CoMo No. 9: Czechia (January, 2023)

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#HappyNewYear2023
#ŠťastnýNovýRok2023
THE MOLE AND THE CARNIVAL (Zdeněk Miler, 1976) #YearPoll1976 #CoMoCz
https://youtu.be/PgPm4FzMD6A

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so, major czech directors we should at least try to swing by? jiri?

jan kříženecký
antonín pech
karel lamač
jan s kolár
karl anton
svatopluk innemann
gustav machatý
alexander hammid
vladislav vančura
martin frič
jiří trnka
františek čáp
hugo haas
josef rovenský
otakar vávra
vojtěch jasný
karel kachyňa
karel zeman
jiří menzel
evald schorm
miloš forman
juraj herz
jaromil jireš
hynek bočan
ivan passer
jan schmidt
jan špáta
zbyněk brynych
zdeněk podskalský
jindřich polák
pavel jurácek
hermína týrlová
drahomíra vihanová
jiří weiss
karel vachek
oldřich lipský
břetislav pojar
jan němec
věra chytilová
jan švankmajer
františek vláčil
václav vorlícek
jirí barta
jan svěrák
petr zelenka
pavel koutecký
vít klusák
filip remunda
jan gogola jr
robert sedláček
martin ryšavý
václav kadrnka
martin ježek

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how to drown mr mracek, the lawyer - václav vorlíček (1975) #CoMoCz

brutal political commentary

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ditto...

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ditto...


as local cinema shows, local wash sinks are not only convenient means of transportation ↑↑↑
but are also endowed with complex artistic skills ↓↓↓

ABOUT THE TAP WHO SANG AT THE OPERA (Adolf Born, Jaroslav Doubrava, 1990) #CoMoCz

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in pursuit of the icky..........

the lovers of an old criminal - svatopluk innemann (1927) #CoMoCz

anny ondra is fantastic as a psycho, she's got chaotic energy that knocks ossi oswalda out of the park, and silent film is where vlasta burian was best, i love czech silents!

icky icky icky














and curiously the embodied cupid seems to be a constant of early czech stuff, seen it a few times

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rytmus - jiří lehovec (1941) #CoMoCz

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noční procházka / nightwalk - andreas wutz (2006) #CoMoCz


watch here: http://www.tortoisebox.org/studio/film/nightwalk.html

"Nightwalk" (original title: Noční Procházka) was filmed on a nocturnal circle walk around the city of Prague. It tries to understand a city by its urban surroundings, by its psychogeography and by aspects of the Other and Non-human.
The film tries to explore a city by its periphery in relation to its centre. The periphery seems to surround a city as a diffuse zone or framework. It is like an “expansion of a society and thinking” (Susan Buck-Morrs) that “responses and counterclaims to the centre” (Gilles Deleuze). The centre however, despite of all its bustling appears to be “nothing more than a vague idea” (Roland Barthes).
Consequently the itinerary through the periphery did not bring me only to the suburbs with its housing projects, apartment blocks, sports centres and industrial zones, but also to the quite extended sites of the Psychiatrical Centre of Prague or the Zoological Garden. Both, mental diseases and deviations of the human togeher with the mental state of the animal, the non-human may be considered as a border zone that surrounds our consciousness as a periphery of our existence. According to that the film cites a footage by Ludvík Šváb, an artist and filmmaker who worked as a psychiatrist in that Psychiatrical Centre out of town. In addition the film shows animals fallen asleep in their dwellings in the zoo alongside with images of dormitory suburbs, tunnels and bridges.
However, in contrast to the night images of the urban periphery tinted by the soft and fragmenting light of the street lamps the centre of Prague is documented by no visual images at all. Instead the centre and its ceaseless bustling is perceived by its noises, by its huge variety of hard and invasive sounds which all were recorded at daytime. The old town centre of Prague which now mainly serves as a place for touristic attractions, real estate agencies, gambling halls, ware houses and innumerable sites of reconstruction is exclusively documented by the inescapable ubiquity of its sound.
Thus the psychogeographic film images of the periphery and the original soundtrack of centre may document not only the contrast between centre and periphery, but also its urban transitions caused by history. In this sense the film may give also an impression of the various consequences of the transformation of one of the oldest European towns into a new capital of the post-communist era.

Film historical background
The initial idea of the project was based on the avant-garde film “Bezúčelná Procházka” (‘Aimless Walk’) by Alexander Hackenschmied (aka Sasha Hammid).

