The future communist journalist Julius Fučík had a stimulating childhood and youth in a working-class environment, when his moral maturity was already showing. The authors of the film recall that the young Julek was a star of the suburban operetta scene, and in three episodes they depict him both in his early childhood and already at the gymnasium, when the outbreak of the World War shaped his determination.
When you hear the word "Naughty Fairy Tale", you will undoubtedly think that it could not have been invented by anyone other than Josef Lada, a master of turning fairy tales inside out. And that's true. No brave prince, but Princess Máňa will free the innocent Honza from hell and make such order there that the devils will only hate to remember her.
Third movie of the famous Czech adventure trilogy: Osada Havranů Na veliké rece Volání rodu
A marquee stands on a sprawling Prague housing estate and is home to two young bricklayers, who have all sorts of life experiences waiting for them in the city. Around the two rural bricklayers absorbed by the big city, the entertainment is more than a little embarrassing, toothless, revealing that at the height of normalisation, even the jolly genre of drama fared poorly, and any satirical allusions were especially undesirable. With no sense of humorous exaggeration and no wittily punctuated plots, the story unfolds, showing how the characters, living in a marquee standing on a sprawling estate, face all the pitfalls of the "big world"...
A telephone mechanic secretly pursues his passion for hunting, deceiving his wife and enlisting friends to cover for him. After a successful hunt, he mistakenly climbs onto the wrong balcony and is apprehended by police, but his disguise prevents identification, leading everyone, including his wife and friends, to deny it’s him.
This wacky musical comedy builds on absurd ideas, parodic humour and many variously subverted references to famous...
Alexander is a young, emotionally-repressed Scot who, upset by his Czechoslovakian mother's death, journeys to Prague to scatter her ashes and track down a piece of film that contains the only existing footage of his family.
There was a school. And one day, a parrot named Bořivoj came to the school and got all the A's for himself. The children - the pupils - can't just leave it like that, so Eva and Petr set off to the mysterious exotic land of parrots. Climbing, repeating old truths, chasing grades without regard to real knowledge and understanding - simply parroting - that's what the authors try to denounce in this musical comedy with humorous exaggeration.
Delinquent youths wander aimlessly and commit mischief. Few, however, manage to break free from the influence of such a gang. One of the lucky ones is a girl who grew up in an orphanage - already reformed and reformed, she remembers her dark past.
It seems almost unbelievable, but it has been 30 years since István Örkény's Cat's Play premiered on the stage of the former Tyl Theatre, now the Stavovský Theatre, with Dana Medřická and Vlasta Fabiánová in the lead roles. It has been performed 403 times and has become a true cult production of the 1970s and early 1980s. The story of two sisters, whose lives are divided by the Iron Curtain, resonated with the audience with its truthfulness. In Dana Medřická's interpretation, the character of Erža Orbánová has also become a symbol of indomitable optimism despite the poverty of life. Not only this production, but also the acting performance of Dana Medřická and Vlasta Fabiánová have become legends during their lifetimes.
The urn supposedly containing the remains of Alice's grandfather falls out of the window and breaks. To Alice's great surprise, the urn is empty and the girl learns that the grandfather didn't die but disappeared under mysterious circumstances on the 2nd September 1946 in the town of Telc. Her grandmother claims that a mysterious young man with dark glasses was implicated in her husband disappearance. Alice is determined to solve the mystery. Grandmother's story leads Alice to a shoemaker who hands her Professor Jeník's - her grandfather's - invention, called the Force-fields Accelerator. Alice tells her boyfriend Petr about the device and the young man creates a time machine following the professor's instructions. The young couple then travel back to 1946 and there they indeed meet Alice's grandfather, and his daughter Blanka, who will later be Alice's mother.
Olga Valentová, whose father was a communist resistance fighter and died during the occupation, works in the export department of Tatrovka. The young woman recapitulates her life and returns to her father's ideals.
JZD Hořičky is one of the best cooperatives in the district. Its chairman, who knows how to get advice and money wherever he can, is supported by the district secretary - even at the expense of others. The cooperatives will reject high state honours as undeserved... An unconvincing attempt at a critical film from the present day.
A computer programmer and his son are going out of the city for vacation.
