Czech and Slovak Film Resources
The Cinema of Central Europe by ISBN: 9781904764212Date: 2005-05-11This new volume in the Twenty-Four Frames series focuses on twenty-four key Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, and Polish films from the twenties to the present. Between the wars the cinemas of Hungary, Poland, and the former Czechoslovakia each claimed their pioneers of early cinema and attained significant levels of production.
Cinema of the Other Europe: The Industry and Artistry of East Central European Film by ISBN: 1903364647Date: 2004-03-17Comprehensive study of the cinematic traditions of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia from 1945 to the present day, exploring the major schools of filmmaking and the main stages of development across the region during the period of state socialism up until the end of the Cold War, as well as more recent transformations post-1989.
Czech and Slovak Cinema: Theme and Tradition by ISBN: 9780748620814Date: 2009-06-01This book is the first study in English to examine some of the key themes and traditions of Czech and Slovak cinema, linking inter-war and post-war cinemas together with developments in the post-Communist period. It examines links between theme, genre, and visual style, and looks at the ways in which a range of styles and traditions has extended across different historical periods and political regimes.
The Path of Fame of the Czechoslovak Film: Twenty Years of Progress of the Nationalised Film, 1865-1898, 1945-1965Published in 1965, with illustrations.
A Society in Distress: The Image of the Czech Republic in Contemporary Czech Feature Film by ISBN: 9781845195519Date: 2013-01-01Jan Culik's book analyses the value system constructed by Czech feature films produced since the fall of communism in 1989. It provides an overview of some three hundred Czech feature films made during this period. Over fourteen chapters, the book shows how Czech film makers have dealt with the legacy of communism and other traumatic past experiences, and how they have borne witness to recent political and social developments in the Czech Republic. In Culík's view, Czech feature film constructs an image of society which is still heavily influenced by the so-called "normalisation" regime of the 1970s and 1980s, which was created in Czechoslovakia after the 1968 Soviet invasion. Czech feature films bear witness to a society which suffers from fairly weak social and political structures.
Avant-Garde to New Wave by ISBN: 9780857451262Date: 2011-02-01The cultural liberalization of communist Czechoslovakia in the 1960s produced many artistic accomplishments, not least the celebrated films of the Czech New Wave. This movement saw filmmakers use their new freedom to engage with traditions of the avant-garde, especially Surrealism. This book explores the avant-garde's influence over the New Wave and considers the political implications of that influence. The close analysis of selected films, ranging from the Oscar-winning Closely Observed Trains to the aesthetically challenging Daisies, is contextualized by an account of the Czech avant-garde and a discussion of the films' immediate cultural and political background.
The Bohemian Body by ISBN: 9780299222802Date: 2007-06-30By re-examining the work of key Czech male and female writers and poets from the National Revival to the Velvet Revolution, Alfred Thomas exposes the tendency of Czech literary criticism to separate the political and the personal in modern Czech culture. He points instead to the complex interplay of the political and the personal across ethnic, cultural, and intellectual lines and within the works of such individual writers as Karel Hynek Macha, Bozena Nemcova, and Rainer Maria Rilke, resulting in the emergence and evolution of a protean modern identity. The product is a seemingly paradoxical yet nuanced understanding of Czech culture (including literature, opera, and film), long overlooked or misunderstood by Western scholars.
Cinema in Service of the State: Perspectives on East German and Czech Film Culture, 1945-1960 by 
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ISBN: 9781782389972Date: 2015-12-30This volume comprehensively explores the postwar film cultures of both nations, using a "stereoscopic" approach that traces their similarities and divergences to form a richly contextualized portrait. Ranging from features to children's cinema to film festivals, the studies gathered here provide new insights into the ideological, political, and economic dimensions of Cold War cultural production.
Czech New Wave Filmmakers in Interviews by ISBN: 078641720XDate: 2003-11-30In Czechoslovakia, in the 1960s, artists began to realize that the aesthetics of social realism contrasted with the realities of daily life; a movement of film arose in response to the politics and history of the nation. This work collects candid interviews with the creators of the Czech New Wave film movement (1960-2000). The interviews give portraits of some of the most talented figures in film, revealing artists searching for individual and national identity, who describe living and making film in the Czech Republic now and in the past, explore how foreign films influence Czech film, and speculate on the future of film. Each interview includes a short biography, filmography, and list of awards. The work is bookended by essays giving background on the political and economic situations leading up to and after the Velvet Revolution.
The Czechoslovak New Wave by ISBN: 9780520048591Date: 1985-01-01A study of the most significant movement in post-war Central and East European cinemas, it examines the origins of a movement against the political and cultural developments of the 1960s leading to the Prague Spring of 1968. Peter Hames also summarizes key aspects of Czech and Slovak histories between the wars and in the 1940s and 1950s. Directors discussed include Milos Forman, Jan Svankmajer, Jiri Menzel, and Jan Nemec.
