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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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It's my job.
That's how I make my living.
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00:03:31,376 --> 00:03:32,126
That's all.
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Film is my job.
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00:03:37,459 --> 00:03:39,668
Sometimes it is fun,
sometimes not so much.
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00:03:39,709 --> 00:03:41,959
Sometimes it works out,
sometimes it doesn't.
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00:03:42,751 --> 00:03:47,293
But I don't have any
special sacred relationship to it.
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It is my job.
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That's all!
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00:04:39,043 --> 00:04:43,376
So... Come on down!
I should introduce myself.
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00:04:43,418 --> 00:04:45,543
Hello! My name is Milota.
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To the left, and to the right.
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00:05:02,418 --> 00:05:06,626
Good afternoon!
I see you managed to find me.
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Let's go!
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00:05:30,918 --> 00:05:37,209
They shot with me last year
and some part got lost,
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so they came back from India
to shoot a short interview.
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It's like an old castle here.
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- Is that you?
- Hello!
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They're shooting us hugging here.
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He wants me to keep going
in and out of the door, to and fro.
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Who is it, who is it...
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So, we can start.
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This is our guru.
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Jean-Claude Carrière.
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This house.
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And it was fun because Greta Garbo
planted some orange trees in the garden,
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so every morning we had orange juice.
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Jesus! I must have been strong.
Very strong!
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I was a very strong boy.
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00:07:05,793 --> 00:07:06,959
Hello!
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Hello, cat!
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Hold on... Now I have to pull it out.
You see? These are pictures from my films.
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I have to separate them.
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This is the first one, somewhere here.
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Ah, Yes.
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The students are worthless.
They shoot nonsense
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they film bullshit
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using the state's money
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wasting our time.
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00:07:46,626 --> 00:07:50,126
It's a useless school.
They should shut it down!
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00:08:01,834 --> 00:08:04,626
Fuck Stalin!
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Pete's a dope.
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He wants Bela.
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Just to add another notch on his belt.
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I collect hands
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he collects notches...
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We all do our best.
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Hands, a strange human form...
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They can't lie.
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They don't know how to pretend.
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My sweet...
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This is the blessed spot
where we met 17 years ago.
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Only the leopard is new.
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Kind Nature long ago probably
relieved the other of its shackles.
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Do you think it's freedom
you've been striving for?
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I don't know.
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00:13:20,418 --> 00:13:23,084
- You attempted suicide...
- That's my business.
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- You really think so?
- I don't know.
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All I know is that I'm all right.
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It's all nonsense anyway.
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00:13:39,918 --> 00:13:41,668
What's the matter, miss?
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Why are you crying?
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The winner is Czechoslovakia for
Closely Watched Trains.
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00:15:23,293 --> 00:15:24,793
Accepting...
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Accepting for I Even Met Happy Gypsies,
Aleksandar Petrović.
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I am very happy that Americans
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like Czech films.
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Thank you!
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He did say that
Closely Watched Trains won
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but you could hear
from the loudspeakers
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that a Yugoslavian film won.
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And my colleague, a Yugoslav,
a close friend, Petrović,
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well, when he heard a "Yugoslavian film"
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he started to get up from his seat because
he thought he was getting an Oscar.
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00:16:10,293 --> 00:16:12,751
And then he heard
Closely Watched Trains.
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So he sat back down
as if he'd had a stroke.
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You know, in some way,
it's a perfect film.
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There are not too many.
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You can always say
something is too long or
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some scene is not exactly
what it should be.
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In Closely Watched Trains,
it's very hard to find a weakness in that film.
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The rhythm is perfect and...
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I think I would put it in
the category of perfect films.
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00:17:06,084 --> 00:17:10,168
I've had many fantastic
moments in my life
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but one of the most fantastic ones
was my encounter with this person,
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who would be a great influence on me
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and to whom I owe many of my films
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that I had the chance to make with him.
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He's my God.
Or my brother.
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As you wish.
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00:17:30,668 --> 00:17:33,459
What made Americans like
Closely Watched Trains?
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I also wonder what it was.
Because...
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It is a film made for Czech audiences.
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But I'm glad they liked it.
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And I'd love this film to bring
Mr. Hrabal closer to them
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because he deserves to be
such a world renowned author.
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At this spot, there stood a house
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in which, from the '50s to the '70s
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of the last century Bohumil Hrabal
used to live.
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I think, in fact, that creative work...
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genuine creative activity is
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a special prerogative of humans
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causing them much... good.
And giving them a good feeling.
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Whenever I was making a film
and I stopped being creative
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and suddenly ceased having
some kind of relation to the movie
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what remained was only work.
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It was then terribly hard,
and mostly it showed in the movie
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since creativity is man's privilege.
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Work is violence
while creativity is joy.
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You know, the Czech film industry
was very strong before the war.
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Small country,
Czechoslovakia in the times
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14 million people, was producing
over 30 full-length features
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which only 14 million people could understand
in the Czechoslovak language, you know
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which was enormous amount.
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But when... then
the communists took power
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and they nationalised
the film industry
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and the production dwindled
to two, three films a year.
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But meanwhile, the film school was
producing new and new students.
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So every year there were, you know, 5-6 new
'in-waiting' directors, writers, cameramen
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coming out of the school
and there was no work.
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So in the time when
Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin,
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we were like tense and tense
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you know, waiting in front of the closed doors
of the Barrandov Studio to start working.
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And he said that one line -
Khrushchev - there that,
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"We must give more confidence,
opportunities to young people!"
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Okay, here we are.
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So in 1963, the door opened and
just, you know,
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the whole army of new directors
started to work.
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Leaders of Western countries
made a deal with Stalin during the war
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that Central Europe, including
the Czechoslovak Republic
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would...
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would eventually come under
the Soviet influence.
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So police terror existed
here in the 1950s.
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I mean...
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the atmosphere in the society
was not good.
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There were human rights violations,
and so on.
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As a consequence of that
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the '60s saw a bit of a mitigation
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a kind of a liberalisation
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which made it possible for...
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for...
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for the Czech and Slovak
New Wave to emerge.
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A friend used to say,
"Culture tries to get its foot in the door
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while the regime tries
to shut the door again.
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Every time the regime loses a bit of grip,
the foot gains more ground."
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So, during those 20 years, the regime
alternately tightened and loosened its grip.
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But the advantage of it was that in the '60s
a group of people came forward
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who wanted to do something new, and were
motivated by an aversion to the regime.
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In 1965, 1966, 1967, the situation
got gradually more relaxed.
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And we all searched for opportunities
to make films we wanted to make
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films that... we couldn't do
until that time.
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Orson Welles said that,
"Little oppression is good for art"
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so I think it was a part of it that we
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were developing in an environment
which was oppressive
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and we didn't like it.
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After all the atrocities,
experiences, the killings
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and everything that we saw
during World War II
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it looked like a new beginning.
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Communism promised equality,
freedom, brotherhood.
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But after that,
it dramatically changed its face
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and we suddenly found that
we were in a cage
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that we were razor wired
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and couldn't even speak about freedom.
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And that was a disappointment
of the highest order
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that an intellectual can be hit by.
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We were, of course, quite young
back then - 19, 20 years old.
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That's a time of idealism.
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And the realisation of the 1950s
was even more cruel
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when they began executing the
most intelligent communists
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who were
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firm in their thoughts
and philosophies.
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Then the executions happened,
and what was truly horrifying
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was that they somehow forced these
intellectual heavyweights to
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call themselves criminals,
enemies, spies.
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That was unbelievable.
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And that was when our liking
for communism stopped.
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We knew that something
must be done to change it.
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00:25:46,834 --> 00:25:54,709
In 1969, Antonín Liehm who was an
important film critic in the '60s
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subsequently left the country after '69
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wrote an article in which he talked
about the "Czech Film Miracle".
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So that term was used
as well at that time.
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I think "New Wave",
I'm not sure who coined it.
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The miracle was that the
Czechoslovak film industry
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was financed by the state
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was owned by the state.
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This is something that especially
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the West European film critics
could not understand
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why the communist government is paying
filmmakers to destroy their own regime.
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It was the time of the weakness of
this bureaucratic communistic regime.
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That means, they were
losing control of everything
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and that way we were out of focus
of the concentration of the power.
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And so, they were fighting
between the both
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and basically they let literature,
music and films 'sort of' freedom.
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And we used it -
me, Chytilová, Menzel, Forman,
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we just captured this
possibility of the freedom and
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we made a film.
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Sometimes it happened that
the film was forbidden, like
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A Report on the Party and the Guests
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then I was expelled from the film studio
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00:27:23,626 --> 00:27:28,584
but I was allowed to work for TV,
and I was allowed to travel abroad
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let's say, work for the foreign company.
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That means it was
time of relative freedom.
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Everything is spoiled in this world.
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00:27:41,126 --> 00:27:42,834
What do you mean, "everything"?
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You know, everything.
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In this world...
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You know what?
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When everything is being spoiled...
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00:27:55,959 --> 00:27:57,334
What then?
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00:27:58,334 --> 00:28:00,168
We'll...
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00:28:00,251 --> 00:28:01,834
be spoiled...
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00:28:01,876 --> 00:28:02,918
too.
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00:28:02,959 --> 00:28:03,918
Us too.
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00:28:04,084 --> 00:28:05,626
Right.
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00:28:05,751 --> 00:28:07,793
Is that a problem?
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00:28:07,834 --> 00:28:08,668
Not at all!
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00:28:25,709 --> 00:28:30,084
Come in... come in... come in
219
00:28:30,251 --> 00:28:35,709
The name "New Wave" was simply
invented by journalists
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00:28:35,751 --> 00:28:40,168
because there was also
a New Wave in France.
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00:28:40,376 --> 00:28:45,459
The closest to the term
"Czech New Wave", without any doubt
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was Jiří Menzel in
Closely Watched Trains
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00:28:50,626 --> 00:28:56,584
but, of course, we shouldn't
forget Věra Chytilová
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00:28:56,626 --> 00:29:02,209
who really stirred up those
stagnant professional waters
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00:29:02,334 --> 00:29:12,333
of Barrandov by doing what was irritating,
what was much more lively and not academic.
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00:29:13,334 --> 00:29:21,793
When the director of photography Jarda Šofr
returned from a projection of Les Cousins
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00:29:21,834 --> 00:29:31,543
he felt so dazzled, he was out of his mind
after watching Les Cousins.
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00:29:31,584 --> 00:29:39,918
Therefore, we saw the opportunities
of film expression in Italian movies
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but we knew them mostly from the French.
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And I think that even Věra Chytilová was
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in her first movies,
influenced greatly by Agnès Varda.
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00:29:51,626 --> 00:29:59,584
The big drama about
"La Nouvelle Vague" was this...
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00:30:00,293 --> 00:30:06,751
We saw that Jean-Luc Godard was
shooting in the street and all
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00:30:08,043 --> 00:30:12,376
so a lot of producers started to think
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00:30:12,668 --> 00:30:16,126
that you could do whatever,
with whoever in any way you wanted.
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00:30:18,168 --> 00:30:24,584
But the thing is that Jean-Luc
had talent and maybe even had genius.
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00:30:24,709 --> 00:30:29,459
We saw Breathless.
We saw other things.
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00:30:29,876 --> 00:30:37,459
And the way of shooting
was the most enjoyable I could think of.
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00:30:37,501 --> 00:30:41,334
And it was very...
It was an amazing time.
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And many years later, in the '90s
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00:31:12,376 --> 00:31:16,251
when I was shooting
a French co-production film
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00:31:17,168 --> 00:31:19,793
the French producer told me
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00:31:19,876 --> 00:31:24,751
"That short film of yours...
it looks exactly like a Godard".
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00:31:24,793 --> 00:31:33,251
Godard influenced all young
European directors so fundamentally
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00:31:33,293 --> 00:31:36,959
that, for example Skolimowski,
the Polish director
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00:31:36,959 --> 00:31:41,959
would clean the walls just like Godard.
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00:31:42,084 --> 00:31:44,126
I thought Godard
248
00:31:44,168 --> 00:31:48,251
was sort of a Pope
of the disruption of the form.
249
00:31:48,293 --> 00:31:50,501
That very much intrigued me.
250
00:31:50,543 --> 00:31:54,043
And in my first film
251
00:31:54,084 --> 00:31:58,084
I let myself be very influenced
by the way he perceived space.
252
00:32:00,418 --> 00:32:04,209
Earlier here, as well as in France,
the films were shot mainly in studios
253
00:32:04,418 --> 00:32:08,918
with heavy film cameras,
shot on weak film material
254
00:32:08,959 --> 00:32:14,418
that wasn't very sensitive and
required complex lighting.
255
00:32:14,543 --> 00:32:19,626
Suddenly, they marched on to the streets
with portable cameras with sync sound.
256
00:32:20,168 --> 00:32:22,209
For us it was a big inspiration
257
00:32:22,293 --> 00:32:26,251
and that's why our movies
also went out of the studios.
258
00:32:26,501 --> 00:32:30,251
For that reason, I would say that
they were much more natural.
259
00:32:31,334 --> 00:32:32,626
Hi Miloš!
260
00:32:37,626 --> 00:32:41,043
- Hi Maša!
- You're looking smart.
261
00:32:41,126 --> 00:32:43,293
You're looking nice too, Maša.
262
00:33:11,334 --> 00:33:14,251
I know, when I'm going
to see the Menzel film,
263
00:33:14,293 --> 00:33:18,126
I prepare my mouth and
I know that I will enjoy
264
00:33:18,168 --> 00:33:20,209
and I will watch the film like this.
265
00:33:21,251 --> 00:33:25,543
Because this will be the spirit,
which I like so much
266
00:33:25,584 --> 00:33:28,084
this is the Central Europe.
267
00:33:28,209 --> 00:33:34,293
He is someone who can symbolise
the Central Europe way of telling the stories
268
00:33:34,959 --> 00:33:35,959
and...
269
00:33:37,668 --> 00:33:41,584
living in not so simple times
and sometimes
270
00:33:42,251 --> 00:33:45,834
quite brutal political situations
271
00:33:45,918 --> 00:33:50,084
and always having a smile and
always telling the small stories
272
00:33:50,126 --> 00:33:53,626
with themes that have nothing
to do with the system
273
00:33:53,668 --> 00:33:56,793
but they are talking about
the system on their own way.
274
00:33:56,959 --> 00:34:01,376
I think this is one of the films that
changed the history of Eastern cinema.
275
00:34:01,709 --> 00:34:06,251
It expresses so well what
I love about Czechs
276
00:34:06,293 --> 00:34:10,293
about this mix of humour and gravity
277
00:34:10,876 --> 00:34:16,668
this self irony,
this kind of distance to the life.
278
00:34:16,709 --> 00:34:20,209
Don't take yourself and
the life too seriously.
279
00:34:20,251 --> 00:34:24,459
But, at the same time, it's what
I don't like about the Czechs
280
00:34:24,876 --> 00:34:29,709
that it's too easy for them to push
away the responsibility for the things.
281
00:34:29,751 --> 00:34:31,501
Everything is so light
282
00:34:32,209 --> 00:34:36,459
that it doesn't mean that we
are responsible for that.
283
00:34:36,918 --> 00:34:41,209
It's what Milan Kundera,
another great Czech artist
284
00:34:41,793 --> 00:34:44,876
called "unbearable lightness of being".
285
00:34:44,959 --> 00:34:50,168
So in Menzel movies,
it's exactly this lightness of being
286
00:34:50,626 --> 00:34:55,834
and sometimes it's unbearable and
sometimes it's just beautiful.
287
00:35:00,834 --> 00:35:07,293
It's basically a really delicate,
intimate look at the life of a young man
288
00:35:07,501 --> 00:35:10,709
who's confronted with
someone truly unreal.
289
00:35:10,918 --> 00:35:15,584
And it's done in such an intimate way that
I see it myself, I breathe into his face...
290
00:35:15,626 --> 00:35:18,209
He breathes into my face,
I completely understand him.
291
00:35:18,334 --> 00:35:22,251
That's absolutely simple...
absolutely simple... it's Hrabal.
292
00:35:23,043 --> 00:35:28,793
If there is something from Menzel
then it is only reflected from Hrabal.
293
00:35:29,418 --> 00:35:34,668
All around is war and big drama
294
00:35:34,793 --> 00:35:42,793
and this young boy's biggest problem is
his frustrated quest for sexual initiation.
295
00:35:42,793 --> 00:35:49,876
That is the main theme and
what drew Menzel to the book
296
00:35:49,918 --> 00:35:57,376
because Menzel has a very specific and
peculiar interpretation of eroticism.
297
00:36:00,168 --> 00:36:06,293
It was a description of how Zdeníčka Svatá
describes to the investigator, Zedníček,
298
00:36:06,376 --> 00:36:10,168
what Mr. Hubička did to her at midnight,
while on duty
299
00:36:10,334 --> 00:36:11,793
and it got me excited.
300
00:36:11,876 --> 00:36:14,918
The way he described how
the dispatcher laid her down
301
00:36:14,959 --> 00:36:17,668
and took her pants off and all that...
302
00:36:17,751 --> 00:36:21,543
I remember that at the time it was
almost pornographic literature for me.
303
00:36:35,126 --> 00:36:40,918
Eleven... twelve...
304
00:36:45,709 --> 00:36:50,709
Contrary to, like, the French New Wave
305
00:36:50,751 --> 00:36:54,334
or the Danish New Wave
306
00:36:56,168 --> 00:37:02,584
we didn't have any defined aesthetics.
307
00:37:03,251 --> 00:37:08,959
I often protest against the
summarising term "New Wave"
308
00:37:09,043 --> 00:37:13,959
because it was a wide spectrum of
authors, who were very diverse
309
00:37:14,126 --> 00:37:18,126
and connected by friendship, jealousy
310
00:37:18,376 --> 00:37:21,418
and all the usual things
involved in filmmaking.
311
00:37:21,626 --> 00:37:24,459
Jan Němec's films are very different
from Chytilová's films.
312
00:37:24,543 --> 00:37:27,501
Chytilová's films are very different
from Evald Schorm's films.
313
00:37:27,668 --> 00:37:31,959
Evald Schorm's films are very different
from mine or Ivan Passer's films.
314
00:37:32,126 --> 00:37:35,668
Miloš Forman... he...
It was his idea.
315
00:37:35,709 --> 00:37:40,334
It was he who called Štefan Uher
"John the Baptist"
316
00:37:40,668 --> 00:37:43,376
of the Czechoslovakian New Wave.
317
00:37:43,626 --> 00:37:47,293
Because the film
The Sun in a Net
318
00:37:47,293 --> 00:37:51,418
was made earlier than
Forman's Black Peter.
319
00:38:13,626 --> 00:38:16,959
I was a big admirer of Fellini
320
00:38:16,959 --> 00:38:21,543
I was big admirer of Alain Resnais
321
00:38:21,709 --> 00:38:25,334
I was big admirer of Robert Bresson
322
00:38:25,793 --> 00:38:28,793
and I was admirer of Louis Malle
323
00:38:28,834 --> 00:38:31,501
but my biggest
324
00:38:31,543 --> 00:38:35,709
influence, or I'll say, my God,
was Luis Buñuel.
