Description
Of all the cinematic New Waves that broke over the world in the 1960s, the one in Czechoslovakia was among the most fruitful, fascinating, and radical. With a wicked sense of humor and a healthy streak of surrealism, a group of fearless directors—including eventual Oscar winners Miloš Forman and Ján Kadár—began to use film to speak out about the hypocrisy and absurdity of the Communist state. A defining work was the 1966 omnibus film Pearls of the Deep, which introduced five of the movement’s essential voices: Vera Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jirí Menzel, Jan Nemec, and Evald Schorm. This series presents that title, along with five other crucial works that followed close on its heels, one from each of those filmmakers—some dazzlingly experimental, some arrestingly realistic, all singular expressions from a remarkable time and place.
Collection Includes
Pearls of the Deep
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.
Daisies
Daisies is an aesthetically and politically adventurous film that’s widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema.
A Report on the Party and Guests
In Jan Nemec’s surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up.
Return of the Prodigal Son
This raw psychological drama about an engineer unable to adjust to the world around him following his suicide attempt is at heart a scathing portrait of social alienation and moral compromise.
Capricious Summer
Two years after his worldwide hit Closely Watched Trains, Jirí Menzel directed this amusing idyll about three middle-aged men whose mellow summer is interrupted by the arrival of a circus performer and his beautiful assistant.
The Joke
Jaromil Jireš’s brilliant adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel tells the fragmentary tale of a man expelled from the Communist Party because of a political joke.