All the Bright Young Men and Women: A Personal History of the Czech Cinema [Paperback ed.] 0887781101, 9780887781100

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Josef Skvorecky

PN 1993.5 . C9 S513 1971

srsonal history of the Czech cinema

NUNC COGNOSCO EX PARTE

Q*y TRENT UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PRESENTED BY

JIM FORRESTER

All the Bright Young Men and Women

1N\S

A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE CZECH CINEMA

Peter Martin Associates Ltd. In Association with ‘Take One’ Magazine

All the Bright Young Men and Women A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE CZECH CINEMA

Josef Skvorecky Translated by Michael Schonberg

Canadian Shared Cataloguing in Publication Data Škvorecký, Josef. e All the bright young men and women : a personal history of the Czech cinema / Josef Skvorecky; translated by Michael Schonberg. (Take one film book series; 1) 1. Moving-pictures — Czechoslovak Republic — History. PN 1993.5.C9S513 1975 1SBN:0-B8778-110-1

1. Title. II. Series.

791.43’09437

Translated and published with the assistance of the Province of Ontario Council for the Arts and the Canada Council.

We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for stills and information: Barrandov Film Studios, Canadian Film Institute, Pat Harris, International Film Distributors, Seth Willenson, New Line Cinema, New Cinema of Canada, Kent Carroll, Grove Press Films, r. Jerry Breicha, CBC Picture Service, Mrs. Olga Dimitrov, Forman-CrownHausman Productions, Mrs. Marie Haas, Muky, Mr. Antonin Prazak, Mr. Alfred Radok, Mr. George Voskovec, Mr. Závis Zeman, Film Canada, United Artists, and several people in Czechoslovakia whose names we thought better to withhold for reasons only too obvious.

© 1971 Josef Skvorecky ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, electro¬ static copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing trom the publisher, except tor the quotation of passages by a reviewer in print or through the electronic mass media. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-174568 ISBN: 0-88778-110-1 Printed in Canada by John Deyell Limited Designed by Pat Dacey, assisted by Susan Fothergill The Take One Film Book Series is published by Peter Martin Associates Limited, 35 Britain Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 1R7, in association with Take One magazine, Post Office Box 1778, Station B, Montreal 2, Quebec. General Editors: Peter Lebensold Joe Medjuck

Acknowledgement

This book is a product of nostalgia: for the country which I left when others entered, and for the friends I had there who have made so many fine films, sometimes due to, and sometimes in spite of, the local conditions. It began in a course I gave at the University of Toronto in 1969-70. Then, Joe Medjuck of Innis College asked me to write an article for Take One; after which he and Peter Lebensold decided to begin their film book series with a book on the Czech New Wave, and Peter Martin liked the idea. So I wrote the book, in the hope that it might help a little to keep the memory of certain things alive, in this fast forgetting world. It is not a scholarly work, just a personal remembrance, and therefore I have not referred to sources. Nevertheless, I would like to thank all those brilliant, and often courageous, Czech film critics and historians without whose work, as it appeared in the sixties in Filmové Noviny weekly, in Film & Doba magazine and elsewhere, the historical sections of this book could not have been written, and whose analyses helped me greatly to see many things I would not have otherwise understood. My thanks go also to Dr. C. T. Bissell, President of the University of Toronto and to the Board of Governors of that University, whose understanding enabled me to write this book during my year as writer in residence. Josef Skvorecky

Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT/v 1/GRANDFATHERS AND FATHERS/1 2/THE FATHERS-THEIR SINS AND THEIR SONS/28 3/A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTISTS AS YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN/67 4/A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTISTS AS MIDDLE-AGED MEN/216 5/THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME/241 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CZECH FEATURE FILMS/ 256

INDEX/266

Foreword to the Second Edition Very few tilms of artistic interest have been made in the Barrandov studios since this book was completed in early 1972. The swan song of the New Wave was Vit Olmer’s debut with a story about university students, appropriately titles Well, Good-Bye... (Takteahoj..., 1971). In 1973 an absolute majority of the films mentioned in this volume were blacklisted and withdrawn from public showing. Radok, Forman, Passer, Kadár and Jasný have remained in exile; to them has been added Jiří Weiss and, for the time being, Jan Němec, who was shipped out of the country as an incorrigible in 1974. Of those who remain Schorm, Juráček, Schmidt, Chytilová and Krumbachová had not been permitted to make any new films—the two women film makers were even pre¬ vented from attending the Women’s Film Festival in Toronto in 1973, where they had been invited to come by the organizers of the event. The rest of the New Wave directors have been allowed to make Sovietbloc equivalents of Hollywood entertainment (TVin ZhrMce-Papoušek; 7?o