countrymen,

do you want to use a perspective
camera like Toland in Citizen Kane?

I said: No, I want a flat picture,
the way gothic paintings are done.

Jarda said he would have to order
a zoom lens from Paris

and that's how we shot landscapes.

He was in charge of the visual
aspect of this film,

I'd just say I wanted a close-up
or a mid shot, or a wide shot

but I'd leave the composition
up to him because he did it great.

Release our vicar, he's innocent.

You won't tell us who is or isn't
innocent. It will go to show.

He is innocent and
if you don't release him,

we'll arrange another gathering
from all around this place.

I wanted my characters to speak
in a Moravian dialect.

In the first version of the script
I wrote dialogues in Kelc dialect

and my wife Kveta said
she didn't understand it.

That slang was incomprehensible
so I wrote it in Czech.

Babkal and Brodsky came
from Moravia,

they were capable of making
the language distinctive.

Mensik used his own, Brno slang.

And Matuska was the best for me.

Some people told me
to cast a real actor

but Matuska did a great job.

As he is saying goodbye to his dead
wife, it came out almost biblical,

as it is shot with the zoom lens
as the dead girl is leaving him

who had danced with him one last
time, told him he'd leave soon

and then he gets killed by the bull.
That's how it actually happened.

I've always loved masks,

I went to Vienna and there
they had all kinds of magazines.

Suddenly I found a magazine
with pictures of masks

which are still being made in
Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

So I took the magazine,

found two ladies who made the masks
at Barrandov costume department.

I wanted to have Death there.

The first version was three
and a half hours long.

After I immigrated they destroyed
it and the copy has disappeared.

President of Cannes film festival
saw the copy, he was my fan,

and after watching the film
he cried and told me:

Jasny, you've got to cut the film
down to two hours

because you have no publicity,
no money, you have nothing.

So I went to see my friend, editor
Jan Kucera at FAMU

and asked him how to edit it.

He had seen it a hundred times,
gave me some instructions

and I used 90% of them.

A glass of rye.

Politics is a bitch.

I'm telling you there must be war.
People will be fighting each other

until there is nothing but
a cow and a fanner left

and these two will found
better generations.

All My Good Countrymen is a summary
as well as a reconciliation

which came in a time when
everything started from a scratch.

The first public screening
took place in July 1969

when normalization was beginning.

In the next few months

the whole Czechoslovak New Wave
will be dispersed,

some will immigrate, some will
never get to make films anymore,

others will make films after
long years of silence,

some will bend down,
others will stand straight

but one thing is sure,
a myth came into existence here.

A myth which did not have
enough time to fade away,

neither to be properly evaluated.

I just popped in by chance,
I have a concert in Olomouc.

I wanted to talk to my dad,
I didn't know.

What was he saying lately?

He said he shouldn't
have accepted it.

He believed they would get
together, he accepted it

and ended up alone again.
When he felt lonely, he'd say:

Go and listen if there is anybody
singing in the field

The main importance of the sixties
is connected with national identity.

I think that the reaction
to the Soviet invasion

was much stronger
than it would have been

without the Czechoslovak film
of the sixties.

Because many people saw the films
and they felt as if they knew us.

I think that the profit
which came with the films

was not only financial,
we profited on countless levels.

But one thing is for sure,

this country is much better off
when it supports its film

than when it does not.

This is your Rhodos,
this is where you can frolick.

Let's eat what we've baked.

But what is it that we've baked?

What could we have done?
What couldn't we?

Farewell, my good countrymen.

Farewell and if we were never
to see each other again.

May our fate be fulfilled.