Captain Exner solves another detective mystery - this time while he's on vacation. The most elegant of Czech crime novelists has chosen a quiet town called Opolná as his place of well-deserved rest. But just as he arrives, the local shoemaker Rambousek, a famous (and wealthy) naive painter, is murdered.
The filmed fairy-tale is a comedy based on the classical story about Reason and Happiness. This enchanting couple is ever debating on which of the two is more important for mankind, their encounters are watched by the third fairy-tale figure aunt Envy. A story of true love that wins over the evil powers of immortal human envy.
In 18th century Bohemia, the mercenary troops of a cruel duke roam the countryside. A cap maker who defends himself against injustice is thrown into prison. His ten-year-old son tries to free his father with the help of his friends of the same age and a magic cap, but the duke's henchmen are soon after the magic cap.
A commemorative and essayistic meditative piece on the Prague quarter Libeň during the 1950s.
An elderly paper-crusher branded a fool in Prague secretly stashes condemned books, preserving their contents and extrapolating from them eccentric scenarios of wit.
The inhabitants of a picturesque village proud of its ancient linden tree will be disturbed by a disturbing event - a temporary road diversion is supposed to lead through the village. At first the population protests against the increased traffic, but eventually gets used to the bustle and excitement. Some, such as the innkeeper, benefit from the situation...
This futuristic science fiction comedy features an atomic bomb blast that causes women to grow beards and lose the ability to have children. A summit meeting is held at the United Nations, with the proposed solution of building a time machine. The decision is made to travel back in time and murder Einstein, with the hopeful result being that without the noted mathematician's research there will be no atomic bombs.
During World War II, a German university professor creates a spy ring that supplies the Allies with information about Nazi plans...
A certain Mr. Mlácen is brought to the asylum, wanting to sell two church bells. He first offers them to merchants in an inn. He claims that he received them as an inheritance from his uncle, but he doesn't know what to do with them. But no one wants to buy them. Because of this, he first finds himself in a commissary and is eventually sent to an asylum. The professor (L. Kopřiva), who believes that Mr. Mlácen suffers from some kind of fixed idea and is mentally ill, promises him that he will buy his two bells back...
In 1955, a detained agent feigns loss of memory, speech and hearing. According to his written statements, his name is Karel Neumann and he was born in Radhost...
Havíř's wife Barbora is a bit of a fool. She believes everything she is told and thus prepares her patient husband for unenviable moments. In the end, the miner gets really angry! He decides to go out into the world to see if there is anyone more stupid than his own wife. If so, he will return to his wife. But to his surprise, he finds plenty of such people in the world. And he stands to make a fortune. But when he returns home, he finds that his wife hasn't changed at all. Stupidity is eternal!
A film based on the true story of a twenty year old girl who lives with her mother and her younger, parasitic partner in Bratislava’s Petržalka district. Her ideas about life are full of ideals, but reality is completely different. Out of boredom, and lacking positive motivation and family care, the young girl commits an irreversible act that ruins her life.
The elements that rule Earth - Air, Fire, Earth and Water - are in their "regular inspection tour". We are following Water, in the form of the Rain Fairy. Traversing the land dressed like a poor woman, she learns that people really have begun focusing mainly on money and that love and goodness are disappearing.
During the Nazi occupation of a Czech city civilians are being rounded up on the slightest of pretexts and shot. One day three high school boys who crack jokes about a recently deceased "hero of the Reich" are pulled out of school by the Gestapo.
An historical depiction of the events preceding the political murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, would-be emperor of the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on June 28th, 1914.
Clumsy as an elephant and long as a perch, one day she becomes Princess Felicia, called Feliška. Who's involved? The wicked and envious witch Vranimura, who does not wish the princess a handsome noble groom and bewitches Felice's feet. Thanks to her witchcraft skills, Vranimura charms the prince for a while, but brave Feliška is not so easily deprived of her beloved suitor...
The 11-year old Jakub is living in a children's home, when he is picked up by his father. The father has been "away" for four years, the boys mother doesn't want the child. Jakub gradually finds out, that his father is hiding a secret from him. But they gradually manage to build a warm relationship and a promising new life in the city.