325
00:38:38,626 --> 00:38:41,959
That's Federico Fellini,
whom I drew this way.
326
00:38:41,959 --> 00:38:44,668
He looks a little bit like a lunatic.
327
00:38:44,793 --> 00:38:51,501
And this is how he perceived me,
this is how Federico Fellini drew me.
328
00:38:51,668 --> 00:38:55,668
Everything happens in a surprising way.
329
00:38:56,043 --> 00:38:59,668
People act in ways
they shouldn't be acting.
330
00:38:59,959 --> 00:39:08,168
In this symbolic way,
people were learning freedom.
331
00:39:08,584 --> 00:39:13,376
You understand me?
And Czech literature was just like that.
332
00:39:13,959 --> 00:39:17,959
Páral, Hrabal, Škvorecký...
333
00:39:18,209 --> 00:39:22,043
They were doing things in ways
the things aren't done.
334
00:39:22,168 --> 00:39:31,334
I guess the first one was
Audition by Miloš Forman.
335
00:39:53,043 --> 00:39:55,668
This is Věra Křesadlová.
336
00:40:00,668 --> 00:40:02,168
Suchý...
337
00:40:06,543 --> 00:40:09,834
This is with Miloš. I was shooting
the movie on that camera.
338
00:40:09,959 --> 00:40:14,209
That was a French camera.
339
00:40:14,709 --> 00:40:19,751
And I brought him to Miloš,
and Miloš said, "What did he do?"
340
00:40:20,084 --> 00:40:23,584
I said, "Nothing yet,
but he is going to be very good."
341
00:40:23,959 --> 00:40:29,126
He said, "How do you know?" I said,
"Well, I saw him when he was an operator."
342
00:40:29,793 --> 00:40:33,251
And he worked for top cinematographers
343
00:40:33,418 --> 00:40:37,043
and he learnt very well from them.
344
00:40:38,043 --> 00:40:39,959
So Miloš said, "Okay, I..."
345
00:40:40,209 --> 00:40:46,876
Also because we were very young and
we didn't think that any, sort of a,
346
00:40:47,959 --> 00:40:52,418
established cinematographer
would want to work with us
347
00:40:52,459 --> 00:40:56,918
on something which we
did with our resources.
348
00:40:57,126 --> 00:41:00,334
For a bottle of wine,
we got film from television
349
00:41:00,501 --> 00:41:02,251
you know, leftovers.
350
00:41:02,876 --> 00:41:07,543
I started my first film Konkurs - Competition,
if you want - as an amateur film
351
00:41:07,584 --> 00:41:09,793
just as a home movie for my friends.
352
00:41:10,334 --> 00:41:15,918
And then, when the doors to
the Barrandov opened and
353
00:41:15,959 --> 00:41:21,376
they gave me chance to
finish it as a movie
354
00:41:21,459 --> 00:41:23,501
which can be released in the theatres
355
00:41:24,251 --> 00:41:28,334
then I needed to do a
little fixing of the...
356
00:41:29,043 --> 00:41:33,709
It's half documentary, really, but we wanted
to give a little bit of a plot, so I...
357
00:41:34,918 --> 00:41:39,543
I called on Ivan Passer,
because we were together.
358
00:41:39,959 --> 00:41:41,918
This is German camera.
359
00:41:42,709 --> 00:41:45,626
You know, before war go down.
360
00:41:53,376 --> 00:42:03,375
This camera, Miloš Forman buy from Germany
for, say, 10,000 crowns at that time.
361
00:42:03,584 --> 00:42:07,126
My dad always said,
"I'm not a cameraman, I'm a filmmaker."
362
00:42:07,209 --> 00:42:14,834
"I was left with a camera, I work with
it, but I want the film to be good."
363
00:42:14,876 --> 00:42:19,751
I think absolutely the most important thing
that I admire the most about him is that
364
00:42:19,918 --> 00:42:24,918
he is a film narrator. His tool is a camera.
He narrates through the camera.
365
00:42:25,168 --> 00:42:28,751
Mirek Ondříček was probably the
ideal collaboration for me
366
00:42:28,918 --> 00:42:36,834
because we were so much tuned into
the same visions that we were...
367
00:42:37,251 --> 00:42:40,959
I was not even aware of working with him.
368
00:42:50,251 --> 00:42:55,584
This is a camera I got from my dad.
369
00:42:55,668 --> 00:43:00,751
What's interesting about this camera is
like my dad, it was 'born' in 1934.
370
00:43:29,834 --> 00:43:33,668
And then Forman came once
to see the performance.
371
00:43:33,709 --> 00:43:35,543
He loved the band.
372
00:43:35,751 --> 00:43:44,043
And he wanted to shoot a film about
how Semafor, the theatre, is moving
373
00:43:44,751 --> 00:43:47,876
to the centre of Wenceslas Square.
374
00:43:47,918 --> 00:43:53,793
And he had this story in mind,
with this girl, or more people
375
00:43:53,834 --> 00:43:57,251
who would be in the movie, so that
it wouldn't only be a documentary
376
00:43:57,293 --> 00:44:00,626
but there would also be some acting.
So he was looking for people.
377
00:44:00,668 --> 00:44:03,418
And we were just having this
big concert, the only one...
378
00:44:03,751 --> 00:44:05,709
the only one the communists overlooked
379
00:44:05,793 --> 00:44:09,459
in Lucerna, as part of this
Big Beat bands gathering.
380
00:44:09,543 --> 00:44:16,751
And Forman also came to see the concert,
and he said I should also act in the movie.
381
00:44:17,043 --> 00:44:18,459
And I said that I didn't want to.
382
00:44:18,459 --> 00:44:22,418
I said I had school leaving exams coming
and didn't want to act in a movie,
383
00:44:22,459 --> 00:44:25,751
because I had a few walk-on parts
in movies before
384
00:44:25,834 --> 00:44:28,209
small roles during my studies.
385
00:44:28,251 --> 00:44:31,793
But he said he wanted
me to take part in it
386
00:44:31,834 --> 00:44:33,584
that I didn't have to
sing if I didn't want to
387
00:44:33,668 --> 00:44:35,251
that he just wanted me in the movie.
388
00:44:35,293 --> 00:44:37,751
So I took part in Audition.
389
00:44:38,376 --> 00:44:47,043
He, kind of, tried so hard,
he would invite me out for dinner
390
00:44:47,084 --> 00:44:51,209
and take me to see
all these interesting people.
391
00:44:51,251 --> 00:44:53,376
And he took me to Semafor.
392
00:44:53,751 --> 00:44:58,209
So, in short, I started dating him.
393
00:44:58,876 --> 00:45:03,209
And I dated him for about half a year
when I became pregnant.
394
00:45:03,959 --> 00:45:05,876
And we had twins.
395
00:45:05,876 --> 00:45:14,126
So before I gave birth we got married,
I married with a little belly already.
396
00:45:14,834 --> 00:45:19,168
And then the movie, Audition,
was quite a success.
397
00:45:20,418 --> 00:45:25,084
One day, in this one-room apartment
398
00:45:25,251 --> 00:45:29,793
I remember that we were saying
399
00:45:29,793 --> 00:45:35,251
how, in this country,
you can make a decent movie.
400
00:45:36,418 --> 00:45:41,793
And we took a piece of paper
401
00:45:42,501 --> 00:45:46,959
and we wrote down eight points,
402
00:45:48,459 --> 00:45:51,168
that it has to be a comedy,
403
00:45:51,459 --> 00:45:53,918
because the censorship
404
00:45:55,626 --> 00:46:00,251
following the Party's directive that
405
00:46:01,668 --> 00:46:07,501
the public needs to be
entertained, was milder
406
00:46:07,709 --> 00:46:10,209
the censorship was milder,
407
00:46:10,709 --> 00:46:13,918
that we are going to use non-actors
408
00:46:14,293 --> 00:46:16,126
non-professional actors
409
00:46:16,376 --> 00:46:21,834
because the professional actors, we thought,
they were corrupted by the whole system,
410
00:46:22,959 --> 00:46:26,168
they will shoot on the street
411
00:46:26,459 --> 00:46:33,334
which, we saw it is possible
from Italian Neorealistic movies
412
00:46:34,501 --> 00:46:38,459
and also, outside of studio...
less controlled
413
00:46:39,084 --> 00:46:42,168
and we are going to use natural light
414
00:46:42,959 --> 00:46:45,834
and... there were like eight points.
415
00:46:49,543 --> 00:46:54,168
And, then we said,
"Okay, so how do we start?"
416
00:46:55,584 --> 00:47:04,834
He put an advert in the newspaper that the
Semafor Theatre is looking for actresses.
417
00:47:05,209 --> 00:47:07,918
And then we waited...
418
00:47:08,668 --> 00:47:13,584
We received over 200 applications.
419
00:47:13,959 --> 00:47:19,668
Miloš Forman used
a half-hidden camera, not totally,
420
00:47:19,709 --> 00:47:25,459
but so the amateur actresses
wouldn't be intimidated.
421
00:47:25,501 --> 00:47:28,626
So he was, sort of,
hidden behind a curtain.
422
00:47:28,793 --> 00:47:31,793
He let them do whatever they wanted to.
423
00:47:31,959 --> 00:47:34,751
But he did a very clever thing.
424
00:47:34,793 --> 00:47:40,084
He put in several of his own characters.
425
00:47:40,126 --> 00:47:45,376
He instructed them beforehand
what they should say, more or less.
426
00:47:45,751 --> 00:47:49,959
For instance, he told one actress
that, "In the end,
427
00:47:49,959 --> 00:47:54,209
you won't compete because
you'll have stage fright."
428
00:47:54,418 --> 00:48:01,709
Like this... And he let them express
themselves in their own words.
429
00:48:01,918 --> 00:48:05,126
And then he shot it all.
430
00:48:05,251 --> 00:48:09,543
When we saw it, we were amazed.
Such a film hadn't existed until then.
431
00:48:12,043 --> 00:48:15,459
The top editor in the studio
432
00:48:15,793 --> 00:48:19,709
agreed to look at it and put it together.
433
00:48:20,168 --> 00:48:23,293
We started, like, in the morning
434
00:48:23,959 --> 00:48:28,959
and he was a...
The guy was unbelievable.
435
00:48:29,126 --> 00:48:32,334
So fast on the...
436
00:48:32,959 --> 00:48:34,793
When he was moving the film
437
00:48:34,834 --> 00:48:40,251
I couldn't follow if he's moving
left to right or right to left, he was so fast.
438
00:48:40,793 --> 00:48:44,584
And at some point,
we fell asleep with Miloš
439
00:48:44,834 --> 00:48:46,626
it was like 10 o'clock at night
440
00:48:47,043 --> 00:48:51,584
and he woke us up at 6 o'clock in the morning
and he said, "There is the movie."
441
00:49:28,126 --> 00:49:34,251
I lived 10 years in Germany,
but I know Hrabal...
442
00:49:44,209 --> 00:49:47,209
It wasn't a relationship with the Golden Tiger pub,
but a relationship with beer.
443
00:49:47,418 --> 00:49:50,251
Hrabal used to say,
"My relationship with beer is a sacred one".
444
00:49:50,293 --> 00:49:54,834
He grew up in a brewery. Beer was something
which was in a certain way sacred
445
00:49:54,876 --> 00:49:57,501
something that was important,
but also an everyday thing.
446
00:49:57,668 --> 00:49:59,751
His mother, instead of
buying him a lemonade
447
00:49:59,793 --> 00:50:03,709
filled a jug from the beer tank and
said, "Drink, little Bohumil."
448
00:50:03,751 --> 00:50:06,959
He was drunk for the first time
when he was five.
449
00:50:21,626 --> 00:50:24,793
No, you can also turn right.
But if you go left, you'll get to Mr. Hrabal...
450
00:50:25,251 --> 00:50:29,043
That's what I want... but I mean
is the end of the road there?
451
00:50:29,293 --> 00:50:32,418
Yes, that's the end of this concrete road...
452
00:50:32,709 --> 00:50:36,959
Menzel, unlike Hrabal,
isn't a surrealist, of course.
453
00:50:37,876 --> 00:50:42,168
And his overall approach is kinder,
or more conciliatory.
454
00:50:42,209 --> 00:50:43,084
He is sort of...
455
00:50:43,668 --> 00:50:47,043
His narrative style is
a bit different than Hrabal's.
456
00:50:47,793 --> 00:50:50,709
But in Closely Watched Trains,
the two clicked very well.
457
00:50:50,751 --> 00:50:55,501
I think that the film is almost
even better than the book.
458
00:50:55,543 --> 00:51:00,876
Hrabal was a natural.
There wasn't even a shade of falsehood.
459
00:51:01,251 --> 00:51:06,043
The things he wrote corresponded
with the things we all knew.
460
00:51:06,084 --> 00:51:12,668
Moreover, he didn't describe it passively,
he finds paradoxes.
461
00:51:12,918 --> 00:51:18,459
In a single sentence, he writes
things that make you laugh
462
00:51:18,543 --> 00:51:23,418
and at the same time you find a
certain depth and sadness in it.
463
00:51:23,501 --> 00:51:28,668
He knows how to write texts that...
His texts are like a mosaic
464
00:51:28,751 --> 00:51:32,418
where one stone catches glitter
from the other.
465
00:51:33,084 --> 00:51:35,584
The sentences... how they fit together!
466
00:51:35,626 --> 00:51:41,668
Or the sentences... that he just took directly
from everyday dialogues of ordinary people
467
00:51:41,834 --> 00:51:46,876
the things he experienced in the pubs,
the gibberish that he heard
468
00:51:46,959 --> 00:51:51,959
he managed to draw out
incredible seeds of wisdom from that.
469
00:52:10,251 --> 00:52:15,126
Suddenly unimportant stories
became very important
470
00:52:15,168 --> 00:52:18,501
the character you will never spend
two minutes with
471
00:52:18,543 --> 00:52:22,168
suddenly you want to
watch that character for two hours.
472
00:52:23,293 --> 00:52:28,501
The whole hidden world of
little people and lives
473
00:52:28,626 --> 00:52:32,418
suddenly became very important
on big screen.
474
00:52:32,459 --> 00:52:35,918
I'd say that the secret to
Jiří Menzel lies in the fact
475
00:52:36,084 --> 00:52:39,376
that he tried to make films
476
00:52:39,501 --> 00:52:44,668
to entertain, but at the same time
be understood by, his mother.
477
00:52:44,959 --> 00:52:48,209
I think that's the key to
understanding Jiří Menzel
478
00:52:48,334 --> 00:52:51,043
that he didn't bother with
any intellectual concepts.
479
00:52:51,084 --> 00:52:53,918
Loads of the films from
the '60s are dated
480
00:52:54,126 --> 00:52:56,918
but loads of them are timeless
due to the human element.
481
00:52:56,959 --> 00:53:02,876
When I read his book Closely Watched Trains,
I said I'd love to make it into a film.
482
00:53:02,918 --> 00:53:06,251
And he said, "Why not? OK then."
483
00:53:06,584 --> 00:53:14,876
In those days, Evald Schorm came to see me.
He belonged to the group.
484
00:53:15,168 --> 00:53:20,626
He was the oldest one of us and
the one held the most in esteem.
485
00:53:20,876 --> 00:53:27,459
He told me, "Juraj, I'd love to make
Closely Watched Trains."
486
00:53:28,293 --> 00:53:35,834
And because I was naïve back then, I thought,
"The world is open now, we're in 1968."
487
00:53:37,418 --> 00:53:41,043
"Now we'll be able to
make anything we want."
488
00:53:42,501 --> 00:53:47,334
So I said,
"OK, I will make something else."
489
00:53:48,043 --> 00:53:50,334
So Evald Schorm took it.
490
00:53:50,959 --> 00:53:59,168
To my great surprise, I learnt that Evald Schorm
wasn't filming it, but that another director was.
491
00:54:28,126 --> 00:54:33,251
The Second World War setting
isn't portrayed as black and white
492
00:54:33,293 --> 00:54:36,209
as a simple clash of good and evil.
493
00:54:36,293 --> 00:54:41,334
On the contrary, it shows that the boundary
between good and evil is very grey, very unclear
494
00:54:41,584 --> 00:54:44,876
just like between cowardice and heroism.
495
00:54:44,959 --> 00:54:47,584
And in that sense,
the film is very dear to me.
496
00:54:48,043 --> 00:54:49,668
And really timeless...
497
00:54:50,584 --> 00:54:51,918
I love it.
498
00:55:39,459 --> 00:55:43,501
I liked the rhythm,
I liked the pacing, I liked the...
499
00:55:43,543 --> 00:55:47,418
It moved at the speed of
one's own eye and thoughts.
500
00:55:49,376 --> 00:55:53,376
And I thought the performances
were very delicate, again
501
00:55:53,418 --> 00:55:57,793
and observed and truthful
and not performed.
502
00:55:59,126 --> 00:56:02,168
I liked the fact that it wasn't
503
00:56:02,209 --> 00:56:03,668
in fact all the films
504
00:56:03,709 --> 00:56:10,043
I liked the fact that they weren't
pushing you into a response
505
00:56:10,084 --> 00:56:14,626
like American films do, where the music
will tell you what you ought to think
506
00:56:14,668 --> 00:56:19,501
and the action and the cutting
is too pressured.
507
00:56:19,543 --> 00:56:25,543
The Czech films had a quietness about them
and it was the quietness I liked.
508
00:56:25,584 --> 00:56:30,626
And I thought that it meant that you
smiled with the characters more
509
00:56:30,668 --> 00:56:34,251
you laughed with them, you wept with them
510
00:56:35,251 --> 00:56:37,751
you were touched by them as you would be
511
00:56:38,418 --> 00:56:40,251
if you met those people in a room.
512
00:57:29,376 --> 00:57:31,793
I had to blow at the stamp
513
00:57:32,376 --> 00:57:35,334
and then he said, "Do you know
what a carp does, what a fish does?"
514
00:57:35,543 --> 00:57:37,293
And then he showed me.
515
00:57:39,251 --> 00:57:41,584
So I did it in the same way
516
00:57:42,084 --> 00:57:45,793
and that's also what the audience liked.
517
00:57:46,251 --> 00:57:49,876
They said it was not obscene
but actually quite sexy.
518
00:58:17,876 --> 00:58:22,751
The movie was done and
I was summoned by the studio boss.
519
00:58:23,793 --> 00:58:30,626
He expressed some worries about
nudity in movies, that it's not good
520
00:58:31,209 --> 00:58:34,793
and we should remove the scene.
521
00:58:36,043 --> 00:58:39,959
I'm not very smart,
but I had a genius idea.
522
00:58:41,876 --> 00:58:47,543
I said, "Look, you say
it will enrage the viewers."
523
00:58:47,876 --> 00:58:53,126
"We will have a premiere, not official,
but after the movie is complete."
524
00:58:53,334 --> 00:58:56,876
So we promised to show it to
the people where we filmed it...
525
00:58:57,043 --> 00:59:02,709
to the railroad workers and the people
from the station where we filmed.
