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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
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1. 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
2. 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
Dvork: "Czech cinema is manipulative".
3. 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?
4. 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
5. 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"
6. 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"
7. 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")
8. Czech Cinema: The Themes Early post 1990 films exorcised the trauma of communism
Antonn Mas Was this really us? (1990) highlights alienation which became the norm after 1990
9. Czech Cinema: The Themes Traumatic periods from history
Petr Hvids The Order (1994): helpless position of individual under totalitarian pressure; hero forced to do what he hates
10. Czech Cinema: The Themes
Karel Kachyna, The Last Butterfly (1990):
Central European belief that art will prevail over oppression
11. 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 dont want influential friends, I want good friends."
12. Czech Cinema: The Themes Jan vankmajers Little Otk (2000):
Warning against human attempts "to change what has been fixed by natural forces"
13. Czech Cinema: The Themes Jan vankmajers The Mad (2005), based on Marquis de Sade:
"Democracy is a lunatic asylum, but return to dictatorship would be worse"
14. Czech Cinema: The Themes Early, optimistic commercial comedies:
The Sun, Hay, Sex (1991):
"Everybody will become rich."
15. 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
16. Czech Cinema: The Themes Destitution:
Bohdan Slmas The Wild Bees (2001)
Nothing will ever change
"Work, women, this is capitalism, for fucks sake!"
17. Relations between men and women Czech film: Statements in defence of subjugated women
Weak, aggressive males
Jan Hrebejks Cosy Dens (1999)
18. Relations between men and women Man the fantasist, chcpk, the intellectual vagrant-outsider
Tom Vorels The Stone Bridge (1996)
19. 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
20. Kamenk: (A Really Cruel Joke) Vulgar popular comedy
Highly successful
Three parts (Kamenk 1, 2, 3, 2003 2005)
Verbal humour, ostranenie, puns
21. Kamenk Deeply familiar small town environment
Cosy atmosphere: everyone knows everyone
22. Kamenk Family life
Archetypal Everyman - police chief Josef Novk, wife, son Joey
23. Kamenk The logic of the narrative sacrificed to verbal gags
Insulting old people
Insulting women
24. Kamenk Wife rushes about at breakfast, husband reads newspaper
School is a place of torment children bring home only bad marks
Corporal punishment at home
25. Kamenk: Town environment:
Home
School
Hospital
Fake monastery
Castle
26. Kamenk: 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
27. Kamenk: 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
28. Kamenk: Men and Women Men dont understand the female psychology
Men of all ages are obsessed with the young female body
Everything must be on mans terms: There are no ideal men
Gender stereotypes rule
29. Kamenk: The Czechs and the Romanies The Romanies seen as an alien element in Czech society
The close-knit Czech community doesnt need foreign influences: Italian chianti is sour
Presence of guns in Czech society
Racist stereotypes of the Romanies
Czech self-irony
30. Kamenks success leads to preaching Low quality of Czech newspapers:
You dont like Klaus, you dont like the United States, you dont like naked girls, you dont like murders. I just dont know why we take that paper.
31. Kamenk: 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.
32. Which are the best films? Jan vankmajer:
Lekce Faust (The Faust Lesson, 1994)
Otesnek (Little Otk, 2000)
len (The Mad, 2005)
33. Which are the best films? Karel Kachyna:
Posledn motl (The Last Butterfly, 1990)