Honza, the son of a poor cottage woman, sets out into the world one day to escape the royal recruiters. On his journey, he meets a magical herbalist, and from that moment on, his numerous adventures begin. Thanks to a magical violin, he frees a magical mill from devils, outwits a fearsome dragon, and with the help of enchanted cherries, he also defeats a treacherous king and his proud and deceitful daughter. In the end, Honza returns home with a bride after all—the kind and sincere princess's maid Madlenka, who helped him escape from the royal dungeon.
The 50th anniversary of the Barrandov studios was celebrated with a spectacular show: many directors and other important people gathered in the expensive decorations of the Variety Theatre auditorium (built for the Circus Humberto series). They smiled and showed well-deserved relaxation after a job well done in managing socialist cinema. Vladimir Sís interspersed this with excerpts from films, mainly his own and also a little of others who had worked on the "Hill of Dreams".
A funny movie about life and adventures of the five inseparable friends from little town in south Czech republic.
This fairy tale tells the story of the domineering and envious Meluzína, who wants to steal her younger sister's fiancé. But even with the help of a witch, she fails to achieve her goal, although her fiancé faces a difficult test of separation. He passes the test, and to this day, Meluzína cries into the chimney at Kumburk Castle, regretting her actions.
To the intolerant and bloody-minded Prague actor Bergner (Milos Kopecký) is the lead in Moliere's Misanthrope which he is studying now as tailor-made. On top of that he is malicious and he advises to the new actress Helenka (Dagmar Havlová) in such a way that she upsets the theatre director. If Bergner accuses somebody of a mischief and he is wrong, he never apologizes. When he almost crashes an older elegant lady by his car on the zebra crossing, instead of an apology he calls her an old ballet dancer... But in Brno's TV he takes part in a discussion on manners and he gives himself as an example of good manners and grace. In the train he meets a magic old man (Ladislav Pesek) who warns him and admonishes him to change his behavior. After he arrives to Prague the old man's threat comes true.
For the Novák and Bartáček families, money is king, and they'll do just about anything to get it. While René Novák pitches his parents a lucrative scheme to swindle as many people with the last name Novák in the country as possible, the Bartáček clan decides to pretend to be much poorer than they really are in order to siphon some dollars from an American relative. And it doesn't take long before these separate scams start to intertwine.
Second movie of the famous Czech adventure trilogy: Osada Havranů Na veliké rece Volání rodu
This romantic fairy tale, loosely based on an anonymous Arabic story, takes place at the sultan's court, where the evil sisters of the kind sultana prepare a cruel fate for Parisada and Pervis. Although it seems that fate favors the hateful malice of the poor twins' ruthless aunts, the fairy tale still comes to a happy ending.
Alvina, an English princess, flees the royal court with her beloved, Ursin, a foundling, to distant Bohemia. However, Ursin soon finds his estate on Angel Mountain too small, and the princess is no longer the only woman who interests him... When the English king discovers where his daughter is, he sets out with his army to conquer Angel Mountain. He wants to get back what is most precious to him, his daughter Alvina. This thrilling story, inspired by an old, little-known legend about Angel Mountain in the Karlovy Vary region, is a captivating spectacle for all who love mysterious and unusual stories.
People are afraid of the usurer Chazaj and are convinced that he is the bearer of evil. One day Chazaj pays a visit to the poor artist Simon Jordán and asks him to paint his portrait. Simon agrees but as he progresses with the work his mind conjures up terrible thoughts and in the end he commits suicide. The portrait looks lifelike and Chazaj is content with the results. After Chazaj's death the picture changes hands and brings misfortune to all who own it. The last victim is the young painter Roman who buys Chazaj's portrait in a bazaar. He finds a treasure in the frame and begins to live well off it. The comfortable life suits him so well that he rejects his original artistic aims and becomes a painter of fashionable kitsch.
Petr Rynes (Svatopluk Matyás) is celebrating his forty-fifth birthday in the company of his friends. He is happy with his wife, and his abilities at work have been rewarded with the medal For Outstanding Work. But a few short seconds are enough to change his life when he makes the ill-judged decision to take his car to bring a friend's wife to the celebration, and hits a pedestrian on the way. He has of course been drinking at the party and is consequently sentenced to sixteen months in prison. Being in jail is not an easy thing for a honorable communist. He soon gets into conflict with several violent inmates, who think they can break his spirit by violence.