The Czechoslovak New Wave by ISBN: 9781904764427Date: 2005-06-08A study of the most significant movement in post-war Central and East European cinemas, it examines the origins of a movement against the political and cultural developments of the 1960s leading to the Prague Spring of 1968. Peter Hames also summarizes key aspects of Czech and Slovak histories between the wars and in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Holocaust in Czechoslovak and Czech Feature Films by ISBN: 9783838211961Date: 2019-02-12Sárka Sladovníková analyzes the depiction of the Holocaust in Czechoslovak and Czech feature films and the relevant literary pretexts. While she charts the social and cultural framework in which the films were made and how this framework changed, she also focuses on the cinematic language, the composition of and narration in each film (e.g., the depiction of the war and the Shoah as a narratively closed versus a narratively open event), genre aspects of the films (e.g., the use of comedy and humor), and convention and innovation in presenting motifs and characters (the division of gender roles, the character of the "good German"). Particular attention is paid to the portrayal of stereotypes and countertypes in the films, where already well-known images, situations, and backdrops are repeated and which meet viewers' expectations or, in contrast, which form countertypes and countersituations that go against the grain. Many of the films analyzed are adaptations of literary works. Therefore, this book is also a contribution to the rapidly developing field of adaptation studies.
Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Europe by ISBN: 9780748639168Date: 2012-10-08Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Europe explores the interlocking complexities of two liminal concepts: magic realism and East Central Europe. In this critical and comprehensive survey, Aga Skrodzka moves the current debate over magic realism's political impact from literary studies to film studies. Her close textual analysis of films by directors such as Jan Svankmajer, Jan Jakub Kolski, Martin Sulík, Ivo Trajkov, Dorota Kędzierzawska, Ildikó Enyedi, Béla Tarr and Emir Kusturica is accompanied by an investigation of the socio-economic and political context in order to both study and popularise an important and unique tradition in world cinema. The directors' artistic achievements illuminate the connections between a particular aesthetics and the social structure of East Central Europe at a precise moment of contemporary history. This book considers the cinema of East Central Europe in the context of transnationalism and postcoloniality.
Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema by ISBN: 9781845455408Date: 2008-11-01Gender, especially masculinity, is a perspective rarely applied in discourses on cinema of Eastern/Central Europe. Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema exposes an English-speaking audience to a large proportion of this region's cinema that previously remained unknown, focusing on the relationship between representation of masculinity and nationality in the films of two and later three countries: Poland, Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The objective of the book is to discuss the main types of men populating Polish, Czech and Slovak films: that of soldier, father, heterosexual and homosexual lover, against a rich political, social and cultural background.
Reframing Reality by ISBN: 9781841507125Date: 2014-02-15The surrealist object is an everyday item that takes on multiple associations by provoking the viewer's imagination. It also poses a specific challenge for some filmmakers who seek to apply surrealist ideas and approaches when making feature-length narrative films. In Reframing Reality, Alison Frank looks specifically at French and Czech films, including works by Luis Buñuel, Jan Svankmajer, as well as the contemporary hit Amélie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in order to offer a new take on surrealist film.
Subversive Adaptations by ISBN: 9783319409603Date: 2017-11-20This book deals with film adaptations of literary works created in Communist Czechoslovakia between 1954 and 1969, such as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (Zeman 1958), Marketa Lazarová (Vláčil 1967), and The Joke (Jires 1969). The book is broad in scope and examines aesthetic, political, social, and cultural issues. It sets out to disprove the notion that the state-controlled film industry behind the Iron Curtain produced only aesthetically uniform works pandering to official ideology. Bubeníček's main aim is to show how the political situation of Communist Czechoslovakia molded the film adaptations created there, but also how these same works, in turn, shaped the sociocultural conditions of the 1950s and the 1960s.
World Film Locations: Prague by ISBN: 9781783200276Date: 2013-11-15Prague, the "Hollywood of the East," has played an important role in the history of cinema and World Film Locations: Prague traverses the city's topography to examine an internationally diverse range of movies made in the Czech capital. The book also discusses the intersection of the capital city and its cinematic representations; Prague and the Czech New Wave; the iconic Barrandov Studios; and the impact of political events such as the Prague Spring, the Soviet Invasion of 1968, and the Velvet Revolution on the city's film industry. An invaluable resource for scholars, students, and aficionados of film and cinematic psychogeography, this collection will be heralded by students of East European literary, cultural, and sociopolitical history.
Jiří Menzel and the History of the "Closely Watched Trains" by ISBN: 9780880330114Date: 1982-09-01A work on contemporary Czechoslovak cinematography focusing on the celebrated director Jiří Menzel's classic film "Closely Watched Train" in the context of communist Czechoslovak mores and restrictions.
Miloš Forman: A Bio-Bibliography by ISBN: 0313253927Date: 1987-06-18The work begins with a brief biography that emphasizes the relationship for Forman's life to his philosophic and artistic development. The major portion of the work consists of a critical filmography with annotations based on the author's direct study, and an annotated bibliography with an introductory essay.