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THE SMÍCHOV BARGAIN (Rozálie Kohoutová, 2017) #CoMoCz
→ https://dafilms.com/film/10209-the-smichov-bargain

MI ABUELA (Karolína Šrámková, 2019) #CoMoCz
→ https://dafilms.com/film/14569-mi-abuela

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commemorating the death day of this cheeky boy



by watching one of the many versions of schweik.....

the good soldier švejk - karel steklý (1957) #CoMoCz

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vlastníci - jiří havelka (2019) #CoMoCz

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Prague (Unknown, 1918) #CoMoCz
→ https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/deta ... f32f1c11b1

Prague the Capital of Czechoslovakia (Unknown, 1928) #CoMoCz
→ https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/deta ... 2f53a56392

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EATEN OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME (Martin Frič, 1933) #CoMoCz




the film is an adaptation of a book by Ignát Herrmann (1854-1935)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ign%C3%A1t_Herrmann
His literary work was closely tied to his journalism, and mostly dealt with the personalities and life of Prague. His first novel was the partly autobiographical U snědeného krámu (1890).

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jiri the dog, refugee - tomasz wiński (2019) #CoMoCz

NO

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Duchcov (Unknown, 1927) #CoMoCz
→ https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/deta ... 2fd7e5447d

For the Love of Money (Unknown, 1912) #CoMoCz
→ https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/deta ... 2c423a921a

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křik / the cry - jaromil jireš (1964) #CoMoCz

if you ignore the political allegorical stuff this is an absurdly sweet film

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prague nights - jiří brdečka, miloš makovec, evald schorm (1969) #CoMoCz

at last! a theological underpinning for ickiness (that could only be czech) ♥

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The Town of Brno (Unknown, 1919)
→ https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/deta ... 6c8bfbbd96

[rischka]

i have watched kouř (smoke) d. tomáš vorel (1990) ironically titled pop musical as smoke is seemingly omnipresent in the grimy grim days of late communism.

w stylized musical numbers, some of them quite fun! i gather a few experimental theater troupes got together and made a film. i enjoyed it

i can't make good screenshots from DA streaming i'm embarrassed for ruining your beautiful thread! i'll try harder

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omg musicals bleugh, but you're not ruining the thread!

cikáni - karl anton (1922) #CoMoCz

looks nice but i detected political allegory and wished people would go madder












the hair did its own acting mostly


i had a bit part

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and from the studio of tomáš vorel (with involvement by the godfather vachek) comes this wonderful (-ly czech) doc about mucha's enormous grotesque - the series of paintings known as the slav epic (epic-ness being a notable czech attribute, in addition to ickiness, irony, magical thinking, arches, and the bawdy (mucha's penis monogram))

komplex epopeje / slav epic complex - jan strejcovský (2017) #CoMoCz

not sure why this isn't on any database, really great at successively synchronising/antagonising opinions of various interviewees, and images too (for instance a japanese graveyard makes a meaningful cut to a japanese skyline very similar in outline) and as recommendation above all.....featuring jiri's boy:

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SEEING PRAGUE (Barbora Šimková, 2018) #CoMoCz
→ https://dafilms.com/film/10559-seeing-prague

TINNITUS (Kateřina Kaclíková, Martin Pfann, 2019) #CoMoCz
→ https://dafilms.com/film/10784-tinnitus

[rischka]

i'm watching larks on a string and it's so charming



i dig its industrial aesthetic

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old czech legends - jiří trnka (1953) #CoMoCz

hmmmmm very soviet, much misogyny (but a magpie, and i guess, as i am now, aware of mucha)

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vojtech, called the orphan - zdeněk tyc (1990) #CoMoCz

hella murky print

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https://twitter.com/Michael1979/status/ ... 5013979136

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národ sobě / situation of the street or the czech sea in 18 tidal waves - jan gogola jr (2003) #CoMoCz

epic national something something (someone has been watching late jancsó (if you wanted an out-vachek reference))

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situation of the street part II - twitter (2023) #CoMoCz

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ibid...

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two regions of western Bohemia (border area with Germany) in 1937
on the screen, no trace of the already budding ethnic conflict (all so idyllic)...

Domažlicko (Unknown, 1937) #CoMoCz
→ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doma%C5%BElice_District
https://youtu.be/rcfS1qfxDgY

Krušné hory (Unknown, 1937) #CoMoCz
→ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_Mountains
https://youtu.be/S1S4P0KIRyA