526
00:59:03,043 --> 00:59:06,626
"We will show it to them and
if they are enraged by it,
527
00:59:06,959 --> 00:59:13,126
the working class, if they
hate the nasty stuff,
528
00:59:13,459 --> 00:59:18,876
I will ask the workers," - there were
railroad workers and common folks -
529
00:59:19,709 --> 00:59:21,668
"I will ask them whether
I should remove the scene."
530
00:59:21,751 --> 00:59:26,584
We showed the movie, I thanked them
for applauding me and I told them
531
00:59:26,959 --> 00:59:33,793
"There is an effort to remove this scene.
Should we remove it?"
532
00:59:33,876 --> 00:59:39,543
"No!" shouted the whole room.
They said no and so it stayed.
533
00:59:41,334 --> 00:59:44,043
The working class saved me.
534
00:59:44,251 --> 00:59:48,584
In The Firemen's Ball they decided
"Listen, let's go!"
535
00:59:48,626 --> 00:59:53,168
"Let's show this film to people in
the town where they were shooting
536
00:59:53,209 --> 00:59:59,918
so that the people can see what kind of fun
Forman is making out of these people
537
00:59:59,959 --> 01:00:02,543
and they will tear him apart."
538
01:00:03,793 --> 01:00:09,876
So... And they even advised me not to go there
so that I am not attacked by angry mob.
539
01:00:10,418 --> 01:00:14,084
So I didn't go there but
then I was told what happened.
540
01:00:14,626 --> 01:00:17,376
What happened was that
they screened the film...
541
01:00:18,418 --> 01:00:19,209
it's over.
542
01:00:19,251 --> 01:00:22,126
The planted person
raises the hand and says
543
01:00:22,293 --> 01:00:26,918
"Comrades! I think this film
is just disgrace."
544
01:00:27,084 --> 01:00:34,084
"It's making fun of our heroic firemen who
are fighting to save our homes, our lives."
545
01:00:34,209 --> 01:00:38,418
"And look at this disgusting way
they are portrayed in this film."
546
01:00:38,793 --> 01:00:40,918
"And all this is untrue."
547
01:00:41,084 --> 01:00:47,793
"This is... This can never be happening, you know,
in our community" and like that and blah blah.
548
01:00:47,959 --> 01:00:49,084
"What do you think?"
549
01:00:50,043 --> 01:00:52,751
And they were used that
people would stand up and say
550
01:00:52,793 --> 01:00:55,251
"Yes. You are right, comrade,"
and like that.
551
01:00:55,751 --> 01:01:02,084
Suddenly, one of the firemen in the movie
raised his hand, stood up and said,
552
01:01:02,459 --> 01:01:06,543
"Well, I don't know
why you are saying it's not true."
553
01:01:06,626 --> 01:01:10,918
"Aloisa, do you remember how that shack
was burning there and we couldn't get there
554
01:01:10,959 --> 01:01:15,626
because Peppa was drunk and he couldn't
get the car out of the garage?"
555
01:01:15,668 --> 01:01:17,418
"The whole shack burnt down to... then..."
556
01:01:17,459 --> 01:01:22,668
"Then we went up, you know, in the pub
and got drunk and... like, you know."
557
01:01:22,751 --> 01:01:25,418
"I don't know.
I think the film is so true."
558
01:01:28,168 --> 01:01:31,793
And what big laugh! Big applause!
You know...
559
01:01:32,126 --> 01:01:36,376
because they didn't realise one thing,
that in this moment
560
01:01:36,668 --> 01:01:40,459
the firemen didn't see themselves
on the screen.
561
01:01:40,501 --> 01:01:42,959
They saw themselves as actors.
562
01:03:08,959 --> 01:03:18,958
In February 1966, I went for
the audition at Barrandov,
563
01:03:19,751 --> 01:03:22,959
and Jirka Menzel chose me.
564
01:03:23,459 --> 01:03:29,209
At first he tried the role himself, but...
565
01:03:30,126 --> 01:03:40,125
and they picked me on recommendation
from the wife of one of the producers.
566
01:03:42,418 --> 01:03:50,959
He said, "Take him... that Neckář
is so ugly that he is beautiful."
567
01:04:06,251 --> 01:04:08,876
I said to him,
"Listen, you are too old to play this."
568
01:04:09,209 --> 01:04:11,209
"You need somebody really young."
569
01:04:11,709 --> 01:04:19,209
And he listened and gave it to a
non-actor who was perfect for the part.
570
01:04:29,168 --> 01:04:32,293
They are making a whole documentary
film on the Czech New Wave
571
01:04:32,334 --> 01:04:34,168
and they would love to have you there...
572
01:04:34,209 --> 01:04:36,751
I believe you, but
it is really not possible.
573
01:04:38,293 --> 01:04:40,626
I'm very sorry, I'm very sorry.
574
01:04:40,668 --> 01:04:50,667
Please, please...
It's not possible.
575
01:04:51,293 --> 01:04:55,168
I'm very sorry... I'm very sorry...
Thank you... thank you.
576
01:05:06,793 --> 01:05:08,334
Thank you very much.
577
01:05:08,876 --> 01:05:10,126
Goodbye... and happy journey.
578
01:05:10,168 --> 01:05:10,959
Thank you.
579
01:05:11,084 --> 01:05:12,959
OK, once more... really not.
580
01:05:12,959 --> 01:05:14,543
It's not possible.
581
01:05:14,584 --> 01:05:15,959
Only five minutes...
582
01:05:15,959 --> 01:05:16,751
It's not possible.
583
01:05:27,376 --> 01:05:32,751
Years ago, when European cinema was
so impressive in New York City
584
01:05:32,959 --> 01:05:37,043
and all foreign filmmakers were
sending their films over here
585
01:05:38,209 --> 01:05:45,209
films like Closely Watched Trains was
enormously successful and enormously influential
586
01:05:45,334 --> 01:05:50,709
on all the young people that
wanted to go into film
587
01:05:50,751 --> 01:05:53,626
they... we all wanted to
make films like that.
588
01:05:53,959 --> 01:05:59,501
And Jiří Menzel's films were
particularly interesting to me
589
01:05:59,543 --> 01:06:06,918
because they were funny, but they are also
very sad and they had a very serious undercurrent.
590
01:06:06,959 --> 01:06:11,751
They weren't frivolous, they had something
to say in addition to the humour.
591
01:06:57,584 --> 01:07:01,626
They can't imagine why we are here.
592
01:07:02,126 --> 01:07:10,334
They can't imagine what was done,
what was shot here 44 years ago.
593
01:07:11,668 --> 01:07:21,376
But I think that, thanks to the situation that
the movie was shot on black and white film
594
01:07:21,668 --> 01:07:28,751
I am sure that these children will see
the movie when they will be older.
595
01:07:29,209 --> 01:07:33,293
As for Šofr, I did the shot,
and Šofr did the light.
596
01:07:34,584 --> 01:07:37,918
That's his... that's his great mastery.
597
01:07:38,209 --> 01:07:40,459
He knew what it would look like
later on screen.
598
01:07:41,168 --> 01:07:44,959
I even always tightened the screws,
so that the operator couldn't move it
599
01:07:45,751 --> 01:07:49,959
because I wanted to have an exact...
because I like doing static shots
600
01:07:50,293 --> 01:07:56,168
because the movement of the camera
always adds another element.
601
01:07:56,293 --> 01:08:00,334
It changes something, as if you
underline a word in the text.
602
01:08:00,793 --> 01:08:06,209
The concept of the film was very archaic,
like old cinema
603
01:08:06,251 --> 01:08:13,543
like cinema with the aesthetics of a silent film.
604
01:08:34,251 --> 01:08:35,918
Miloš... what has happened to you?
605
01:08:42,251 --> 01:08:43,709
Let me see!
606
01:08:50,126 --> 01:08:54,418
Dr. Brabec told me that
an older woman should teach me.
607
01:08:54,918 --> 01:08:58,168
So I was wondering
whether you know one.
608
01:08:59,959 --> 01:09:03,334
No, I don't, Miloš.
You'll have to find one yourself.
609
01:09:03,501 --> 01:09:04,959
What about your wife?
610
01:09:06,084 --> 01:09:09,959
Vladimír Valenta was not an actor,
but a scriptwriter.
611
01:09:10,834 --> 01:09:18,459
He just fit the image of a Czech person,
who can always duck at the right time.
612
01:09:19,168 --> 01:09:23,834
In him, there is much of the Czech soul
613
01:09:24,501 --> 01:09:33,126
more than a professional actor.
That's why I liked his softness, his naïvety.
614
01:09:33,626 --> 01:09:41,209
And thanks to me, he made his career, because
then the Russians came and he emigrated to Canada
615
01:09:41,709 --> 01:09:46,459
and there he could not make a living
as a scriptwriter, so he washed cars.
616
01:09:47,418 --> 01:09:53,876
Across the garage where he was working, they
showed this very movie, Closely Watched Trains.
617
01:09:54,293 --> 01:09:56,626
When the people came out
of the movie theatre
618
01:09:56,668 --> 01:10:01,918
they noticed the conductor from the movie
was washing cars there.
619
01:10:02,168 --> 01:10:06,668
So, they invited him to the television
and did an interview with him.
620
01:10:07,168 --> 01:10:10,501
After that they started to give him some roles,
mainly in Canadian movies.
621
01:10:10,543 --> 01:10:14,668
He even had some small roles in Hollywood.
622
01:10:15,043 --> 01:10:19,668
By trivialising Hrabal's works
623
01:10:19,709 --> 01:10:21,876
by making them simpler, yeah?
624
01:10:21,918 --> 01:10:26,168
By actually turning his works
into sentimental spectacles
625
01:10:26,334 --> 01:10:32,293
he gave Hrabal
worldwide recognition, yeah?
626
01:10:33,043 --> 01:10:37,959
Meaning, he made the world
aware of Hrabal
627
01:10:38,084 --> 01:10:44,376
who was certainly a very quality writer,
as evidenced by some of his works
628
01:10:44,709 --> 01:10:51,376
and who also had some mystic traits,
which in this culture is rare, right?
629
01:10:52,168 --> 01:10:57,751
Meaning, I appreciate Menzel
getting Hrabal into the limelight
630
01:10:57,793 --> 01:11:00,918
but the films actually don't do Hrabal justice.
631
01:11:01,418 --> 01:11:09,876
If you read Closely Watched Trains,
you'll know that Menzel skipped
632
01:11:09,959 --> 01:11:15,709
one very cruel dying scene
of the main protagonist and Menzel said
633
01:11:15,793 --> 01:11:18,959
that they even shot an
optimistic ending of the film
634
01:11:19,126 --> 01:11:23,751
they were trying to let
the main protagonist live.
635
01:11:24,626 --> 01:11:27,918
They showed him somewhere on a tree
after the explosion
636
01:11:28,043 --> 01:11:31,126
but it was clear that it would
debase the whole film.
637
01:11:32,084 --> 01:11:36,043
I think that story describes
Menzel very well.
638
01:11:36,084 --> 01:11:38,709
He doesn't like tragic endings.
639
01:11:38,793 --> 01:11:41,376
He doesn't like suffering.
640
01:11:41,501 --> 01:11:47,043
I just remembered Wajda's film
Ashes and Diamonds
641
01:11:47,168 --> 01:11:50,209
where the hero also dies
over a very long time in a scrapyard
642
01:11:50,543 --> 01:11:54,668
and I thought it was very powerful
and at the same time
643
01:11:54,709 --> 01:11:58,876
it reduced the impact
of the rest of the film.
644
01:12:16,334 --> 01:12:20,376
It is true that when
we were shooting it
645
01:12:20,918 --> 01:12:29,293
it occurred to me if it's not a shame that
the end of the film should be so tragic.
646
01:12:30,293 --> 01:12:36,168
And we shot a scene in which Neckář
is stuck in the branches of a tree.
647
01:12:36,251 --> 01:12:41,751
He flew in the air,
fell on a tree and that saved him.
648
01:12:41,793 --> 01:12:43,668
And it was really idiotic.
649
01:12:44,709 --> 01:12:48,043
So I was sensible enough
to let him die.
650
01:12:48,084 --> 01:12:49,668
And it was a very substantial thing.
651
01:12:49,751 --> 01:12:53,501
Had I not done it,
the film would have lost its value.
652
01:12:53,584 --> 01:12:58,959
Because unfortunately, in a drama, only a
death takes the story to a higher level.
653
01:13:29,043 --> 01:13:31,126
The death of Zbyszek Cybulski
654
01:13:31,543 --> 01:13:35,459
the death of Maciek Chełmicki
on the garbage dump
655
01:13:35,918 --> 01:13:38,959
that is about an either-or decision.
656
01:13:39,543 --> 01:13:43,543
Why does he die on the
garbage dump in the film?
657
01:13:43,751 --> 01:13:46,584
Because the censors said,
658
01:13:46,751 --> 01:13:47,834
"Well...
659
01:13:50,251 --> 01:13:53,126
here is an enemy of the
People's Republic of Poland.
660
01:13:54,126 --> 01:13:56,251
He murdered the secretary.
661
01:13:57,959 --> 01:14:02,084
He must die for that."
662
01:14:02,668 --> 01:14:06,959
Where does he meet death?
On the garbage dump.
663
01:14:07,418 --> 01:14:10,376
What kind of dump?
On the dump of history.
664
01:14:11,084 --> 01:14:14,168
As a result the censors said,
"OK, let it go this way."
665
01:14:14,668 --> 01:14:19,168
Yet, this scene, shown in a cinema,
666
01:14:19,168 --> 01:14:24,209
evoked totally different impressions
in the audiences.
667
01:14:24,543 --> 01:14:25,959
Because the viewers said,
668
01:14:25,959 --> 01:14:28,793
"This is our boy, in these sunglasses."
669
01:14:29,084 --> 01:14:31,918
"He's been fighting all through the war,
he fought in the Uprising."
670
01:14:32,293 --> 01:14:35,418
"He's been courageous,
he cannot accept the fact
671
01:14:35,751 --> 01:14:41,501
that the Allies have sold out Poland
to Stalin in Yalta, and he continues fighting."
672
01:14:42,501 --> 01:14:46,834
"Where does he die then?
And they kill him on a garbage dump?"
673
01:14:47,168 --> 01:14:49,709
"What kind of government does that?"
674
01:14:50,084 --> 01:14:55,126
And this discussion was only possible
because there were only images.
675
01:14:55,584 --> 01:14:58,251
If I had introduced any words - no.
676
01:14:58,918 --> 01:15:03,126
For example, in the original novel,
and even as late as in the script
677
01:15:03,168 --> 01:15:07,501
it said that the soldiers
that shot him run up to him
678
01:15:07,626 --> 01:15:11,793
and say to him as he lay there dying,
679
01:15:11,834 --> 01:15:14,334
"Man, why did you try to escape?"
680
01:15:16,751 --> 01:15:22,584
Well, I couldn't say such words
so I erased this, I cut it out.
681
01:15:22,626 --> 01:15:25,918
I even filmed it but
then I cut it out. Why?
682
01:15:26,293 --> 01:15:28,584
Because he knew why he was running away.
683
01:15:29,168 --> 01:15:36,293
He was aware that these soldiers
were chasing him not to save him
684
01:15:36,668 --> 01:15:38,168
they were chasing him to kill him.
685
01:15:38,793 --> 01:15:42,709
Therefore, the government's attempt
at reconciling
686
01:15:42,751 --> 01:15:50,418
that the government tried to reconcile
687
01:15:50,459 --> 01:16:00,458
those left-wing combatants with those who hoped
for a different solution after the war...
688
01:16:02,959 --> 01:16:04,209
Well, no!
689
01:16:04,626 --> 01:16:07,876
This conflict is best shown
in this very scene.
690
01:16:07,918 --> 01:16:11,543
But it was only possible because
there were only images.
691
01:16:11,834 --> 01:16:14,834
That it was shown in a way
692
01:16:15,418 --> 01:16:21,626
that made it possible to interpret it
in two ways.
693
01:16:41,834 --> 01:16:43,793
Ah! Uncle Hitchcock.
694
01:16:44,251 --> 01:16:45,584
That was...
695
01:16:46,293 --> 01:16:48,501
a big adventure for me because I was...
696
01:16:49,501 --> 01:16:54,668
Here was this classic... we were
two great filmmakers next to each other.
697
01:16:55,334 --> 01:16:57,293
He was very nice to me, Hitchcock.
698
01:16:57,501 --> 01:17:02,209
He knew my film and
talked to me about it.
699
01:17:03,584 --> 01:17:07,209
Whereas I couldn't talk much
about his films because
700
01:17:08,251 --> 01:17:11,334
there were no Hitchcock films
in those days in Czech cinemas.
701
01:17:11,959 --> 01:17:13,668
Uncle.
702
01:17:15,959 --> 01:17:19,584
So... This is from the trip.
703
01:17:21,959 --> 01:17:22,959
Ah! Jitka.
704
01:17:23,918 --> 01:17:28,959
I have to add
one more nice thing about Hitchcock.
705
01:17:29,084 --> 01:17:34,959
That evening when I was there,
he got an honorary Oscar.
706
01:17:35,709 --> 01:17:37,293
He was very charming.
707
01:17:37,376 --> 01:17:44,376
People usually come there
to receive the award and give a speech
708
01:17:44,418 --> 01:17:51,959
and thank their colleagues and some producers
and thank and thank and speak.
709
01:17:52,251 --> 01:17:54,709
Mr. Hitchcock...
710
01:17:55,709 --> 01:17:58,126
came there, like this, and said...
711
01:18:00,793 --> 01:18:03,168
"Thank you!"
712
01:18:30,168 --> 01:18:34,168
Later on, I got a voucher to buy a car.
713
01:18:34,209 --> 01:18:35,918
There was no other way at that time.
714
01:18:36,418 --> 01:18:44,334
I got permission to go to Paris
for three months to learn French.
715
01:18:44,959 --> 01:18:51,251
Because they couldn't have paid me
more than any other beginner.
716
01:18:52,043 --> 01:18:55,543
There were rules that one had to shoot
about four films
717
01:18:56,126 --> 01:18:58,334
to advance to a higher category, etc.
718
01:18:58,418 --> 01:19:05,043
It was finished and he showed it to us.
And Vávra was quiet for a long time.
719
01:19:05,084 --> 01:19:10,668
He didn't review it. Then he sat in a car,
and told us that he was going on a holiday
720
01:19:10,709 --> 01:19:14,043
and drove away.
But then he stopped the car.
721
01:19:14,126 --> 01:19:17,084
He opened the door and Vávra was calling
722
01:19:17,126 --> 01:19:21,334
back to Menzel,
who was standing in the back.
723
01:19:21,418 --> 01:19:23,126
He shouted at him,
724
01:19:23,168 --> 01:19:26,959
"Menzel, that's the most beautiful movie
that was ever filmed here."
725
01:19:27,043 --> 01:19:30,126
Josef von Sternberg is the one
who made The Blue Angel,
726
01:19:30,834 --> 01:19:35,126
When I was at my first festival,
in Mannheim, with Tra in s...
727
01:19:35,584 --> 01:19:41,084
he had a retrospective there.
They screened all of his films.