Turnaround by ISBN: 9780679400639Date: 1994-02-08In these pages are wonderful stories of the artist as a young man: tales of finding love in a deranged Communist bureaucracy, fleeing his beloved homeland, living in the bohemian Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties, discovering free spirits in Greenwich Village, learning the peculiar ways and means of Hollywood, reaching the pinnacle of professional success, and, finally, being allowed to return home to film the life of another young genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But above all, Forman's life story can be read as a chronicle of the bittersweet intersection of life, love, politics, and art. Frank, vibrant, passionate, Turnaround is a triumph.
- Keeper of Dynamite (dir. Pavel Juráček, 1962)
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- Closely Watched Trains (dir. Jiří Menzel, 1966)
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- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (dir. Jaromil Jireš, 1970)
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- Faust (dir. Jan Švankmajer, 1994)
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Additional Resources on Selected Czech and Slovak Films
- Cinepur Cinepur magazine regularly brings readers film critics, essays, glosses, interviews with important personalities and analyses, which acquaint them with current events in the field of film and audiovisual in Czech Republic and abroad.
- Illuminace Iluminace is the only Czech double-blind peer-reviewed journal for scholarly reflection upon cinema which is approached from theoretical, historical and aesthetic perspectives. It emphasizes original research and interdisciplinary approaches and in recent years has focused on international authors and readers. Iluminace is accessible through the Scopus, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO and ProQuest electronic databases.
- Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (JCCEE) is a multi-disciplinary journal providing a radical critical analysis of economic, social, cultural and political perspectives and developments in the region bounded by Germany in the west and Russia in the east.
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- Studies in Eastern European Cinema Studies in Eastern European Cinema provides the world-wide community of Eastern European film and media scholars with a platform for debate. The journal covers screen cultures of Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, just as well as cinemas of Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Yugoslavia as now non-existent states with historic cinematic tradition.
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- American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ABSEEES) This link opens in a new window Covers North American and some European scholarship since the late 1980s on East-Central Europe, Russia, the former Soviet Union and former Soviet republics. Indexes journal articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, and selected government publications.
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- Avant-Garde and Architecture in Czechoslovakia 1909-1938 This link opens in a new window This collection, earlier published in a microfiche collection by IDC Publishers, makes available periodicals and monographs for the study of Czechoslovak avant-garde and architecture in the period before the Second World War. Individual title list available online.
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- Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL) This link opens in a new window Archive of scholarly and cultural publications from Central and Eastern Europe.
- KinoBox.cz KinoBox.cz is a fairly comprehensive database of Czech film including information on actors, TV, and more. It also includes movie reviews, trailers, and user rankings similar to IMDB.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Indexes worldwide publications on literature, language, linguistics, folklore, film, television, and theater from 1923 to the present. See also the MLA Directory of Periodicals.
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- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
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- Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda This link opens in a new window This collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba. Browse sub-collections for more on subjects covered.
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- The European Film Gateway The EFG Portal gives you quick and easy access to hundreds of thousands of film historical documents as preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials. Targeted at scientific researchers and the interested public alike, the EFG offers a look at and behind the scenes of filmmaking in Europe from the early days until today.
- Kino Eye Kinoeye was an online journal of European film published between 2001 and 2004, and prior to that it was a column in Central Europe Review. Although they are no longer publishing, you can still find back issues on their website.
Selected Czech and Slovakian Films
Invention for Destruction (dir. Karel Zeman, 1958).
"This eye-popping escapade revolves around a scientist and his doomsday machine—and the pirates who will stop at nothing to gain possession of it."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Daisies (dir. Vera Chytilová, 1966).
"Maybe the Czech New Wave’s most anarchic entry, Věra Chytilová’s absurdist farce follows the misadventures of two brash young women. Believing the world to be “spoiled,” they embark on a series of pranks in which nothing—food, clothes, men, war—is taken seriously."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
The Firemen's Ball (dir. Miloš Forman, 1967).
"A hilarious saga of good intentions confounded, the story chronicles a firemen’s ball where nothing goes right—from a beauty pageant whose reluctant participants embarrass the organizers to a lottery from which nearly all the prizes are pilfered. Presumed to be a commentary on the floundering Czech leadership, the film was “banned forever” in Czechoslovakia following the Russian invasion and prompted Forman’s move to America."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
The Cremator (dir. Juraj Herz, 1969).
"A Czechoslovakian man who loves working at his crematorium begins to take the advice of an old war buddy concerning the importance of his German heritage and the issue of his half Jewish wife."
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (dir. Jaromil Jireš, 1970)
UCLA students, staff, and faculty access through Kanopy. Log into the campus VPN or proxy server to view video.
The Interpreter (dir. Martin Šulík, 2018).
"An 80-year-old translator, Ali Ungár, comes across a book written by a former SS officer recounting his war experiences in Slovakia. Ali realizes that one of the chapters may well describe his own parents’ execution. And so, armed with a pistol, he sets off to Vienna to look for the SS man and take his revenge."