Czech Republic

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In the near future in Czechoslovakia (the movie was made in 1961, after all), a space flight is in the final stages of preparation. As the astronauts are being interviewed, Joseph the upholsterer (Milos Kopecký) is gluing the last bits of padding in place. Joseph is lazy and incompetent, and always complaining — the classic goof-off who tries to shift blame to anywhere but him. While his supervisor berates him for being behind schedule via the communicator screen in the ship, Joseph manages to kick the takeoff switch and the rocket takes off into space with him as the only passenger.Read More »

Alois Randa, the manager of the mountain hotel, is overwhelmed with worries: he is expecting a large number of tourists, he cannot cook and his only employee, Miluska, the maid, is packing her bags. She won’t stand Bohous any longer. Bohous is Randa’s giant St. Bernard who refuses to respect Miluska’s privacy. So the maid is gone, but the first guest arrives, hungry as a St. Bernard. The proud owner of the St. Bernard makes a bizarre bet with him – if the guest manage to eat more courses than Bohous, he will be guaranteed a free week’s stay. If he fails, he’ll be hotel’s new maid for a week.Read More »

In the monotonous surroundings of a luxurious hotel in Karlovy Vary, an equally monotonous charade takes place in which several foreign agents show interest in a famous Austrian scientist, the discoverer of artificial proteins. Fortunately, the endangered man does not even notice the nets that have been spun around him, for his protection has been entrusted to the mysterious Madame Elizabeth, known among the agents as 006.Read More »

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Lemonade Joe also known as Lemonade Joe or the Horse Opera is a film directed by Oldrich Lipský, based on a series of short stories by Czech writer/animator Jirí Brdecka. It was the Czechoslovak entry to the 1964 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Probably the most well known of the spoofs on Western culture and cinema (which included science fiction, comic strips, and spy movies) to come out of the Czech New Wave—and in my opinion the most effective—Lemonade Joe is a hilarious musical parody of the Wild West inspired by B grade silent era westerns and infused with that wonderful Czech sense of satirical comedy that holds universal appeal.Read More »

Jonathan Haker travels to Transylvania to seal a business deal with the mysterious Count Dracula.Read More »

Director Jaroslav Papoušek’s earlier tragicomedy Nejkrásnější věk (The Most Beautiful Age, 1968), set in a sculpture studio, was very much in the mould of a free-thinking, free-speaking Czechoslovak New Wave film. A year later, he embarked upon the folk comedy Ecce homo Homolka (1969). Following the departure into exile of directors Miloš Forman and director-screenwriter Ivan Passer, Papoušek was the last member of this strongly bonded trio to remain behind. During the 1960s, the three men brought to the screen a number of highly successful film projects.Read More »

Besides Zločin v šantánu (Crime in the Nightclub), in 1968 the writer Josef Škvorecký also contributed to the bitter comedy Farářův konec (The End of a Priest) as the author of the original idea and screenwriter. Together with the director Evald Schorm, he created a story whose protagonist is an inept sexton, who decides to leave his job in a big church in the city. He sets off for a new life in a remote mountain village, where by coincidence people are desperately looking for a priest to administer the last rites to someone. At first, the sexton tries in vain not to be considered part of a “miracle,” but in the end he reconciles himself to the role of new spiritual pastor – and because he performs the job judiciously with an understanding of human weakness, the quirky villagers soon take him to their hearts.Read More »

Trespassing gang of boys encounter a ghost in the ruins of a castle. When they rescue the ghost who is caught in a trapset, they become allies in a fight to prevent ruins from being turned into mushroom farm by the city authorities.Read More »

In his first feature film, Juraj Herz established himself as an original auteur with a flair for refined style. In accord with Hana Bělohradská’s novel Poslední večeře (The Last Supper), he created a dark atmosphere filled with suspicion and despair around a criminal plot. Znamení Raka (1966) is set in the hospital where the crime will take place. In a consulting room, somebody will murder Dr. Hahn – and due to the physician’s reputation as a womaniser, the list of suspects grows… Herz filled the unusual setting with bizarre figures, among whom shines the character of the terminally ill Prokopa, as embodied by Iva Janžurová. Znamení Raka (Sign of the Cancer) faced a series of problems, as Herz was forced to change the post-synchronisation and to omit a series of sexually explicit scenes. Real-life physicians, outraged by the unqualified communist physician character (Ilja Prachř), also protested against the film.Read More »