Alone is about the 91-year-old actress and writer Luba Skořepová, who used to be a member of Czech National Theatre group for almost 70 years. She still wants to work but for many people she is too old. So she tries to manage her last play from her small apartment by a cell phone. The film is about hope and about hopelessness of faded glory.
The final part of the ghost triptych will take Marta, Magdalena and Janko to the world of television. The 700th anniversary of the town of Milotín is being celebrated, there is a pilgrimage on the square, an improvised stage, prepared for the jubilee variety show, which will be broadcast on television. The director faints from this and so Marta's ghost has a body. The emcee arrives, and at the right moment the ghost of Magdalena takes possession of her body. It takes a while for the "fiery women" to settle into their new roles. The entire television crew helps them. The librarian Holoubek, who will act as an expert, knowledgeable about ancient chronicles and the history of two burned witches - Marta and Magdalena, will contribute mainly to their success.
In the early 1970s, the class struggle flared up in full force on the big screen - the hero of this film, set in the interwar period, is a staunch communist journalist who arrives in the Ostrava region during the economic crisis to instigate a strike. The impoverishment and hopelessness of the miners had exceeded all limits...
A romantic fairy tale about a poor painter, Jakub, who visits a sad kingdom where no one is allowed to laugh. But Jakub doesn't like that at all. Will he be able to change the sad kingdom into a happy one?
Cold War Spy FIlm
Editor Julie and artist Vojta go to a children's home in Sumava to pick up a nine-year-old boy, Matěj Stibor, and bring him to Prague to receive the main prize in a children's drawing competition. Matěj drew a family of three by a swing with the sun shining over them. His real parents, however, are far from ideal. His mother disowned him after giving birth, his father struggles with alcohol addiction. Will the boy find a new family?
A cunning plan to deprive an "illegal millionaire" of his ill-gotten wealth. But the catch is that someone else has an even more subtle plan...
How do you wake up a sleeping puppet? Made by Trnka in collaboration with actor and puppeteer Josef Pehr, this winsome mix of live action and puppet play is enchanting entertainment for the youngest of viewers.
The car thief Halama, the shy groom Poupě, the divorcing jealous Pic and the mustachioed cinema projectionist Vlk are suspected of robbing the cinema box office. They are so similar, however, that the sharp-witted Public Security investigator Doll doesn't know them at all...
An elderly tailor strangles young women with a black stocking. Inspired by a true crime.
A princess was so beautiful and had such golden hair that she was known as Pretty Goldilocks. A neighboring king fell in love with her from her description, but much to the king's disappointment, she rejected his ambassador, saying she had no wish to be married...
The theatre director encounters the disinterest and irresponsibility of the acting troupe, whose members are scheming and looking for side income. The tired and sick artist wants to finish his work at any cost.
Boccaccio's famous Decameron brings ten beautiful stories that were told to pass the time by those who escaped from certain death from Florence when the plague spread there in 1348. The four medieval stories were adapted by director Zdeněk Zelenka as a television love cycle. The director entrusted the main role in this comedy to Viktor Preiss. His horse trader is married, but he likes to arrange rendezvous with various women on his travels. It is no wonder that he becomes the target of jokes from his pub buddies, during various escapades he ends up among murderers and in the tomb of a rich nobleman, but he manages to resolve all situations with humor.
It is certainly no coincidence that Lady Chatterley's Lover was written after World War I, in 1928. What else but the incredible, hitherto unimaginable ravages of war could once again raise fundamental questions about human existence? Who are we, what are our true values and goals, what are our hopes? Lawrence answers with a love story of a socially unequal couple, harsh, wild, unabashed. He provokes with a passionate clash of liberating feelings and surviving conventions, with free expression contained in the text itself, its style and vocabulary.
The photographer and his wife, a former beauty queen, make a living casting death masks. But their obsession goes so far that they decide to cast the face of a living person.
Winning the affection of classmates can sometimes be a lot of work... A new student, Jana, arrives in the seventh grade of a Prague school. She is a clear top student when it comes to the subject matter, but otherwise she is impractical, clumsy, and completely inept at physical education. That's why she gets the nickname "The Weenie" and the class distances itself from her and even persecutes her with various cruelties. František and Růžena, children of scientists who have ideal parents, try to help Jana, but when Jana reveals how she broke the window and that Růžena encouraged her to deny it, Růžena also hardens against her. In the end, however, the children understand Jana and accept her among them...