728
01:19:41,918 --> 01:19:51,876
And, later, during the award ceremony,
I sat in the front row and he came by
729
01:19:52,459 --> 01:19:58,376
stood in front of me, and bowed to me.
I had no idea what it was about.
730
01:19:58,543 --> 01:20:02,418
Then he sat next to me and then I was told
that he wanted to give me his own award
731
01:20:02,501 --> 01:20:07,668
but because I'd already got the main prize,
he couldn't give me another prize...
732
01:20:07,876 --> 01:20:10,043
so he didn't give it to anyone.
733
01:20:11,251 --> 01:20:14,959
But this man, a legend, bowed to me.
734
01:20:31,543 --> 01:20:41,293
They organised big celebrations for the 30th
and now the 40th anniversary of the film.
735
01:20:41,626 --> 01:20:48,209
The film was screened there, and all of us
who were still alive came there to celebrate.
736
01:20:48,251 --> 01:20:50,709
It was very nice, they had prepared
everything for us.
737
01:20:51,168 --> 01:20:56,834
Now the small town is far prettier.
Earlier, it was quite an ordinary town.
738
01:20:57,084 --> 01:20:59,459
But everything has gotten better since then.
739
01:20:59,709 --> 01:21:02,709
I couldn't recognise it
when I was there later. Not at all!
740
01:21:03,334 --> 01:21:06,251
But the people still
fondly remember the film
741
01:21:07,209 --> 01:21:10,626
and the small railway station
stayed the same as it was before.
742
01:21:52,709 --> 01:21:55,668
I believe that the camera looks both ways.
743
01:21:55,876 --> 01:22:01,334
Camera looks forward at the actors
or whatever you want to film
744
01:22:01,918 --> 01:22:05,668
or it looks backwards
at people who make that film.
745
01:22:06,626 --> 01:22:07,584
And I think
746
01:22:10,959 --> 01:22:17,626
seeing Closely Watched Trains
I got to know him better than from the school.
747
01:22:19,459 --> 01:22:21,918
And that was very impressive
748
01:22:23,126 --> 01:22:28,293
because for me, that's a sign
of certain artistic honesty.
749
01:22:38,293 --> 01:22:43,418
I'd like to say the director was
very fond of this small crew.
750
01:22:43,709 --> 01:22:46,084
Nobody has ever doubted that.
751
01:22:46,168 --> 01:22:48,751
Nevertheless, we cannot
overlook the fact
752
01:22:48,793 --> 01:22:53,334
that he would often scream at
individuals or everybody at once.
753
01:22:54,334 --> 01:22:55,376
I want to apologise a bit
754
01:22:55,418 --> 01:22:57,709
because I think it was
somewhat my fault.
755
01:22:57,834 --> 01:23:01,043
I noticed it from the very start,
and I found it amusing.
756
01:23:01,209 --> 01:23:03,334
And being the entertainer he was
757
01:23:03,376 --> 01:23:08,168
I suspected he was screaming at you,
because he knew I was enjoying it.
758
01:23:08,793 --> 01:23:12,751
My suspicion was confirmed
when he told me,
759
01:23:12,793 --> 01:23:15,876
"Jirka, today is going to be
a bit boring for you
760
01:23:15,918 --> 01:23:20,126
but don't worry, I'll scream at
somebody in the evening for sure."
761
01:23:20,668 --> 01:23:24,209
So I was thinking I could take over
for him in this sense tonight
762
01:23:24,251 --> 01:23:25,959
to make us feel his presence.
763
01:23:25,959 --> 01:23:27,751
But then again if he were here
764
01:23:27,793 --> 01:23:30,543
he would probably just be happy
to see you all
765
01:23:30,584 --> 01:23:34,376
just as I am happy I've had the opportunity
to be a part of this.
766
01:23:34,418 --> 01:23:35,626
Thank you very much!
767
01:23:38,126 --> 01:23:40,709
What can you say
when your classmate dies?
768
01:23:40,959 --> 01:23:42,751
When he passes away?
769
01:23:42,918 --> 01:23:48,668
Of course that, first of all,
it's a pity the person is gone.
770
01:23:48,918 --> 01:23:55,459
Then that it's also too bad, because
he could've done more things.
771
01:23:55,501 --> 01:24:03,126
Or that - and that's the crime
of the communist regime -
772
01:24:03,709 --> 01:24:07,959
that the people weren't allowed to work
when they were strong
773
01:24:08,043 --> 01:24:12,543
when they were around thirty
and they had things to say.
774
01:24:12,959 --> 01:24:15,626
And the regime simply killed them.
775
01:24:15,709 --> 01:24:20,043
It cut them off
from their work with an axe
776
01:24:20,084 --> 01:24:22,376
and if they were allowed to
start working again later
777
01:24:22,543 --> 01:24:26,334
they could only do things they
wouldn't have done otherwise.
778
01:24:26,376 --> 01:24:28,501
They would have made different films.
779
01:24:29,293 --> 01:24:30,876
But that's...
780
01:24:32,459 --> 01:24:34,126
That's the way life is.
781
01:24:34,376 --> 01:24:38,209
Women - girls, chicks,
Eva, Klára, Věra,
782
01:24:38,251 --> 01:24:41,459
Zuzana, Helenka,
Bohunka, another Zuzana,
783
01:24:41,501 --> 01:24:43,459
Christie and Martina.
784
01:24:44,418 --> 01:24:48,043
Sorry, I'm presenting my loves.
I'm skipping random encounters.
785
01:24:48,168 --> 01:24:53,251
Each of us shot films which were stylised
totally differently, according to our character.
786
01:24:53,293 --> 01:24:56,418
But all those films had a common spirit
787
01:24:56,459 --> 01:25:01,293
and that's why they called us
the "Czechoslovak New Wave".
788
01:25:01,418 --> 01:25:06,793
We didn't know at the time that there was some
"wave" or that it would become the "New Wave"
789
01:25:07,043 --> 01:25:11,543
or that the things we were doing
would be successful...
790
01:25:11,626 --> 01:25:14,959
So it didn't mean any special thing to me.
791
01:25:15,043 --> 01:25:19,626
Jaromil Jireš -
sadly, he is no longer alive...
792
01:25:19,668 --> 01:25:24,418
This is Ivan Passer.
He lives in the United States.
793
01:25:24,459 --> 01:25:28,543
Hynek Bočan is alive and working,
mainly for television.
794
01:25:28,584 --> 01:25:31,668
Pavel Juráček, unfortunately,
also is no longer alive.
795
01:25:32,251 --> 01:25:40,876
Mrs. Chytilová is alive and works a lot
although she is almost 83.
796
01:25:41,626 --> 01:25:44,709
This is Honza Máša, he is also
no longer alive, unfortunately.
797
01:25:45,668 --> 01:25:50,876
This is Honza Němec who is alive
and though he is also way past 70
798
01:25:50,918 --> 01:25:55,418
he works and teaches at school,
just like Mrs. Chytilová.
799
01:25:55,918 --> 01:25:59,668
This is Evald Schorm who is unfortunately
not alive any more, either.
800
01:25:59,709 --> 01:26:06,418
I guess you know this person...
he is a farmer in Connecticut
801
01:26:06,418 --> 01:26:10,418
who sometimes makes films.
His name is Forman.
802
01:26:10,459 --> 01:26:15,084
And this is me...
a Czech pensioner.
803
01:26:16,168 --> 01:26:20,209
Once in a while,
I look at them, and...
804
01:26:21,668 --> 01:26:23,918
it helps me to
805
01:26:24,834 --> 01:26:27,626
in my mind, to go back to that time.
806
01:26:45,209 --> 01:26:49,959
"How is it that for labourers' wages
movies like that are made?"
807
01:26:50,043 --> 01:26:53,126
"Movies by Honza Němec and Mrs. Chytilová."
808
01:26:54,251 --> 01:26:57,084
That was a rude attack.
Dangerous at the time.
809
01:26:57,126 --> 01:27:05,168
We met and wrote a letter, as a protest
against the proclamation of the politician.
810
01:27:05,709 --> 01:27:09,418
And that's the only time, the only
moment when we were all together.
811
01:27:09,959 --> 01:27:14,418
Then someone had the great idea
to take a picture of us together
812
01:27:15,043 --> 01:27:18,709
on the street,
in front of Juráček's house.
813
01:27:19,209 --> 01:27:23,084
That was precious... these are the
only pictures I have with them.
814
01:27:24,793 --> 01:27:26,043
But...
815
01:27:30,126 --> 01:27:31,793
It's nice to remember it all.
816
01:27:32,376 --> 01:27:38,084
The bad guys and bad girl
were me, Jan Němec and Věra Chytilová.
817
01:27:38,501 --> 01:27:44,126
So if somebody is attacking me and Chytilová,
that is attacking to our group or our movement.
818
01:27:44,293 --> 01:27:48,043
And only way possible to do
it was to make the pictures.
819
01:27:48,501 --> 01:27:52,418
And this was, without comment,
published in one literary weekly.
820
01:27:52,459 --> 01:27:55,876
And of course people know it, learn it
821
01:27:55,918 --> 01:28:00,209
and also these Bolsheviks
said that we are together.
822
01:28:00,251 --> 01:28:08,209
And that means that it would not be easy
to eliminate one or two of us
823
01:28:08,251 --> 01:28:12,626
you know, at this time, we were
internationally in Europe, very well known
824
01:28:12,709 --> 01:28:14,584
you know, we were winning festivals.
825
01:28:14,626 --> 01:28:18,209
That means the attack on the
whole group or the movement
826
01:28:18,251 --> 01:28:22,459
would finally did big damage
to the communist men.
827
01:28:22,501 --> 01:28:26,834
The truth is that
Novotný preferred comedies...
828
01:28:26,876 --> 01:28:28,751
rather than...
829
01:28:29,251 --> 01:28:33,709
to any ideologically
problematic or dramatic films,
830
01:28:33,793 --> 01:28:38,459
which is also why in the spring of 1967
831
01:28:38,501 --> 01:28:42,918
the Communist Party was
trying to split the New Wave,
832
01:28:42,959 --> 01:28:47,709
trying to tear it in two, to pit
Němec and Chytilová against others...
833
01:28:47,793 --> 01:28:52,709
against those who made comedies,
which was Forman and Menzel.
834
01:28:52,876 --> 01:28:54,168
"Jasný..."
835
01:28:54,543 --> 01:28:59,293
"You can shoot anything now. Your films
are the only ones making money."
836
01:28:59,459 --> 01:29:03,959
"People come to see your films.
They're awarded at world festivals."
837
01:29:04,126 --> 01:29:07,668
They were and always will be.
And they still are today.
838
01:29:09,834 --> 01:29:12,584
And then the thing was that...
839
01:29:14,959 --> 01:29:17,918
I looked at him and said...
840
01:29:18,626 --> 01:29:23,709
Because he said, "But when you
oppose the Party, we will chop you!"
841
01:29:23,834 --> 01:29:27,168
Like when you kill a rabbit,
behind the ears.
842
01:29:27,293 --> 01:29:28,876
"We will chop you."
843
01:29:29,084 --> 01:29:32,376
It was still a communist country
with the censorship.
844
01:29:32,668 --> 01:29:36,418
But the voice of artists,
including filmmakers
845
01:29:36,459 --> 01:29:45,334
was so strong that it was possible
to defeat the authorities.
846
01:29:45,501 --> 01:29:53,376
There aren't many of us left now.
Evald is gone, Jireš is gone. Máša, Juráček,
847
01:29:55,459 --> 01:29:57,584
Honza Němec.
848
01:29:59,126 --> 01:30:02,959
There is only Hynek Bočan and me.
849
01:30:04,959 --> 01:30:11,959
Jesus Christ... And Miloš. And Ivan Passer.
Thank God for them!
850
01:30:25,709 --> 01:30:29,543
At this time he was
completely unknown writer.
851
01:30:30,043 --> 01:30:32,834
And "Pearls of the Deep"
was his first book.
852
01:30:33,043 --> 01:30:36,918
And immediately, the book
was a great success.
853
01:30:37,293 --> 01:30:40,126
And through one walk to the FAMU to...
854
01:30:40,418 --> 01:30:42,126
I walked with Jiří Menzel.
855
01:30:42,168 --> 01:30:48,043
We said, we can help Mr. Hrabal
promote his short stories
856
01:30:48,084 --> 01:30:54,584
and that would be best if it would be
not done by one filmmaker but by different.
857
01:30:54,626 --> 01:30:59,876
So, basically that we would keep
our personal styles
858
01:30:59,918 --> 01:31:05,251
but respect, in the way,
that original text of Hrabal.
859
01:31:05,418 --> 01:31:10,751
And it's exactly one of these generational groups,
which studied at FAMU at that time
860
01:31:11,126 --> 01:31:12,751
with some exceptions
861
01:31:12,959 --> 01:31:17,959
that practically became the face
of this New Wave of film.
862
01:31:18,043 --> 01:31:19,251
When...
863
01:31:19,793 --> 01:31:21,959
It was as if it were a reaction
to the films of the 1950s
864
01:31:22,084 --> 01:31:25,418
again optimistic, cheap, constructive.
865
01:31:25,543 --> 01:31:30,043
We began to view this
reality very soberly.
866
01:31:30,668 --> 01:31:33,043
Or... even caustically.
867
01:31:33,209 --> 01:31:38,043
And it's also no accident that they all met
in one omnibus film, Pearls of the Deep,
868
01:31:38,251 --> 01:31:42,668
when each approached the adaptation
869
01:31:43,543 --> 01:31:45,251
of Hrabal's work in their own way.
870
01:31:52,084 --> 01:31:55,168
How could you abuse the car so terribly?
871
01:31:55,543 --> 01:31:56,918
- Just tell me how.
- How?
872
01:31:57,668 --> 01:32:00,543
As we were driving home at night,
Slavek told me
873
01:32:00,668 --> 01:32:05,918
"Mother, we're still one death short,
so here you are. Drive." So I drove...
874
01:32:07,043 --> 01:32:10,959
I believe that of all the filmmakers
875
01:32:10,959 --> 01:32:16,751
he did the best job of it, because
he detached the word from the image.
876
01:32:17,168 --> 01:32:20,626
Hrabal's words aren't
necessarily directly related
877
01:32:20,668 --> 01:32:23,668
to what is happening
in front of the camera.
878
01:32:23,793 --> 01:32:26,251
And that's where
a peculiar poetry is born.
879
01:32:26,459 --> 01:32:32,126
I never was a student of the film school.
So I wasn't a part of it.
880
01:32:32,418 --> 01:32:37,751
My good friend Jaromil Jireš,
who was a part of it
881
01:32:37,793 --> 01:32:43,209
asked me to join them and adapt
a short story by Bohumil Hrabal.
882
01:32:43,918 --> 01:32:46,543
I accepted, of course.
883
01:32:46,584 --> 01:32:51,293
Most of those guys and Chytilová
weren't very--
884
01:32:51,334 --> 01:32:56,168
they were against it because
they didn't know me.
885
01:32:56,293 --> 01:33:00,209
They didn't want to include me.
886
01:33:00,543 --> 01:33:06,584
But then I shot one of the short stories
887
01:33:07,834 --> 01:33:14,584
and Hrabal said,
"This is the best one filmed of the lot."
888
01:33:15,501 --> 01:33:21,959
The only problem is that, most likely,
that's what Hrabal told everyone.
889
01:33:22,251 --> 01:33:26,793
Kučera was director of photography,
I was the operator.
890
01:33:27,334 --> 01:33:32,334
This is Kučera...
a picture of the two of us?
891
01:33:33,084 --> 01:33:38,834
Christ! The things you ask...
I can't find it.
892
01:33:38,959 --> 01:33:43,501
I don't know how we don't
have a picture with Kučera...
893
01:33:44,168 --> 01:33:45,959
Because he photographed us.
894
01:33:46,334 --> 01:33:50,168
Because he made photos.
895
01:33:58,918 --> 01:34:07,959
He was extremely experimental. He was
also making experimental films at home...
896
01:34:08,209 --> 01:34:17,251
something we used in Daisies,
for that broken film format...
897
01:34:17,876 --> 01:34:24,168
where he was breaking the reality,
frame by frame....
898
01:34:24,584 --> 01:34:31,876
He used to shoot frame by frame,
which means he was breaking the picture...
899
01:34:50,668 --> 01:34:55,126
He was not, let's say,
verbally communicating person.
900
01:34:55,918 --> 01:35:00,084
He was very inside... closed person.
That means...
901
01:35:01,918 --> 01:35:04,168
It was not easy work with him.
902
01:35:04,209 --> 01:35:10,959
But, you know, on the second hand, the result
with him, to work with him was all time excellent.
903
01:35:55,043 --> 01:35:59,043
A thousand angels in paradise...
904
01:35:59,084 --> 01:36:02,543
I love you all.
905
01:36:06,834 --> 01:36:09,626
Dear friend, what's wrong with you?
906
01:36:10,584 --> 01:36:13,418
Nothing. Just something in my throat.
907
01:36:13,959 --> 01:36:18,709
But I would prefer you telling me
something about your articles...
908
01:36:19,459 --> 01:36:25,168
It's one part of the Hrabal's work
that is not so, let's say,
909
01:36:25,626 --> 01:36:29,876
optimistic and humanistic,
it is more cruel and cynical.
910
01:36:30,168 --> 01:36:34,334
Menzel... all his adaptations
of movie was
911
01:36:34,376 --> 01:36:38,543
the way we are nice,
a life is nice and optimistic.
912
01:36:38,709 --> 01:36:45,501
We had it divided. Right from film school
I was prepared to work with Jaromír Šofr.
913
01:36:45,584 --> 01:36:47,501
I had already worked with him at school.
914
01:36:47,918 --> 01:36:52,626
I respected Kučera a lot,
but his style was a bit different.
915
01:36:52,793 --> 01:36:54,668
The main thing was that
he was Mrs. Chytilová's territory!
916
01:37:00,959 --> 01:37:06,668
We persuaded Hrabal he had to
appear in cameos in all the short stories
917
01:37:06,793 --> 01:37:11,584
to play a small role
throughout the short stories.
918
01:37:16,584 --> 01:37:21,376
He told me later that he was angry.
919
01:37:21,543 --> 01:37:24,876
He acted in Chytilová's segment
The World Cafe,
920
01:37:25,501 --> 01:37:28,334
and he told me,
"I only wrote it was raining
921
01:37:28,418 --> 01:37:33,959
but then the fireman kept on drenching me
with water for three nights!"
922
01:37:34,126 --> 01:37:39,293
And that discouraged him from
any further acting in films.
923
01:37:40,418 --> 01:37:43,251
There was a film club, and
that's where I met with Mr. Hrabal.
924
01:37:43,293 --> 01:37:45,543
That is where I saw him
for the first time.
925
01:37:46,668 --> 01:37:51,459
We were close friends with Věra.
926
01:37:52,501 --> 01:37:57,251
She couldn't come for some reason,
so she asked me to speak for her.
927
01:37:57,918 --> 01:38:00,793
She wanted to do The World Cafe.
928
01:38:03,084 --> 01:38:06,918
When Ivan said that he also
wanted to do The World Cafe,
929
01:38:07,668 --> 01:38:11,751
I started to fight for Věra.
