Czech Feature Film since 1989: The Context:

■ The 1960s: "Czech New Wave"

■ Post-1968 Russian invasion clampdown: purge of filmmakers:

■ 1970-1989: propaganda, escapism, films for children

After the fall of communism

■ Czech film industry denationalised■ First, "primitive" commercial films made■ Later, more artistically ambitious projects■ Banned film-makers from the 1960s did not

gain prominence again in the 1990s■ New generation of thirty-year-olds■ Some 280 features made in 1989-2007■ Maybe 40 will survive as works of art■ Dvořák: "Czech cinema is manipulative".

Contemporary Czech Cinema

■ Useful to study it as material culture

■ Czech film transmits a unified value system

■ Is this a mythology or does it reflect reality?

■ What do the sociologists say?

What is contemporary Czech society like?

Sociologists:

■ No fair principles of remuneration yet■ Low salaries for highly educated

professionals in the state sector■ Subjective euforic feeling after fall of

communism not matched by reality■ No substantial middle class yet■ Czech society as a plebeian community

What the Czechs believe

Sociologists:

■ Large personal wealth is the result of theft■ Rich people are criminals■ If you are poor, it is entirely your own fault■ Defensive and wary vis-a-vis "the other"

What the Czechs believe

Sociologists:

■ Czechs are most happy within the privacy of their families

■ Like under communism, they still regard the public sphere as hostile

■ State services are unreliable and hostile■ Politicians are fraudulent■ The state of the economy is "dire"

What the Czechs are like

■ Educational level of Czech women is similar to that in Scandinavia

■ Social and economic position of Czech women: subjugation

■ Most Czechs have secondary education■ There is little research and development■ There is alienation at work■ Czechs identify themselves with their local

village, town, the countryside (=place of healing, refuge before "otherness")

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Early post 1990 films exorcised the trauma of communism

■ Antonín Máša´s Was this really us? (1990) highlights alienation which became the norm after 1990

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Traumatic periods from history

■ Petr Hvižďs The Order (1994): helpless position of individual under totalitarian pressure; hero forced to do what he hates

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Karel Kachyňa, The Last Butterfly (1990):

■ Central European belief that art will prevail over oppression

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Children as hope for the future

■ (A Kingdom for a Guitar, made 1989, released 1990):

■ Metaphor of openness, freedom and inquisitiveness

■ "I don´t want influential friends, I want good friends."

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Jan Švankmajer´s Little Otík (2000):

■ Warning against human attempts "to change what has been fixed by natural forces"

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Jan Švankmajer´s The Mad (2005), based on Marquis de Sade:

■ "Democracy is a lunatic asylum, but return to dictatorship would be worse"

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Early, optimistic commercial comedies:

■ The Sun, Hay, Sex (1991):

■ "Everybody will become rich."

Czech Cinema: The Themes

■ Jan Kraus, The Little Town (2003)

■ The benefits of the fall of communism: young girls are forced to dance on tables before old men in the local pub

Czech Cinema: The Themes

Destitution:

■ Bohdan Sláma´s The Wild Bees (2001)

■ Nothing will ever change

■ "Work, women, this is capitalism, for fuck´s sake!"

Relations between men and women

■ Czech film: Statements in defence of subjugated women

■ Weak, aggressive males

■ Jan Hřebejk´s Cosy Dens (1999)

Relations between men and women

■ Man the fantasist, chcípák, the intellectual vagrant-outsider

● Tomáš Vorel´s The Stone Bridge (1996)

Relations between men and women

■ Czech men are unnecessarily violent

■ Men look for sex, not a relationship

■ Young attractive women strike relationships with men who are decades older

Kameňák: (A Really Cruel Joke)

● Vulgar popular comedy

● Highly successful● Three parts

(Kameňák 1, 2, 3, 2003 – 2005)

● Verbal humour, ostranenie, puns

Kameňák

● Deeply familiar small town environment

● Cosy atmosphere: everyone knows everyone

Kameňák

● Family life● Archetypal

“Everyman” - police chief Josef Novák, wife, son Joey

Kameňák

● The logic of the narrative sacrificed to verbal gags

● Insulting old people● Insulting women

Kameňák

● Wife rushes about at breakfast, husband reads newspaper

● School is a place of torment – children bring home only bad marks

● Corporal punishment at home

Kameňák:

● Town environment:● Home● School● Hospital● Fake monastery● Castle

Kameňák:

● The police (i.e. official authorities) are ineffectual

● The politicians are corrupt● Serior criminals go unpunished, only minor

criminals are caught● Business consortium is made up of crooks● Business is always corrupt● No morals: the opening of a brothel is highly

celebrated

Kameňák: Men and Women

● Young women seen only as sex objects● Older women are subject of ridicule/source of

horror

● Men are feeble:In youth, they chase skirts,

in old age are interested in football, beer

Kameňák: Men and Women

● Men don´t understand the female psychology● Men of all ages are obsessed with the young

female body● Everything must be on man´s terms: There

are no ideal men

● Gender stereotypes rule

Kameňák: The Czechs and the Romanies

● The Romanies seen as an alien element in Czech society

● The close-knit Czech community “doesn’t need” foreign influences: “Italian chianti is sour”

● Presence of guns in Czech society● Racist stereotypes of the Romanies● Czech self-irony

Kameňák´s success leads to preaching

● Low quality of Czech newspapers:

“You don’t like Klaus, you don’t like the United States, you don’t like naked girls, you don’t like murders. I just don’t know why we take that paper.”

Kameňák: Values

● Schadenfreude● What leads to success is the correct thing to

do – regardless of morals

“Would it not be better to bribe the Romanies? It is more honest and, after all, these days, it is fashionable.”

Which are the best films?

Jan Švankmajer:

Lekce Faust (The Faust Lesson, 1994)

Otesánek (Little Otík, 2000)

Šílení (The Mad, 2005)

Which are the best films?

Karel Kachyňa:

Poslední motýl (The Last Butterfly, 1990)