About a shy history professor and his difficulties in finding a partner through personal ads. Although women are interested in Professor Hrstka, he has not yet managed to get married. His former classmate Koníček, who happens to meet him as a house painter, wants to help him. However, the shy professor prefers to put Koníček forward when it comes to dating. This means that they swap professions, and his new girlfriend asks him to paint her apartment. Koníček has to help him with this.
A bitterly funny look at the beginning of a young teacher's career, based on Halina Pawlowska's first screenplay, which she wrote while still a student.
War tests human character severely, because the slightest suspicion of failure is hard to live with. A resistance worker who finds himself in such a situation would rather sacrifice his own life in order to dispel once and for all the doubts of those around him. Thus an agitprop was created about the moral maturity of those who consciously and from the right class positions fought against Nazism.
An interesting look at love destroyed by the demon of drugs, which uses opera singing instead of spoken word. A story about the relationship of two young people and drug addiction.
The shopkeeper František Diviš offers cheap goods at the fairs, while the co-owner of the traveling variety show Bohouš Vosáhlo offers unpretentious folk entertainment. They therefore meet very often. Neither of them earns a comfortable living from their work, but they do not allow themselves to worry unnecessarily. However, this changes when a little boy enters their lives. Pepík is an orphan, there is no one to take care of him, and both fairground vendors cannot resist the plea in the children's eyes...
A small television comedy about a revolutionary invention called a "transmutator" that allows a person to transform into an animal. An impractical scientist, played by Viktor Preiss, actually succeeds. Not only the lovesick secretary Jitka Molavcová is unhappy about this, but also the company director Petr Nárožný. How will the comical transformation situations turn out?
An attempted theft of a rare antique is uncovered at a castle that houses an apprentice recreation center. The apprentices help uncover the real perpetrators and their accomplices.
A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.
Even if a person grumbles about difficulties, he should realize that he will find a place where he did not want to go at all. Such an exemplary realization is also reached by a budding doctor who was assigned a remote border village as his first posting - his fiancé did not want to go to such a backwater at all. But the example of the local doctor, who is about to retire, convinces him that a good doctor is needed everywhere.
A family movie about a group of young children responsible for the bear cubs training in the Prague Zoo.
An allegory set in an archetypal Czech village, it tells the story of what happens when a series of mysterious events take place, including the disappearance of the station master. While everything has a rational explanation, collective paranoia takes over and everyone's worst instincts are unleashed. Interrogations, disenfranchisement, and the search for scapegoats ultimately lead to murder. The movie was completed in 1969, but it was banned and not released till 1990, Evald Schorm who died in 1988 never saw it completed.
The suffocating conditions in a bourgeois family were depicted in several films in the second half of the 1950s - this one is one of the lesser known, although it achieves great emotional impact, free from the first ideological pressures. The title character, the owner of the tenement house Mrs. Dulská, controls her relatives and tenants with a firm and despotic hand. To achieve her goals, she masterfully combines tears, blackmail and insidious intrigues, or does not hesitate to abuse the trusting and handsome maid Hanka when she wants her son not to fool around. Everything suddenly turns around when Hank gets pregnant... But the appearance of a good reputation is more important to her than anything.
The rude and bitter mining engineer Štěrba strongly opposes the proposal of his colleague Ing. Vochoče to reopen mining in the old mine. Vochoč's plan is precisely prepared and could solve many problems. However, Štěrba does not want to explain anything to anyone, he does not want to talk to anyone, his only refuge is the pub and his only friend is a glass of alcohol. He has resigned himself to a relationship with his wife. No one knows that he has very good reasons to prevent Vochoč and the others from taking their meritorious initiative...
Viktor Průcha, a successful small-town architect, lives well but knows his comfort rests on compromises. When an elderly man—whose granddaughter was hurt at a school Viktor approved beside a busy road—attacks him and then takes his own life, Viktor abandons his home for a rural studio. There he rediscovers nude photography; his acclaimed exhibition forces him to confront past concessions and choose his future.
After her mother had passed, Darinka lives with her grandma. In her fantasy she lives her own version of Sleeping Beauty. Her musical talent helps her to cope with illness and fulfill her dreams.
The short story film based on the book of the same name by Karel Pecka depicts the atmosphere of the Lesser Town in the 1980s.