I said that it is her intimate theme.
930
01:38:11,793 --> 01:38:13,626
I invented all that nonsense
931
01:38:13,668 --> 01:38:16,626
because I knew that her father
was a restaurant owner.
932
01:38:16,668 --> 01:38:24,209
He managed a railway restaurant and
the theme was close to her heart, I babbled.
933
01:38:24,251 --> 01:38:28,709
Ivan, like a gentleman, withdrew.
He decided to do a different short story.
934
01:38:28,751 --> 01:38:34,793
By the way, A Boring Afternoon
is the most beautiful of all the stories.
935
01:38:35,126 --> 01:38:37,043
At least that is my opinion.
936
01:38:37,584 --> 01:38:40,084
And when I fought it out in this way
937
01:38:40,543 --> 01:38:44,418
I was curious why Věra decided
on this particular story.
938
01:38:44,459 --> 01:38:46,626
I wanted to know if I'd talked rubbish!
939
01:38:47,334 --> 01:38:52,334
Věra said - "Why? Because I haven't
read anything else by him."
940
01:38:54,251 --> 01:38:55,668
I thought I would kill her.
941
01:39:05,543 --> 01:39:07,751
My goodness! That's how
a wedding should be.
942
01:39:08,584 --> 01:39:12,126
By coincidence, it was the short
story that I wanted to make.
943
01:39:12,459 --> 01:39:19,501
But I had another one as an option, and I was
eventually happy to have shot The Junk Shop.
944
01:39:19,751 --> 01:39:25,959
Then, when everybody else made the movie,
it was too long for a feature movie
945
01:39:25,959 --> 01:39:30,793
so they released my film by itself.
946
01:39:30,959 --> 01:39:34,543
I was the second one
to raise my hand, and I said,
947
01:39:34,584 --> 01:39:37,959
"If I remove mine,
all of you will fit in it."
948
01:39:39,043 --> 01:39:41,626
Good day, Miss Marcelka!
949
01:39:42,459 --> 01:39:45,168
Good day, Josefínka Mánesová!
950
01:39:45,376 --> 01:39:47,876
In oil paint, in a golden frame...
951
01:39:48,834 --> 01:39:50,876
Damn it! That would be beautiful.
952
01:40:01,626 --> 01:40:04,209
One day I came home and
I turned on the radio
953
01:40:04,709 --> 01:40:07,543
it was exactly like this, I turned it on
954
01:40:07,876 --> 01:40:10,959
"And the first prize in
Mannheim Film Festival
955
01:40:11,043 --> 01:40:14,376
goes to the film,
A Boring Afternoon by Ivan Passer."
956
01:40:14,418 --> 01:40:16,376
I didn't know they sent it there.
957
01:41:19,959 --> 01:41:25,709
I remember my first shot
for the feature film...
958
01:41:26,501 --> 01:41:31,459
We stood with the camera
on the motorcycle circuit track.
959
01:41:32,334 --> 01:41:39,709
I said 'camera' so quietly - so quietly
that the cameraman did not hear it.
960
01:41:41,043 --> 01:41:43,793
I had a weak voice and I spoke quietly.
961
01:41:45,209 --> 01:41:47,209
And he gave me a terrible scolding.
962
01:42:02,834 --> 01:42:10,209
These shots at the race track, we did
with Ondříček because Kučera was ill.
963
01:42:10,293 --> 01:42:16,543
But I'd like to add that we didn't play
around with the speed of the camera.
964
01:42:16,626 --> 01:42:24,043
We shot all at normal speed,
24 frames per second.
965
01:42:24,084 --> 01:42:28,084
Only because it was done
with a long lens did it seem slower.
966
01:42:28,459 --> 01:42:32,251
When you see it from a distance,
how the bikes swerved at the curves
967
01:42:32,501 --> 01:42:37,209
and it has such a unique waltz rhythm.
So I found that waltz.
968
01:43:04,959 --> 01:43:13,626
Mr. Hrabal described so well how the people
loved the motorcycling sport
969
01:43:13,834 --> 01:43:21,959
but also - and this is Hrabal for you -
he shows how they're all thirsty for a tragedy.
970
01:43:22,334 --> 01:43:24,751
That's why they go there,
that's why they talk about it...
971
01:43:25,126 --> 01:43:30,168
about what catastrophe,
what disaster they saw.
972
01:44:21,459 --> 01:44:30,459
And then when we first met and I saw him for
the first time in my life, I felt great respect for him.
973
01:44:30,668 --> 01:44:38,459
And when we were parting, I caught up with him
on the street and I said to him that
974
01:44:39,084 --> 01:44:46,709
I would like to know how he does it - that I read
about tragic things and I laugh at the same time...
975
01:44:46,959 --> 01:44:54,459
and even then there's no cynicism or evil in it.
And he told me that all this is part of life.
976
01:45:00,501 --> 01:45:04,084
What really makes me laugh is
977
01:45:05,709 --> 01:45:08,709
that you want to, out of my ramblings
978
01:45:09,168 --> 01:45:11,293
which've been going on for about 20 hours,
979
01:45:11,709 --> 01:45:13,626
that you want to cut a film from it.
980
01:45:13,918 --> 01:45:15,793
I am very curious about that.
981
01:48:03,543 --> 01:48:06,793
I was born in Hanspaulka.
982
01:48:06,918 --> 01:48:10,543
It was a neighbourhood
for rich people.
983
01:48:10,918 --> 01:48:15,626
But one day,
there was a heavy rainstorm.
984
01:48:15,668 --> 01:48:19,418
My parents lived in a cheap apartment
on the ground floor
985
01:48:19,418 --> 01:48:21,418
and the whole apartment got flooded.
986
01:48:21,584 --> 01:48:24,459
My mother got angry and said
she didn't want to live there anymore
987
01:48:24,459 --> 01:48:28,293
and so my dad found
a new apartment in Strašnice.
988
01:48:28,376 --> 01:48:33,543
So when I was about 6 months old,
we moved to Strašnice.
989
01:48:37,376 --> 01:48:40,418
We're going... we're going to Strašnice.
990
01:48:50,084 --> 01:48:53,001
Here, where that ugly building is,
there was an old Sokol centre
991
01:48:53,043 --> 01:48:56,793
and there was an old cinema.
992
01:48:57,209 --> 01:49:02,168
It was nice, as a child,
I lived incredibly near a cinema.
993
01:49:02,543 --> 01:49:04,668
This reflection that you see here
994
01:49:04,709 --> 01:49:11,043
so that's the building I spent
the first 12 years of my life in.
995
01:49:12,251 --> 01:49:15,543
They showed Czech films made during
the war, under the Protectorate.
996
01:49:15,543 --> 01:49:20,834
They were mostly kitsch,
but they were also comedies.
997
01:49:21,293 --> 01:49:24,168
And I love them even today,
the comedies by Frič.
998
01:49:24,376 --> 01:49:29,709
For example, my sisters and I saw
Eva Runs Wild about 11 times.
999
01:49:30,084 --> 01:49:32,626
That's a movie which
I enjoy watching even now.
1000
01:49:32,626 --> 01:49:36,459
They have a deeper meaning and
aren't just laughter for laughter's sake.
1001
01:49:39,001 --> 01:49:41,501
Come on!
There's no one here!
1002
01:49:50,876 --> 01:49:52,418
I know, I know...
1003
01:49:55,709 --> 01:49:57,334
I'll cough, okay?
1004
01:49:57,668 --> 01:49:58,834
No, don't do that!
1005
01:50:05,168 --> 01:50:06,168
I know what then...
1006
01:50:06,834 --> 01:50:08,709
- I'll bark.
- Nooo...
1007
01:50:08,918 --> 01:50:10,459
Let's go rob the place!
1008
01:50:12,751 --> 01:50:16,834
Later, I directed the film
Crime in a Music Hall.
1009
01:50:17,251 --> 01:50:18,834
It was a simple comedy.
1010
01:50:19,209 --> 01:50:23,793
It was supposed to pay tribute
to Martin Frič, a pre-war filmmaker.
1011
01:50:24,501 --> 01:50:25,751
I tried
1012
01:50:26,126 --> 01:50:30,251
to make it black-and-white
and in the style of Martin Frič.
1013
01:50:30,418 --> 01:50:34,418
But I think he was better at it than I am.
1014
01:50:53,251 --> 01:50:58,418
We met for the first time at Barrandov.
1015
01:50:58,418 --> 01:51:02,834
He was supposed to be driven home,
and they put me in his car.
1016
01:51:02,834 --> 01:51:06,459
It was a Barrandov car. So I sat there
and waited for Frič.
1017
01:51:07,126 --> 01:51:08,793
Frič sat down and I said, "Good morning!".
1018
01:51:08,793 --> 01:51:12,334
Because I was shy,
I said it in a very quiet voice.
1019
01:51:13,251 --> 01:51:17,293
And I sat there, and he was angry.
1020
01:51:17,876 --> 01:51:20,876
We came to his villa and he got out.
1021
01:51:20,876 --> 01:51:25,418
He turned to me and said, "Young man,
in my youth, it was customary
1022
01:51:25,918 --> 01:51:30,043
for the younger one to introduce himself
to the older ones and greet them.
1023
01:51:30,043 --> 01:51:31,918
Thank you, good bye!"
1024
01:51:33,834 --> 01:51:36,001
So this is
1025
01:51:36,459 --> 01:51:38,834
where I spent my childhood.
1026
01:51:39,626 --> 01:51:42,584
This is where we used to play marbles.
1027
01:51:42,876 --> 01:51:46,418
This is where I experienced
my childhood crushes
1028
01:51:47,209 --> 01:51:51,501
and I pretty much
started everything here.
1029
01:51:51,793 --> 01:51:52,709
I was ten.
1030
01:51:52,709 --> 01:51:55,251
I experienced the war here.
1031
01:51:55,376 --> 01:52:01,626
From that balcony over there,
I saw an Allied airplane crash.
1032
01:52:03,168 --> 01:52:06,834
And at the end of the war,
a revolution broke out
1033
01:52:07,001 --> 01:52:10,001
and there were three barricades here
1034
01:52:10,084 --> 01:52:13,168
that were supposed to block
the passage of German armies.
1035
01:52:13,251 --> 01:52:16,418
I don't know how it turned out,
I was seven at that time
1036
01:52:16,459 --> 01:52:21,376
but I have beautiful memories
of the end of the war.
1037
01:52:25,376 --> 01:52:30,001
Me and my mother used to
steal corn there during the war.
1038
01:52:30,584 --> 01:52:32,584
Mamma was strict
1039
01:52:32,834 --> 01:52:35,751
slapped us and sometimes also caned us.
1040
01:52:35,793 --> 01:52:40,793
And when she felt she couldn't
handle us, dad took over.
1041
01:52:41,043 --> 01:52:43,543
He used his belt.
1042
01:52:44,126 --> 01:52:49,209
He used to beat us quite hard,
but I think it was good.
1043
01:52:49,501 --> 01:52:53,751
I don't like it when children
can do whatever they want.
1044
01:53:19,084 --> 01:53:23,376
Is your family also as crazy as mine?
1045
01:53:28,209 --> 01:53:30,084
Childhood, see?
1046
01:53:31,001 --> 01:53:32,334
I was this little.
1047
01:53:33,168 --> 01:53:35,709
So all this seemed huge to me.
1048
01:53:37,876 --> 01:53:42,001
Here we would walk this way
up to the second floor.
1049
01:53:42,418 --> 01:53:43,668
This is where I used to slide
1050
01:53:43,751 --> 01:53:47,584
and this is the way we took
to the cellar.
1051
01:53:48,376 --> 01:53:51,334
During wartime,
we would go there for coal, of course
1052
01:53:51,418 --> 01:53:55,334
but during air raids,
that was where we went to hide.
1053
01:53:55,501 --> 01:53:57,918
It all looks completely different now.
1054
01:53:58,168 --> 01:54:00,251
It's all been so refurbished.
1055
01:54:02,793 --> 01:54:05,709
And I don't want to walk upstairs.
It would make me feel sad.
1056
01:54:25,959 --> 01:54:27,876
So, this is the house...
1057
01:54:27,876 --> 01:54:32,126
the TV antennas weren't there before.
1058
01:54:32,668 --> 01:54:37,168
And that black roof over there,
that was where my school used to be.
1059
01:54:37,543 --> 01:54:38,918
One of my schools...
1060
01:54:39,668 --> 01:54:40,834
Schools I used to go to.
1061
01:54:41,043 --> 01:54:44,126
My school was actually
just a few steps from my home.
1062
01:54:44,459 --> 01:54:46,293
Not that I liked going there.
1063
01:55:11,418 --> 01:55:17,959
So, this is me with my little sister, and
the child watching us is my older sister.
1064
01:55:18,001 --> 01:55:20,584
This is my sister Hana,
and this is me or
1065
01:55:20,668 --> 01:55:23,293
the other way round -
this is Hanka, and this is me.
1066
01:55:23,293 --> 01:55:25,251
I am not sure anymore who is who.
1067
01:55:26,251 --> 01:55:36,250
Here we are a bit older,
we are probably at the zoo.
1068
01:55:38,751 --> 01:55:42,959
This one is nice.
That is me...
1069
01:55:43,418 --> 01:55:47,959
And this is my little sister,
my twin sister, who's eating my food.
1070
01:55:48,001 --> 01:55:51,126
So you see how I suffered
when I was a child?
1071
01:55:51,126 --> 01:55:53,751
Even my own sister
was stealing from me.
1072
01:55:55,668 --> 01:56:00,126
Otherwise, there are
only silly photos...
1073
01:56:06,834 --> 01:56:10,668
This is also from the zoo.
1074
01:56:15,584 --> 01:56:20,834
This is an interesting one,
my school class photo.
1075
01:56:20,918 --> 01:56:24,834
And I don't know
which child is me...
1076
01:56:31,043 --> 01:56:33,126
I didn't really want to be a filmmaker
1077
01:56:33,168 --> 01:56:35,126
nor did I have any opportunity
to become one
1078
01:56:35,418 --> 01:56:42,084
but my friend had a Super 8...
That's a small camera with 8 mm film.
1079
01:56:42,084 --> 01:56:46,293
He lent it to me,
and I tried to shoot something.
1080
01:56:46,376 --> 01:56:50,918
I was interested in everything,
also in the camera too.
1081
01:56:51,084 --> 01:56:56,209
I was working with the 8 mm camera,
and I was walking around Prague.
1082
01:56:56,793 --> 01:57:00,084
We had the Stalin monument
1083
01:57:00,084 --> 01:57:03,126
which was the biggest monument
in the world.
1084
01:57:03,334 --> 01:57:09,209
It was standing on these granite plinths.
1085
01:57:09,251 --> 01:57:11,584
And that was, sort of,
interesting architecture.
1086
01:57:11,626 --> 01:57:14,918
Steps, edges... I wasn't
shooting the statue itself.
1087
01:57:14,959 --> 01:57:18,168
I was shooting the base of
the statue, the plinth.
1088
01:57:18,418 --> 01:57:22,668
And I made an
experimental set of how
1089
01:57:22,709 --> 01:57:27,584
I thought the blocks should
fit within another.
1090
01:57:27,834 --> 01:57:34,459
It was an abstract film. But
luckily, it's no longer in existence.
1091
01:58:29,209 --> 01:58:31,001
This is completely different.
1092
01:58:31,209 --> 01:58:33,043
Here, there used to be a crop field here.
1093
01:58:33,126 --> 01:58:35,584
Where did all this come from?
1094
01:58:36,626 --> 01:58:39,876
This is the first time I see
there's a children's playground here.
1095
01:58:40,876 --> 01:58:42,501
It's really nice.
1096
01:58:42,668 --> 01:58:45,418
Because this was all a field
1097
01:58:45,501 --> 01:58:48,168
where oilseed rape was grown
1098
01:58:48,709 --> 01:58:51,376
where oat was grown
and other things...
1099
01:58:51,543 --> 01:58:54,168
And there was a farm house
in this direction.
1100
01:58:55,459 --> 01:58:57,834
This has all changed fantastically.
1101
01:58:59,584 --> 01:59:02,626
I have to look around...
This is the first time I'm here.
1102
01:59:02,793 --> 01:59:04,376
This street wasn't there.
1103
01:59:07,334 --> 01:59:10,584
50 years... actually more.
70 years.
1104
01:59:11,876 --> 01:59:15,751
Since I lived here
and experienced the war here.
1105
01:59:17,709 --> 01:59:20,084
The world is changing so fast.
1106
01:59:21,334 --> 01:59:27,293
So, let's go take a look
where I shot my first film.
1107
01:59:28,168 --> 01:59:30,251
A documentary. Okay?
1108
01:59:30,626 --> 01:59:32,126
We have to take a different way, though.
1109
01:59:34,834 --> 01:59:37,209
Let's try to go this way.
1110
01:59:44,459 --> 01:59:46,584
It's a completely different world!
1111
01:59:46,876 --> 01:59:51,959
It's incredible, because I swear,
this was a...
1112
01:59:52,334 --> 01:59:54,918
That was a crop field
and this was a fish pond!
1113
01:59:55,209 --> 01:59:56,209
A dried out one.
1114
01:59:56,459 --> 02:00:01,376
And that pond gave Strašnice,
this neighbourhood, its name.
1115
02:00:01,418 --> 02:00:08,168
Some gas was coming out of the pond
and it gave out light at night -
1116
02:00:09,001 --> 02:00:11,793
some phosphorus gas or whatever.
1117
02:00:12,084 --> 02:00:14,834
And that's why this place
was called Strašnice.
1118
02:00:26,418 --> 02:00:28,293
I have no idea
where all this came from.
1119
02:00:36,418 --> 02:00:37,876
Excuse me! Hello!
1120
02:00:38,334 --> 02:00:40,084
What is this company?
1121
02:00:40,084 --> 02:00:40,876
Oriflame.
1122
02:00:41,001 --> 02:00:42,876
- Excuse me?
- Cosmetics, Oriflame.
1123
02:00:42,918 --> 02:00:43,959
Cosmetics!
1124
02:00:44,501 --> 02:00:46,459
- I used to live here.
- Okay.
1125
02:00:46,501 --> 02:00:47,626
And I don't recognise the place at all.
1126
02:00:47,626 --> 02:00:52,251
I was just thinking
that in those days, this house...
1127
02:00:52,293 --> 02:00:54,668
But no, I used to live across the street.
1128
02:00:55,168 --> 02:00:56,834
And I don't recognise it here at all.
1129
02:00:57,751 --> 02:00:58,626
Everything is different.
1130
02:00:59,126 --> 02:00:59,668
Thank you!
1131
02:00:59,668 --> 02:01:01,584
Take care! Goodbye!
Thank you, bye-bye!
1132
02:01:16,376 --> 02:01:18,418
I have no idea where we are.
1133
02:01:19,168 --> 02:01:20,959
Let's try this way.
1134
02:01:38,126 --> 02:01:45,126
I think this tree, this spruce tree,
it was planted by my mother.
1135
02:01:45,418 --> 02:01:46,418
A long time ago.
1136
02:01:46,834 --> 02:01:53,459
And the ground floor balcony
with that cage or whatever
1137
02:01:54,084 --> 02:01:56,168
was where we lived.
1138
02:01:56,251 --> 02:01:58,376
And from there, I could see
1139
02:02:00,584 --> 02:02:02,376
looking through some trees
1140
02:02:03,418 --> 02:02:05,418
there was a crop field here
1141
02:02:06,709 --> 02:02:08,543
nothing but a crop field, and
1142
02:02:09,376 --> 02:02:13,084
that was where they started building
the prefabricated blocs of flats.
1143
02:02:13,626 --> 02:02:15,376
Because I was lazy
1144
02:02:15,459 --> 02:02:17,709
I didn't feel
like thinking of anything else
1145
02:02:17,793 --> 02:02:20,126
I said at school
that I would make a film
1146
02:02:20,293 --> 02:02:23,834
about the construction
of prefabricated houses.
1147
02:02:25,918 --> 02:02:27,751
The man of this age
1148
02:02:28,251 --> 02:02:30,959
does not belong to the balconies of houses
that have grown old.
1149
02:02:30,959 --> 02:02:34,334
He wants to see further than into
the windows on the street.
1150
02:02:34,751 --> 02:02:37,876
Under his hands,
a huge construction set grows.
1151
02:02:39,668 --> 02:02:47,251
I came there. We brought a camera.
I, as a director, had the battery.
1152
02:02:47,793 --> 02:02:52,626
There were the cranes and the panels,
and I did not know what to do.
1153
02:02:53,168 --> 02:02:56,959
And Šofr was waiting for instructions
and I didn't know.
1154
02:02:57,168 --> 02:03:06,959
So I sat on the battery and I tugged
at the cable in order to break it off
1155
02:03:07,001 --> 02:03:11,751
so we'd have to return to school
and have it repaired...
1156
02:03:11,751 --> 02:03:15,959
and I had one more day to think
about what I want to do.
1157
02:03:39,793 --> 02:03:41,168
Well...
1158
02:03:42,959 --> 02:03:45,084
Nothing's changed here.
1159
02:03:45,668 --> 02:03:47,751
Even the seats are the same
1160
02:03:49,543 --> 02:03:55,293
as when my schoolmates
and I used to come here
1161
02:03:55,709 --> 02:03:57,668
for screenings of old films.
1162
02:04:10,376 --> 02:04:13,543
One day I discovered
a miraculous film there
1163
02:04:13,543 --> 02:04:16,668
Renoir's A Day in the Country.
1164
02:04:46,959 --> 02:04:53,126
It's a short film, about 15-20 mins long.
But it made such a big impression on me
1165
02:04:53,584 --> 02:04:59,334
that later on, when I wanted to make films,
it always came back to my mind.
1166
02:05:53,001 --> 02:05:59,709
Hello! May I ask you if you know where
Capricious Summer was filmed?
1167
02:05:59,709 --> 02:06:01,793
Where was the swimming pool built?
1168
02:06:02,251 --> 02:06:05,418
- Down there.
- On the other bank?
1169
02:06:05,751 --> 02:06:10,293
- No, on your side.
- Does this road by the water lead there?
1170
02:06:10,293 --> 02:06:14,876
- You can walk there.
- We were told that we have to walk.
1171
02:06:15,126 --> 02:06:19,584
- Right.
- Is there some creek and some confluence?
1172
02:06:19,584 --> 02:06:24,626
- It is down there. Not far.
- How far? 300 metres? 500?
1173
02:06:24,626 --> 02:06:32,334
- About 500 metres.
- Ok, so to the end and then by foot.
1174
02:06:32,459 --> 02:06:37,126
- That's about right.
- How far? 100 metres? Do you know?
1175
02:06:37,293 --> 02:06:40,293
- I don't know.
- Thank you for your kindness! Goodbye!
1176
02:07:16,293 --> 02:07:21,543
I am weird. For me, it isn't
about being inspired by something
1177
02:07:21,543 --> 02:07:23,751
or feeling the need to do something.
1178
02:07:24,376 --> 02:07:30,668
I get a job to do just like a joiner
is asked to make a table.
1179
02:07:30,668 --> 02:07:32,918
He gets an order and makes a table.
1180
02:07:32,918 --> 02:07:35,626
My only advantage is
that I get to choose
1181
02:07:35,626 --> 02:07:38,751
which table I want to make
and if I want to make it at all.
1182
02:07:40,001 --> 02:07:45,626
But afterwards, you shouldn't
see it as anything divine.
1183
02:08:04,793 --> 02:08:11,626
When they came to me with
the script, I sent them to hell.
1184
02:08:12,168 --> 02:08:15,834
You can only ruin that
by making a movie.
1185
02:08:15,876 --> 02:08:19,959
Vančura's text is exquisite,
it's like a poem.
1186
02:08:20,251 --> 02:08:25,751
Adding pictures can only ruin it.
Leave me alone, I said.
1187
02:08:25,793 --> 02:08:31,501
A few days later I met Jaromír Šofr,
a cameraman, we made Trains together
1188
02:08:31,584 --> 02:08:33,709
and nearly all of the later movies.
1189
02:08:34,626 --> 02:08:37,834
He'd just married, and he had a child.
1190
02:08:38,626 --> 02:08:47,459
The regular salary we had was very low.
The same as department store cashiers had.
1191
02:08:48,376 --> 02:08:52,209
He needed to make movies
so he would get salary for that.
1192
02:08:53,043 --> 02:08:56,584
I told him I just turned one movie down.
1193
02:08:57,293 --> 02:09:04,001
So Šofr made me call the writer
to see if it was still available - it was.
1194
02:09:04,584 --> 02:09:07,168
So I started filming Capricious Summer.
1195
02:09:07,209 --> 02:09:13,834
In 1968, three directors came
to the Cannes Festival
1196
02:09:14,084 --> 02:09:17,168
to present their films
which competed there.
1197
02:09:17,376 --> 02:09:20,501
Jan Němec: The Party and the Guests
1198
02:09:20,751 --> 02:09:24,209
Miloš Forman: The Firemen's Ball
1199
02:09:24,543 --> 02:09:27,834
and Jiří Menzel: Capricious Summer.
1200
02:09:28,209 --> 02:09:36,168
The Cannes Festival ended prematurely
- there were no awards given.
1201
02:09:36,834 --> 02:09:42,168
Miloš and Honza Němec ended up badly
because their movies were shown.
1202
02:09:59,001 --> 02:10:01,001
- We arrived in Cannes.
- Right!
1203
02:10:01,043 --> 02:10:03,084
And the festival was cancelled.
1204
02:10:03,751 --> 02:10:06,668
But you... you participated
in the cancelling.
1205
02:10:06,709 --> 02:10:07,543
You too.
1206
02:10:07,876 --> 02:10:11,959
Yeah, but because I didn't understand
a word what you guys were saying.
1207
02:10:12,084 --> 02:10:13,168
Nobody understood.
1208
02:10:13,709 --> 02:10:15,793
Jaromír, don't walk so much,
you're making noise.
1209
02:10:15,876 --> 02:10:16,418
What?
1210
02:10:16,543 --> 02:10:18,584
Don't move so much,
you're making noise.
1211
02:10:25,834 --> 02:10:27,126
Come here!
1212
02:10:27,418 --> 02:10:28,293
Sit down!
1213
02:10:31,876 --> 02:10:32,918
Good afternoon!
1214
02:10:34,126 --> 02:10:41,751
It's sense of the provinces,
sense of time passed, sense of loss...
1215
02:10:43,918 --> 02:10:47,168
a kind of romantic affection
for that period.
1216
02:10:47,834 --> 02:10:50,793
These are unique...
Although, of course, the three characters
1217
02:10:50,793 --> 02:10:55,293
are supposed to be, kind of,
really criticised.
1218
02:10:55,293 --> 02:11:00,168
I mean, one is a pillar of the church,
another is a pillar of the bourgeoisie
1219
02:11:00,584 --> 02:11:02,584
and the other represents the army.
1220
02:11:03,209 --> 02:11:06,876
And they are all incompetent, impotent.
1221
02:11:07,293 --> 02:11:10,084
Let us eat and drink!
1222
02:11:10,251 --> 02:11:14,168
Give me a fat cheese,
venison, poultry, lambs
1223
02:11:14,626 --> 02:11:18,584
all that is brought forth alive or
hatched from eggs.
1224
02:11:18,918 --> 02:11:25,418
Give me a fish and the slugs
1225
02:11:26,043 --> 02:11:29,709
favoured in civilised countries.
1226
02:11:29,751 --> 02:11:31,126
Give me food.
1227
02:11:31,168 --> 02:11:36,001
The Earth has revolved again,
and it is time to eat.
1228
02:11:37,001 --> 02:11:39,459
Have you become a windbag
or a glutton, major?
1229
02:11:39,709 --> 02:11:42,918
Showing off with your teeth
or your tongue?
1230
02:11:43,251 --> 02:11:46,126
Too much talk makes me uneasy.
1231
02:11:46,251 --> 02:11:47,584
Uneasy?
1232
02:11:49,626 --> 02:11:52,418
We have hardly begun!
1233
02:11:52,626 --> 02:11:56,376
You follow a bad regimen
with too much thinking.
1234
02:11:56,668 --> 02:12:05,334
Šofr had great sense for pictures,
and I had it for the language.
1235
02:12:05,959 --> 02:12:12,876
So I forced the actors to speak,
act and live normally,
1236
02:12:12,959 --> 02:12:18,501
but to speak in a literary way.
1237
02:12:18,876 --> 02:12:23,876
Vančura is legendary for this,
that was his style.
1238
02:12:24,126 --> 02:12:31,543
The contrast between how they look,
and how they talk, that impressed people.
1239
02:12:37,084 --> 02:12:38,668
I am Arnoštek, the conjurer.
1240
02:12:46,876 --> 02:12:49,834
Come here, please!
I'm really scared.
1241
02:12:55,168 --> 02:12:56,209
Don't be afraid!
1242
02:12:57,001 --> 02:13:00,501
Come, Mr. Dvořák!
Nothing to be afraid of.
1243
02:13:01,418 --> 02:13:04,834
You have chosen
a beautiful, noble profession.
1244
02:13:10,918 --> 02:13:19,626
I never wanted to act.
I was really shy and felt embarrassed.
1245
02:13:19,751 --> 02:13:28,751
It so happened that Ján Kadár was
preparing for a film set in a court
1246
02:13:28,834 --> 02:13:36,709
and as per the script they wanted
an advocate who is shy and timid.
1247
02:13:36,751 --> 02:13:38,584
But despite that, he wins in the end.
1248
02:13:39,001 --> 02:13:42,084
He didn't know of an actor
who he liked for the role
1249
02:13:42,334 --> 02:13:44,376
and so he tried me out.
1250
02:13:48,918 --> 02:13:54,209
We were at the festival in Helsinki,
at the International Theatre Festival.
1251
02:13:54,209 --> 02:13:58,251
We were invited there and
we performed Chekhov and Brecht.
1252
02:13:58,251 --> 02:14:02,876
Mr. Bergman was there as well
with "King Lear" played by Jarl Kulle
1253
02:14:04,334 --> 02:14:12,126
and he was clearly the most
suitable candidate for an award.
1254
02:14:12,126 --> 02:14:18,293
It was an excellent, wonderful,
spectacular high-level performance.
1255
02:14:18,293 --> 02:14:25,209
And then Menzel came with his
"Boarding House for Bachelors"
1256
02:14:25,209 --> 02:14:30,334
which is a comedy and
we didn't expect anything anymore,
1257
02:14:30,918 --> 02:14:36,418
but they almost fainted
and gave him the award
1258
02:14:36,668 --> 02:14:38,668
and said that he is
the only one in the world,
1259
02:14:38,959 --> 02:14:45,876
that there are many more
King Lears and Jarl Kulles,
1260
02:14:46,376 --> 02:14:50,959
but there's only one Menzel and
they gave him the award.
1261
02:15:07,793 --> 02:15:10,084
I've never learned it,
but I know how to do it.
1262
02:15:13,251 --> 02:15:15,501
What are you looking for
in that cabinet, friend?
1263
02:15:16,918 --> 02:15:21,376
He acted in several films, he also
both directed a film and acted in it,
1264
02:15:21,668 --> 02:15:25,668
so he had to change places and he saw
how his colleagues were working.
1265
02:15:25,709 --> 02:15:33,418
But most importantly, he knows much better
than I do how to work with actors.
1266
02:15:34,126 --> 02:15:39,334
I also tried a few times
to get into a film.
1267
02:15:39,376 --> 02:15:44,501
But I somehow cannot -
I cannot concentrate.
1268
02:15:44,543 --> 02:15:50,793
When I see a camera,
I pay attention to it.
1269
02:15:50,834 --> 02:15:57,918
It distracts me because
I imagine how it sees me.
1270
02:15:58,459 --> 02:16:02,918
The camera distracts me.
I cannot focus on acting.
1271
02:16:03,334 --> 02:16:10,959
I appeared in some films, but masked,
it was something like... Godard.
1272
02:16:30,459 --> 02:16:33,751
Originally, someone else was
supposed to play the part.
1273
02:16:33,918 --> 02:16:43,834
After two days, I found he was no good.
He had kind of an ego about him.
1274
02:16:44,876 --> 02:16:49,543
Then, fortunately, it so happened
that he had to go abroad,
1275
02:16:49,918 --> 02:16:53,293
and wasn't coming back for a long time.
So I had an excuse to replace him.
1276
02:17:14,668 --> 02:17:19,376
The main reason why I'm annoyed with this
magician is that whereas the other actors
1277
02:17:19,459 --> 02:17:23,751
know how to speak beautifully,
I speak like a pig.
1278
02:17:24,168 --> 02:17:28,209
I don't have good pronunciation,
and I speak only with half of my mouth.
1279
02:17:28,543 --> 02:17:30,918
That is what always bothered me.
1280
02:17:31,209 --> 02:17:34,334
But, on the other hand,
if he was a masculine character
1281
02:17:34,376 --> 02:17:36,584
who was compared to those old men
1282
02:17:36,751 --> 02:17:46,501
it wouldn't have felt balanced.
He wasn't supposed to act macho.
1283
02:18:06,751 --> 02:18:09,459
We were unlucky with the weather as
1284
02:18:09,501 --> 02:18:12,418
the whole thing was meant to be taken
while it was cloudy
1285
02:18:12,501 --> 02:18:14,334
and the sun was shining all the time.
1286
02:18:14,334 --> 02:18:19,501
So, in the meantime, the grass, which was
of course supposed to be nicely green
1287
02:18:19,501 --> 02:18:20,834
started to wither.
1288
02:18:20,834 --> 02:18:23,251
They had to paint it green.
1289
02:18:24,959 --> 02:18:30,709
To tell the truth, when I was there,
nothing much was happening.
1290
02:18:30,709 --> 02:18:33,418
We played cards and waited.
1291
02:18:33,418 --> 02:18:39,459
We lay on blankets and chatted.
And it was very pleasant.
1292
02:18:39,459 --> 02:18:46,168
I think at that time,
the shooting style was different.
1293
02:18:46,168 --> 02:18:52,751
The terrible tension was not there that
we have to shoot every day at all costs.
1294
02:18:52,793 --> 02:18:58,459
When I was making this film,
I was under the illusion
1295
02:18:58,626 --> 02:19:01,834
that a man over forty
is totally written off.
1296
02:19:02,043 --> 02:19:09,584
And that is where the idea came from that
all shall fail with the beautiful Anna.
1297
02:19:10,043 --> 02:19:16,168
I remember that once at school
I asked Věra, who had
1298
02:19:16,251 --> 02:19:22,376
a boyfriend, an actor,
who was a bit older than her
1299
02:19:22,668 --> 02:19:27,543
and I asked her, "You go out with him?"
And he was a bit over forty.
1300
02:19:28,001 --> 02:19:31,543
And she said, "Yeah, I go out with him."
And I said, "Who do you sleep with then?"
1301
02:19:32,418 --> 02:19:38,709
Because I thought that after forty,
men are good for nothing.
1302
02:21:15,001 --> 02:21:19,668
And later I realised it can happen to you,
even when you're 20, even when you're 60.
1303
02:21:19,709 --> 02:21:21,626
It simply happens!
1304
02:21:21,626 --> 02:21:23,459
I want to extend a special welcome
1305
02:21:23,668 --> 02:21:29,084
to the crew who came here
all the way from India, from Mumbai.
1306
02:21:30,584 --> 02:21:34,959
Let me welcome all of you
to the opening ceremony
1307
02:21:35,001 --> 02:21:38,834
of the exhibition
"Capricious Summers of Jiří Menzel".
1308
02:22:06,959 --> 02:22:10,543
I don't know exactly when I started
getting interested in women
1309
02:22:10,709 --> 02:22:13,126
but it's a fact that
I always liked my neighbours
1310
02:22:13,168 --> 02:22:15,959
even the older ones... It's true.
1311
02:22:16,251 --> 02:22:21,709
But I wouldn't call
myself a loose character.
1312
02:22:21,793 --> 02:22:26,918
It took me quite a while
to become active.
1313
02:22:27,126 --> 02:22:28,418
I love him...
1314
02:22:29,959 --> 02:22:32,584
except during the weeks
when we work together.
1315
02:22:32,584 --> 02:22:34,751
During those weeks, I hate him
1316
02:22:34,959 --> 02:22:39,418
because he is so zealous
in his profession
1317
02:22:40,293 --> 02:22:43,126
that nobody else exists to him.
1318
02:22:43,126 --> 02:22:44,584
I don't know.
1319
02:22:44,584 --> 02:22:50,959
I don't think the actors
have the worst memories of me.
1320
02:22:51,001 --> 02:22:53,459
At times we went for a
long lunch break, came back
1321
02:22:53,459 --> 02:22:55,251
and Mr. Šofr was still saying
1322
02:22:55,293 --> 02:22:57,084
"Not yet... Give me more light there.
Wait! Let me see!"
1323
02:22:57,251 --> 02:22:59,959
And Menzel was like, "Is it done yet?"
1324
02:22:59,959 --> 02:23:01,459
But he always chooses
him as his cinematographer
1325
02:23:01,501 --> 02:23:03,584
and it always pays off for him
1326
02:23:03,584 --> 02:23:07,709
because he owes half of his success
to the visual composition of his films,
1327
02:23:07,709 --> 02:23:10,834
and he shot all of his movies, I think.
1328
02:23:10,834 --> 02:23:13,918
So that's a pair of wonderful gentlemen.
1329
02:23:27,959 --> 02:23:29,334
They gave me the first prize.
1330
02:23:29,834 --> 02:23:33,376
And to Šofr the first prize
for technical quality.
1331
02:24:15,293 --> 02:24:19,834
We had no idea
what would come of it because
1332
02:24:19,876 --> 02:24:24,501
we were waiting 3-4 weeks
to see the dailies.
1333
02:24:25,834 --> 02:24:28,209
That was a different era.
1334
02:24:29,251 --> 02:24:32,876
But it had its advantages
since when shooting
1335
02:24:32,876 --> 02:24:36,251
you had to know where
you'd edit your film,
1336
02:24:36,251 --> 02:24:39,709
and that's really important.
In film, you need that.
1337
02:24:40,043 --> 02:24:42,334
Now movies are shot almost like TV.
Everything's shot
1338
02:24:42,418 --> 02:24:44,709
from multiple angles, then
put all together in editing,
1339
02:24:44,709 --> 02:24:48,834
which is basically a TV shooting...
1340
02:24:49,834 --> 02:24:52,168
even though it is a feature film.
1341
02:24:53,084 --> 02:24:58,418
And the effort to make a
film, I mean to put shots
1342
02:24:58,418 --> 02:25:03,751
in a comparison and a contrast,
to tell the story -
1343
02:25:03,751 --> 02:25:06,543
one shot is one word,
another shot is another word
1344
02:25:06,584 --> 02:25:09,459
and that they somehow
follow each other...
1345
02:25:09,459 --> 02:25:11,959
and that you tell something
by editing it.
1346
02:25:11,959 --> 02:25:16,459
Unfortunately, that's not
how it's done anymore.
1347
02:25:38,209 --> 02:25:40,918
I was unhappy about the film.
I did not like it.
1348
02:25:41,501 --> 02:25:43,293
I thought that no one
would be able
1349
02:25:43,376 --> 02:25:45,334
to watch it,
that it was boring and slow...
1350
02:25:45,918 --> 02:25:49,126
Miloš saw it somewhere
and he said,
1351
02:25:49,168 --> 02:25:52,334
"Mr. Menzel, you have made
a beautiful film."
1352
02:25:53,543 --> 02:25:56,251
And I said, "Miloš, why are you
making fun of me?
1353
02:25:56,334 --> 02:25:57,626
I know that it is crap."
1354
02:25:57,626 --> 02:26:01,334
"Not at all! You have done a great job!"
1355
02:26:02,126 --> 02:26:06,668
I thought to myself, I see,
he is happy that I am screwed.
1356
02:26:07,293 --> 02:26:10,334
But then they started praising me,
and he was still kind to me.
1357
02:26:10,334 --> 02:26:20,084
The ways of expression, the language
1358
02:26:20,126 --> 02:26:29,501
the composition,
the psychological treatment
1359
02:26:29,501 --> 02:26:39,500
of all characters and their communication,
each character is exactly defined
1360
02:26:41,043 --> 02:26:51,042
and notably portrayed... I think that this
movie is flawless. Well, it's hard to say
1361
02:26:54,209 --> 02:27:01,251
"flawless" about a movie, but I really
think that this is the top. It is.
1362
02:27:01,334 --> 02:27:05,209
Mr. Hrušínský once said
in an interview that
1363
02:27:05,251 --> 02:27:13,209
Chaplin's statement was that "in purgatory
people should see their own films."
1364
02:27:13,251 --> 02:27:17,168
His reaction was "I'm actually looking forward
to Menzel's films."
1365
02:27:17,459 --> 02:27:21,126
I think that's the greatest honour
I could ever get...
1366
02:28:27,751 --> 02:28:37,209
In four months, before
you finish the film
1367
02:28:37,293 --> 02:28:46,209
it won't even be ready...
I might turn ninety.
1368
02:28:47,168 --> 02:28:50,418
I would like to live to see that.
1369
02:28:51,334 --> 02:28:56,126
I hope that a couple of people
will remember me and say,
1370
02:28:56,126 --> 02:29:00,376
I hope that couple of people
will remember me and say,
1371
02:29:01,126 --> 02:29:03,751
"Thank you, Mr. Řehák!"
1372
02:29:15,418 --> 02:29:21,793
So... I don't like saying it again,
but I view Menzel's fate as...
1373
02:29:22,376 --> 02:29:24,793
talent which was ultimately wasted.
1374
02:29:24,959 --> 02:29:27,418
But let's at least be grateful for
1375
02:29:27,709 --> 02:29:31,626
his best works from the 1960s,
which truly wrote him
1376
02:29:31,668 --> 02:29:35,543
into Czech history,
or Czechoslovak cinema.
1377
02:30:07,709 --> 02:30:12,959
Should I climb on that? May I?
Do you want to have a laugh?
1378
02:30:25,084 --> 02:30:31,043
I can't any more. Once I knew
how to walk on this. Not any more.
1379
02:30:31,543 --> 02:30:34,543
There is no medicine for old age.
1380
02:30:38,251 --> 02:30:44,043
I never wanted to get married.
What a fool I was!
1381
02:30:45,209 --> 02:30:47,251
Now I'm glad.
1382
02:30:49,001 --> 02:30:53,834
But I won't be around
when the girls grow up.
1383
02:30:54,751 --> 02:30:57,293
That's my punishment.
1384
02:31:02,084 --> 02:31:08,668
I'm living a joyful old age.
Essentially!
1385
02:31:19,209 --> 02:31:21,626
When I finished Capricious Summer,
1386
02:31:21,626 --> 02:31:25,959
I immediately got another proposal
to make The End of Old Times,
1387
02:31:26,001 --> 02:31:28,459
which was by the same author.
1388
02:31:29,709 --> 02:31:34,709
But the script was written
by the author of the book,
1389
02:31:34,709 --> 02:31:39,418
Vladislav Vančura, who also
wanted to make movies.
1390
02:31:40,084 --> 02:31:45,084
Back then I thought,
"Okay, since the script already exists,
1391
02:31:45,084 --> 02:31:46,876
why make another one?"
1392
02:31:46,876 --> 02:31:51,001
"Let's shoot it the way
Vančura wrote the script."
1393
02:31:51,751 --> 02:31:54,918
Fortunately, we couldn't find the script.
1394
02:31:56,709 --> 02:31:58,334
So it was cancelled.
1395
02:31:58,334 --> 02:32:00,918
We only got back to it many years later.
1396
02:32:00,918 --> 02:32:04,876
They came to me and told me
the script had been found.
1397
02:32:06,793 --> 02:32:08,834
And it was impossible to shoot.
1398
02:32:10,293 --> 02:32:14,626
Mr. Juráček, you want to blame me, that
I don't give you the right chance.
1399
02:32:14,668 --> 02:32:16,168
Do you want to say something?
1400
02:32:16,251 --> 02:32:18,084
To young people, some message.
1401
02:32:18,293 --> 02:32:21,501
Yes I want, I want to say to young people
1402
02:32:21,959 --> 02:32:25,459
that there is great sadness in this
world from the very beginning.
1403
02:32:25,543 --> 02:32:29,668
They should come to study at FAMU
because it's great fun there.
1404
02:32:46,501 --> 02:32:51,668
My father was a journalist before the war
and he had a journalist friend
1405
02:32:52,251 --> 02:32:57,918
who'd reported on the FAMU
entrance exams the year before,
1406
02:32:58,501 --> 02:33:04,959
and he stole the list of questions
from Otakar Vávra.
1407
02:33:05,668 --> 02:33:10,334
It was quite an important list of around
250 to 300 questions on different fields
1408
02:33:10,543 --> 02:33:14,751
from visual arts, music,
films, architecture -
1409
02:33:14,918 --> 02:33:20,584
many questions with the aim of finding out
what the applicant knows about culture.
1410
02:33:20,918 --> 02:33:23,834
Vávra wanted educated people over there.
1411
02:33:23,918 --> 02:33:29,334
So I had a year to prepare
for those questions.
1412
02:33:30,001 --> 02:33:36,793
So I had quite an advantage... and one of
those questions about Dostoyevsky.
1413
02:33:36,793 --> 02:33:38,709
There were many questions
about literature.
1414
02:33:38,751 --> 02:33:39,834
I didn't like Dostoyevsky.
1415
02:33:39,918 --> 02:33:41,751
I never understood how to read him.
1416
02:33:42,876 --> 02:33:46,334
When I was preparing
for the Dostoyevsky question
1417
02:33:46,334 --> 02:33:49,709
I went to my father's library
and picked out
1418
02:33:49,709 --> 02:33:55,168
the thinnest Dostoyevsky book
there was - there were two short stories.
1419
02:33:55,334 --> 02:34:03,709
I read them, and at the exams, there was
indeed a question on Dostoyevsky.
1420
02:34:04,418 --> 02:34:09,543
I started talking about
that short story which
1421
02:34:09,584 --> 02:34:14,501
no one from the committee
really knew about
1422
02:34:14,751 --> 02:34:16,334
and so they were
immensely impressed by me.
1423
02:34:16,376 --> 02:34:17,793
They thought that I was very well read.
1424
02:34:17,918 --> 02:34:22,001
And I started comparing it
with another book and so on.
1425
02:34:22,334 --> 02:34:25,001
So Vávra got the impression
I was well educated.
1426
02:34:25,043 --> 02:34:27,209
And that is how
I got admitted to FAMU.
1427
02:34:27,709 --> 02:34:37,543
My father told me once that
the loveliest wall decoration is a full library.
1428
02:34:39,084 --> 02:34:43,126
So, I've managed to collect
many interesting things
1429
02:34:43,334 --> 02:34:48,043
about World War II, for example,
or about film.
1430
02:34:48,584 --> 02:34:50,751
Or about theatre.
1431
02:34:50,751 --> 02:34:52,834
And this is Czech prose,
1432
02:34:53,293 --> 02:34:55,543
contemporary Czech prose...
1433
02:34:55,709 --> 02:34:58,584
These are books about Czech prose,
same thing here.
1434
02:34:58,918 --> 02:35:01,668
And this is the era dearest to me
1435
02:35:01,751 --> 02:35:09,543
they are books from the First Republic
and from up to the 1960s.
1436
02:35:09,626 --> 02:35:12,209
These are the complete works
of Mr. Hrabal.
1437
02:35:12,584 --> 02:35:15,543
Here, here and here.
1438
02:35:15,793 --> 02:35:18,793
Everything that was
ever published, even abroad.
1439
02:35:18,793 --> 02:35:27,959
Here are the comics. The literature I love,
the humoristic books.
1440
02:35:28,501 --> 02:35:30,126
These were the books
that were not allowed
1441
02:35:30,168 --> 02:35:31,584
to be published in Bohemia,
in Czechoslovakia,
1442
02:35:31,584 --> 02:35:37,876
but they were published abroad and
I used to buy them secretly and hide them.
1443
02:35:38,293 --> 02:35:43,376
That is how I hide the lowbrow books...
1444
02:35:44,209 --> 02:35:45,376
And the whole Czech history
1445
02:35:45,376 --> 02:35:48,168
and the times when we belonged
to the Austrian Empire.
1446
02:35:48,168 --> 02:35:53,834
This is contemporary politics.
This is English literature.
1447
02:35:54,168 --> 02:35:58,418
Please don't think that I have read it,
but I have it here.
1448
02:35:58,418 --> 02:36:01,126
If I need to know something,
I have it here.
1449
02:36:01,126 --> 02:36:05,918
I don't read books, I have them
just in case I'd need them one day.
1450
02:36:06,168 --> 02:36:08,418
If you follow me, I'll show you more.
1451
02:36:10,543 --> 02:36:16,126
Here is Russian literature,
and here are books about Prague.
1452
02:36:18,834 --> 02:36:22,084
And here is everything
that didn't fit anywhere else.
1453
02:36:22,084 --> 02:36:25,293
This is a new bookcase.
I'll start putting things in it.
1454
02:36:25,293 --> 02:36:35,292
These are books about visual arts,
and this all is visual arts.
1455
02:36:36,626 --> 02:36:38,584
That is all.
I don't have anymore...
1456
02:36:39,751 --> 02:36:43,376
They had a clause that the applicant
1457
02:36:44,709 --> 02:36:48,584
if he proved some kind of talent
1458
02:36:49,334 --> 02:36:53,959
he didn't have to have
a graduation in the high school
1459
02:36:54,584 --> 02:37:00,918
which was really an opening for
working-class background students
1460
02:37:01,168 --> 02:37:03,543
who didn't go to a high school...
1461
02:37:04,251 --> 02:37:06,543
So I thought this is a chance for me,
1462
02:37:06,793 --> 02:37:08,876
and so I filled it up.
1463
02:37:09,001 --> 02:37:14,334
And, having some experience with
communist bureaucracy
1464
02:37:14,334 --> 02:37:19,209
I lied and I said I did graduate
the high school
1465
02:37:19,209 --> 02:37:26,334
and they invited me to an audition.
1466
02:37:28,751 --> 02:37:34,668
And I spent, before that,
six weeks in a university library
1467
02:37:35,126 --> 02:37:37,793
and learnt everything I could about films.
1468
02:37:39,001 --> 02:37:45,501
And 300 people... were first day...
1469
02:37:46,126 --> 02:37:51,001
showed up, and they would
every day cut off 50 percent.
1470
02:37:52,209 --> 02:37:55,376
And the last day, we were about twelve.
1471
02:37:56,376 --> 02:37:58,043
And I got lucky.
1472
02:38:00,751 --> 02:38:05,543
I was among those six they accepted.
1473
02:38:06,001 --> 02:38:07,418
And...
1474
02:38:09,084 --> 02:38:16,168
But after three years, they found out
that I did not graduate
1475
02:38:16,584 --> 02:38:22,876
and that I actually was
a bourgeois background guy
1476
02:38:22,876 --> 02:38:24,418
and so they kicked me out.
1477
02:38:24,834 --> 02:38:28,293
But it was too late,
I already liked movies.
1478
02:38:49,751 --> 02:38:55,376
The department of direction - that's the
place where I studied direction.
1479
02:38:56,334 --> 02:38:58,459
I was admitted in 1992.
1480
02:38:58,459 --> 02:39:01,293
I climbed up the stairs
to the second floor now.
1481
02:39:01,293 --> 02:39:11,292
I remember that Otakar Vávra,
who taught here and was a huge personality
1482
02:39:12,334 --> 02:39:18,876
he was more than 80 and he always
ran up the stairs, a bit quicker than me.
1483
02:39:19,084 --> 02:39:28,751
This is the place where all the famous
directors of the New Wave studied.
1484
02:39:28,751 --> 02:39:30,084
And not only them.
1485
02:39:30,918 --> 02:39:35,126
I have experienced, as a student,
that Jiří Menzel taught here.
1486
02:39:35,168 --> 02:39:38,084
He was actually
the head of the department.
1487
02:39:38,584 --> 02:39:40,626
Věra Chytilová taught here,
1488
02:39:41,418 --> 02:39:45,209
Karel Kachyňa, in whose film I once acted,
had his seminars here...
1489
02:39:45,626 --> 02:39:49,876
The head of the department
is now Jan Němec
1490
02:39:50,501 --> 02:39:53,793
and it was possible to meet
all these idols
1491
02:39:53,834 --> 02:39:56,751
from the '60s here and to talk to them.
1492
02:39:56,834 --> 02:40:01,751
That is where the New Wave was born,
1493
02:40:01,751 --> 02:40:05,584
partly here and partly in another
building in Klimentská Street.
1494
02:40:05,793 --> 02:40:08,168
Let me introduce you to
the film's director - Radim Špaček.
1495
02:40:18,501 --> 02:40:23,793
Věra Chytilová and Evald Schorm
were my close friends.
1496
02:40:23,834 --> 02:40:28,543
I sat next to Věra during
the entire four years.
1497
02:40:29,168 --> 02:40:39,167
And Evald was... Well, they were both
older than me. I was a goggle-eyed nitwit.
1498
02:40:40,126 --> 02:40:47,834
I was a bit of an "enfant terrible".
And Evald was always wisely reprimanding me.
1499
02:40:48,168 --> 02:40:56,959
If the 60's, that period had a saint
it would be Evald Schorm.
1500
02:41:26,834 --> 02:41:28,668
The worst part is behind us.
1501
02:41:29,626 --> 02:41:33,043
Anxiety is, as they say,
fear of our fear.
1502
02:41:33,668 --> 02:41:36,126
Now there's only fear left.
We know what we're up to.
1503
02:41:36,793 --> 02:41:38,918
What is good and what is bad?
1504
02:41:39,376 --> 02:41:42,334
A man can be wrong even if he's right.
1505
02:41:42,793 --> 02:41:44,709
And the other way round.
1506
02:41:47,293 --> 02:41:51,251
Of the Czech directors,
I quite liked Evald Schorm.
1507
02:41:51,251 --> 02:41:55,126
He was a very wise person
1508
02:41:55,126 --> 02:42:01,418
who could create an atmosphere
on the shoot
1509
02:42:01,418 --> 02:42:03,543
in which he didn't
even have to direct much,
1510
02:42:03,543 --> 02:42:07,376
but people were trying their best
to do what he wanted.
1511
02:42:07,876 --> 02:42:10,584
He was a friendly kind
of an authority to me.
1512
02:42:10,584 --> 02:42:13,751
What Schorm and I had in common was...
1513
02:42:14,251 --> 02:42:16,209
he liked documentary film.
1514
02:42:16,334 --> 02:42:19,293
In both documentary
and fiction filmmaking,
1515
02:42:19,293 --> 02:42:22,793
we would sometimes both be working
simultaneously on the same theme
1516
02:42:23,001 --> 02:42:28,793
without me or him knowing
it was happening.
1517
02:42:31,709 --> 02:42:33,584
Silence there!
1518
02:42:57,543 --> 02:43:02,209
Initially, the story was about us girls
1519
02:43:03,959 --> 02:43:10,293
fooling around at the student dormitory
where we lived.
1520
02:43:10,626 --> 02:43:19,168
That's where it started, but
then when I found the people
1521
02:43:19,209 --> 02:43:26,459
I stylised the film more
than I had planned to...
1522
02:43:28,209 --> 02:43:32,959
I collaborated with Ester Krombachová
1523
02:43:33,001 --> 02:43:37,459
and I was interested in
finding a new approach...
1524
02:43:37,543 --> 02:43:40,209
She showed that costume design
1525
02:43:40,584 --> 02:43:46,834
is a major part of the language of cinema.
Thank God for that!
1526
02:43:47,126 --> 02:43:55,668
But she influenced Czech cinema also as a
screenwriter and dramaturge.
1527
02:43:55,668 --> 02:44:01,126
She directed only one movie and I worked
on it with her, and it was a bit off.
1528
02:44:01,126 --> 02:44:09,584
So she's less visible as a director, but
was a big influence on many colleagues,
1529
02:44:09,584 --> 02:44:13,043
not only the people
from the New Wave
1530
02:44:13,084 --> 02:44:16,459
but also Vávra, Kachyňa,
other older directors.
1531
02:44:16,459 --> 02:44:24,251
Because she was a catalyst,
she brought fresh air, she brought ideas.
1532
02:44:28,293 --> 02:44:30,918
It's all messed up.
1533
02:44:32,001 --> 02:44:36,293
Everyone has their backs to the camera,
and Ester Krumbachová faces it.
1534
02:44:36,501 --> 02:44:39,834
Věra Chytilová, who did
very, very different movies
1535
02:44:39,876 --> 02:44:42,376
because her first one was
1536
02:44:44,376 --> 02:44:47,584
very realist,
it was like a para-documentary film.
1537
02:44:47,918 --> 02:44:51,418
And the second one,
Daisies, was one of the
1538
02:44:51,459 --> 02:44:55,168
most crazy and anarchistic movies
I've ever seen.
1539
02:44:55,168 --> 02:44:58,584
Until now I am showing it to my students,
and they love it.
1540
02:44:58,584 --> 02:45:05,293
I had an ambition to explore all the
possibilities of film language...
1541
02:45:05,501 --> 02:45:08,376
so I wanted to do every film
in a different way...
1542
02:45:10,209 --> 02:45:13,751
Different! So that every movie
is different...
1543
02:45:13,918 --> 02:45:16,834
I didn't what to do what I'd already done...
1544
02:45:19,334 --> 02:45:22,251
And the serpent said to the woman:
1545
02:45:23,876 --> 02:45:26,459
Ye shall not surely die!
1546
02:45:27,626 --> 02:45:30,418
Ye shall not surely die!
1547
02:45:31,751 --> 02:45:34,793
Ye shall not surely die!
1548
02:45:36,959 --> 02:45:40,376
On the day ye eat thereof
1549
02:45:40,751 --> 02:45:43,334
your eyes shall be opened
1550
02:45:44,334 --> 02:45:47,168
and ye shall be as gods
1551
02:45:48,251 --> 02:45:51,626
knowing both good and evil.
1552
02:45:56,084 --> 02:45:59,876
Chytilová was wild,
Chytilová was someone with
1553
02:45:59,918 --> 02:46:03,543
an anarchistic element in her,
which I like a lot.
1554
02:46:04,834 --> 02:46:11,001
She was breaking all the rules,
she was a wild animal among them.
1555
02:46:11,543 --> 02:46:16,418
She had a lot of faces. And most importantly,
she was a beautiful girl.
1556
02:46:25,084 --> 02:46:30,459
She was almost thirty
when she started studying at FAMU.
1557
02:46:30,709 --> 02:46:34,251
Prior to that, she was used to
a life amongst rich people
1558
02:46:34,334 --> 02:46:37,293
always in cafe's and so on.
1559
02:46:37,293 --> 02:46:40,668
And suddenly, she started
living like a student.
1560
02:46:40,709 --> 02:46:43,709
When she was almost 30.
I appreciated that.
1561
02:46:44,043 --> 02:46:47,876
When we were walking together
to the school canteen to have lunch
1562
02:46:48,459 --> 02:46:53,293
guys were turning their heads
around and wanted to ask her out.
1563
02:46:53,543 --> 02:46:57,209
And then she was telling me
about the dates.
1564
02:46:57,293 --> 02:47:02,168
Because she was intelligent,
she could always look through the guys.
1565
02:47:02,626 --> 02:47:05,834
And then she was describing to me
how the guys tried to conquer her.
1566
02:47:06,209 --> 02:47:09,501
That was an education for me,
because through her eyes
1567
02:47:09,543 --> 02:47:13,001
at once I saw
what idiots we men are.
1568
02:47:21,084 --> 02:47:25,293
I am glad that I got to know her.
She was an exceptional woman.
1569
02:47:25,668 --> 02:47:33,043
She was a vibrant, honest,
healthy person with sensible opinions.
1570
02:47:42,209 --> 02:47:48,459
She started doing completely different
movies than me. I was a bit more critical.
1571
02:47:49,126 --> 02:47:54,834
As was she towards me.
She didn't like my movies very much.
1572
02:47:55,126 --> 02:47:57,626
I never cared about
leaving a legacy behind.
1573
02:47:58,084 --> 02:48:00,751
After I'm gone...
1574
02:48:02,668 --> 02:48:03,751
Darkness!
1575
02:48:12,584 --> 02:48:18,834
Thank you for being here!
We are glad to be here, too.
1576
02:48:21,293 --> 02:48:24,709
I've been part of this school
for so long,
1577
02:48:26,168 --> 02:48:30,793
because this is where I started...
1578
02:48:31,293 --> 02:48:36,001
and this is something
few people remember...
1579
02:48:36,501 --> 02:48:41,584
I persuaded Zápotocký,
the Prime Minister,
1580
02:48:41,876 --> 02:48:46,501
to get us free passes
to cinemas and theatres.
1581
02:48:47,334 --> 02:48:49,709
Quiet!
Yes...
1582
02:48:51,459 --> 02:48:55,418
He said,
"You can have three wishes."
1583
02:48:56,334 --> 02:49:01,626
The first was
the building in Klimentská Street,
1584
02:49:02,001 --> 02:49:03,376
which is owned by FAMU now.
1585
02:49:03,626 --> 02:49:06,376
I don't know when it happened before
1586
02:49:06,459 --> 02:49:11,709
that such mutual energy
joined in one place.
1587
02:49:11,793 --> 02:49:21,792
That cultural blossom,
this renaissance of 1968
1588
02:49:23,584 --> 02:49:33,459
taught us lot of things we'd later
use in our films and in our lives.
1589
02:50:05,584 --> 02:50:09,501
The teachers there
were unwanted by the regime.
1590
02:50:09,918 --> 02:50:13,918
But we found their perspective amazing.
1591
02:50:14,543 --> 02:50:18,501
Thanks to them we knew what freedom was.
1592
02:50:19,126 --> 02:50:23,001
For example, I was taught
by the now world-famous
1593
02:50:23,918 --> 02:50:26,084
writer Milan Kundera,
1594
02:50:26,834 --> 02:50:30,584
Professor Kratochvíl, Rector Brousil.
1595
02:50:31,251 --> 02:50:34,668
They introduced us to
world cinema as well.
1596
02:50:35,043 --> 02:50:38,501
And suddenly to our surprise,
we found out that in Italy
1597
02:50:39,001 --> 02:50:43,543
you could make films freely
and without any restrictions.
1598
02:50:43,876 --> 02:50:47,501
But Neorealists
were against the government.
1599
02:50:47,626 --> 02:50:53,418
I'd known Milan Kundera
for a long time because
1600
02:50:53,418 --> 02:50:58,918
he was a famous poet, and suddenly,
I saw him teaching at FAMU.
1601
02:50:58,918 --> 02:51:02,126
Milan Kundera was always late.
1602
02:51:02,126 --> 02:51:03,418
He was always late.
1603
02:51:03,751 --> 02:51:07,501
And as he showed up late,
he would ask...
1604
02:51:07,501 --> 02:51:09,584
He would say this sentence,
1605
02:51:09,584 --> 02:51:12,376
"What do you want me
to tell you about?"
1606
02:51:12,584 --> 02:51:16,834
And out of that huge universe
that modern literature is -
1607
02:51:16,834 --> 02:51:21,793
and to him, modern literature
included the past few centuries -
1608
02:51:21,793 --> 02:51:26,793
he was able to start lecturing
about absolutely anything.
1609
02:51:26,793 --> 02:51:29,209
Or he would pick a book
1610
02:51:29,209 --> 02:51:32,793
he would open a book by Sartre
1611
02:51:33,001 --> 02:51:37,501
read a passage from it
and discuss it with us.
1612
02:51:37,501 --> 02:51:43,543
Everything was, more or less, with
some kind of eroticism and sexuality...
1613
02:51:43,543 --> 02:51:50,168
So this was a huge discussion about
'orgasm' for, like, five hours.
1614
02:51:50,293 --> 02:51:58,209
We loved him, not because he was
a handsome, young, slender man
1615
02:51:58,334 --> 02:52:03,418
but because he had some sort of energy,
intellectual energy.
1616
02:52:03,418 --> 02:52:08,501
He said, "It would feel dumb
to sit in a lecture hall
1617
02:52:08,501 --> 02:52:14,543
with just four people. Let's meet
across the street at Debonais."
1618
02:52:14,709 --> 02:52:16,959
It was a small wine bar.
1619
02:52:17,459 --> 02:52:21,834
And we said, "But Professor,
we are students, we are poor!"
1620
02:52:22,709 --> 02:52:24,959
"We don't have the money
to spend in a wine bar."
1621
02:52:24,959 --> 02:52:29,043
And he goes, "I said I would
teach you at a wine bar
1622
02:52:29,043 --> 02:52:32,626
I invited you there,
so I'm going to pay for you."
1623
02:52:32,626 --> 02:52:38,584
You know, I lectured in
many film schools since
1624
02:52:38,876 --> 02:52:45,459
and I very often would go
to other people's classes
1625
02:52:46,126 --> 02:52:48,293
just to see how they are doing it.
1626
02:52:49,418 --> 02:52:54,126
And I've never seen anybody
better than Milan Kundera.
1627
02:53:08,418 --> 02:53:12,418
My best friend
from my home village.
1628
02:53:18,418 --> 02:53:22,626
Dear Vojtěch,
all the best on your 90th birthday!
1629
02:53:22,793 --> 02:53:25,834
- I'm enjoying this.
- Let's make it 120!
1630
02:53:26,043 --> 02:53:35,001
It is exactly 90 years since a great
patriot was born in Kelč - Vojtěch Jasný.
1631
02:53:35,793 --> 02:53:42,918
He was one of the first FAMU students.
In 1946, he enrolled in this department,
1632
02:53:43,043 --> 02:53:49,251
and the directing department,
studying at two departments.
1633
02:53:50,001 --> 02:53:52,501
Then he launched
an important film career,
1634
02:53:53,543 --> 02:53:57,626
at first, making short films
with Karel Kachyňa...
1635
02:53:58,001 --> 02:54:02,418
followed by important Czechoslovak movies -
Desire, I Survived Certain Death
1636
02:54:02,834 --> 02:54:06,668
and some of the best Czech films
1637
02:54:06,751 --> 02:54:10,584
All My Good Countrymen and
The Cassandra Cat.
1638
02:55:31,876 --> 02:55:36,209
I also liked walking backwards
with the camera.
1639
02:55:36,459 --> 02:55:39,168
And I also rotated around my axis.
1640
02:55:42,918 --> 02:55:43,918
- He's good right?
- Yes.
1641
02:55:44,168 --> 02:55:50,043
Forman described Jasný as a, sort of,
'spiritual father' of the Czech New Wave.
1642
02:55:50,418 --> 02:55:51,668
He is right.
1643
02:55:52,043 --> 02:55:55,834
I made it possible
for Miloš Forman to make films.
1644
02:55:55,959 --> 02:55:58,209
They didn't want to let him shoot.
1645
02:55:58,209 --> 02:56:01,876
One of the Czech novelists,
Josef Škvorecký,
1646
02:56:02,751 --> 02:56:11,084
said that the artistic common sense was
always gnawing at the, sort of, ideology.
1647
02:56:11,251 --> 02:56:14,209
And so, when filmmakers
had the opportunity to
1648
02:56:14,251 --> 02:56:17,251
sort of, break the limits,
they did so.
1649
02:56:50,334 --> 02:56:53,918
Karel Kachyňa, Vojtěch Jasný
and František Vláčil
1650
02:56:53,918 --> 02:56:59,459
were kind of precursors, predecessors
of the New Wave.
1651
02:57:32,668 --> 02:57:37,209
I usually don't record
my visual concept
1652
02:57:37,209 --> 02:57:42,751
by describing it verbally...
That would be time-consuming.
1653
02:57:43,168 --> 02:57:47,043
I prefer doing it in
minor pictorial sketches.
1654
02:57:47,918 --> 02:57:51,959
I must say I was nine in 1959
when I met him.
1655
02:57:52,168 --> 02:57:59,084
I knew what a screenplay was
but I didn't grasp that particular one.
1656
02:57:59,209 --> 02:58:01,459
I didn't understand it.
1657
02:58:01,584 --> 02:58:04,668
But the more fantastic I found the way
1658
02:58:04,668 --> 02:58:08,751
the adults - not only Vláčil -
communicated with me.
1659
02:58:09,126 --> 02:58:14,709
Since I had acted before,
I felt this group of people
1660
02:58:15,751 --> 02:58:17,376
was creating something different.
1661
02:58:17,376 --> 02:58:19,709
The way they communicated
was completely different
1662
02:58:19,709 --> 02:58:21,626
from what I knew from
other film shoots.
1663
02:58:22,251 --> 02:58:27,293
And as the little boy I was,
I felt their incredible desire
1664
02:58:27,751 --> 02:58:32,084
to express something but I didn't
exactly understand what it was.
1665
02:58:33,918 --> 02:58:38,001
What made an impression on me was
that it was the first time
1666
02:58:38,084 --> 02:58:43,126
I heard somebody thoroughly discussing
what the camera was supposed to do
1667
02:58:43,376 --> 02:58:45,376
what compositions they would use
1668
02:58:45,668 --> 02:58:49,334
how important it was for me to stand
facing this way or this way
1669
02:58:49,876 --> 02:58:51,751
because of the lights they set up.
1670
02:58:51,918 --> 02:58:56,084
That was where I realised,
thanks to other situations as well -
1671
02:58:56,168 --> 02:59:01,793
that František was actually
an image artist.
1672
02:59:20,626 --> 02:59:25,501
I think František Vláčil is one of the
best directors ever in Europe.
1673
02:59:26,293 --> 02:59:34,626
Not known, but giving me, a kind of,
strength to think with the image.
1674
02:59:34,626 --> 02:59:38,709
Out of all literary forms
that come close to filmmaking,
1675
02:59:38,834 --> 02:59:40,918
I think it's poetry.
1676
02:59:40,918 --> 02:59:44,793
It's already in the structure of
individual verses
1677
02:59:45,668 --> 02:59:47,751
that give a different meaning:
1678
02:59:48,001 --> 02:59:50,334
a structure so similar
to that of film
1679
02:59:50,626 --> 02:59:53,793
where arrangement of two shots
1680
02:59:53,834 --> 02:59:58,043
which may have a different
semantic and aesthetic quality,
1681
02:59:58,501 --> 03:00:01,959
creates, through film-editing,
a third meaning
1682
03:00:02,043 --> 03:00:05,918
that may have not been directly
present in those two original shots.
1683
03:00:29,043 --> 03:00:31,959
Now which one is... Mr. Hanák?
1684
03:00:33,001 --> 03:00:34,251
Let's call!
1685
03:00:35,376 --> 03:00:37,209
What's the number?
1686
03:01:00,001 --> 03:01:01,793
What does this say?
1687
03:01:05,209 --> 03:01:13,918
It's a university, and... this is...
they are some... I think monks... or nuns.
1688
03:01:13,918 --> 03:01:15,918
And this we don't know who it is!
1689
03:01:15,918 --> 03:01:20,834
No. This says... M.D.H. It's Duš...
1690
03:01:20,834 --> 03:01:24,918
Ah! That could be him,
because DH has initial letters
1691
03:01:25,001 --> 03:01:27,751
letters Dušan Hanák.
That could be it!
1692
03:01:52,251 --> 03:01:55,293
Hi, Dušan, Martin Huba speaking.
1693
03:01:56,334 --> 03:02:02,293
Hi. Sorry to bother you,
but I was asked a favour.
1694
03:02:02,293 --> 03:02:06,751
The thing is they're
shooting an interview with me
1695
03:02:06,793 --> 03:02:11,543
for a documentary about Jirka Menzel.
1696
03:02:11,543 --> 03:02:17,834
They've spoken to you,
but they're a bit afraid of you.
1697
03:02:17,834 --> 03:02:23,626
You didn't seem to be too pleased
about their visit
1698
03:02:23,626 --> 03:02:28,209
so they're asking if they could come
1699
03:02:28,251 --> 03:02:32,459
to say good-bye and
give you a little present.
1700
03:02:38,293 --> 03:02:42,751
...that they'd send questions,
but haven't sent any.
1701
03:02:43,418 --> 03:02:46,751
To me, that's being irresponsible.
1702
03:02:47,834 --> 03:02:52,084
Tell them I said thank you very much.
1703
03:02:55,251 --> 03:02:59,751
OK, thanks!
1704
03:03:04,376 --> 03:03:05,918
He was rather stern.
1705
03:03:05,918 --> 03:03:09,459
It seems you promised him questions,
but didn't send any.
1706
03:03:09,459 --> 03:03:11,709
And I don't know what else.
1707
03:03:11,876 --> 03:03:17,168
He says thank you for
the present, but
1708
03:03:17,168 --> 03:03:22,751
he's somewhere else,
so maybe next time.
1709
03:03:23,001 --> 03:03:25,668
He also said,
that they were irresponsible.
1710
03:03:28,293 --> 03:03:30,876
He was expecting questions
because he said he...
1711
03:03:30,876 --> 03:03:31,918
But we've sent it to him.
1712
03:03:32,126 --> 03:03:33,543
Oh! He said he didn't receive any.
1713
03:03:35,751 --> 03:03:37,918
Yes, oh yes, as we agreed
together before this take
1714
03:03:37,959 --> 03:03:40,168
we really like the school,
and you must not
1715
03:03:40,209 --> 03:03:42,334
badmouth or scandalise the school.
1716
03:03:45,001 --> 03:03:48,751
Mr. Nemec, didn't you get a prize
while still at FAMU?
1717
03:03:48,876 --> 03:03:51,876
I got a prize in Amsterdam.
As for FAMU, it gave me nothing
1718
03:03:52,043 --> 03:03:57,418
except education,
a correct attitude towards
1719
03:03:57,459 --> 03:04:02,126
society, art, women,
alcohol, religion.
1720
03:04:02,209 --> 03:04:03,501
In fact, it gave me everything.
1721
03:05:35,126 --> 03:05:41,418
First shot of the Diamonds of the Night
basically is my major piece of filmmaking.
1722
03:05:42,043 --> 03:05:47,209
And it was my idea to have it
in one shot - the movement of the train
1723
03:05:48,043 --> 03:05:54,334
these boys jumping out of the train going
through the river and to the mountains
1724
03:05:55,251 --> 03:05:59,084
to the moment they are exhausted and sit,
say they cannot run more.
1725
03:05:59,418 --> 03:06:06,584
For this shot, we built special,
sort of, rail, on the top of the hill
1726
03:06:07,584 --> 03:06:09,834
This was built about one month
1727
03:06:10,043 --> 03:06:12,126
and... so, cost of the one shot
1728
03:06:12,168 --> 03:06:15,709
was one-third of the production
of the whole film.
1729
03:06:16,126 --> 03:06:23,126
Diamonds of the Night,
what he does with sound
1730
03:06:23,168 --> 03:06:30,501
with the atmosphere, that's unique.
1731
03:06:30,501 --> 03:06:33,959
I am completely independent for the -
1732
03:06:34,001 --> 03:06:37,709
not socialism, communism,
you know, no capitalism.
1733
03:06:37,751 --> 03:06:43,334
Every time I was doing it,
as Frank Sinatra said it,
1734
03:06:43,418 --> 03:06:45,293
"I did it my own way."
1735
03:06:45,334 --> 03:06:49,168
I think his movies will outlive us all
1736
03:06:49,876 --> 03:06:54,876
because they are filmed for the future,
for a completely different audience.
1737
03:06:55,251 --> 03:06:57,959
He had a different relationship
to the film than we had.
1738
03:06:58,168 --> 03:07:01,501
We made more or less
distributional movies.
1739
03:07:02,209 --> 03:07:08,418
He was, in my opinion, an artist.
He was obsessed with film.
1740
03:07:08,626 --> 03:07:12,959
I'm leaving through this door
and nobody will see me again.
1741
03:07:12,959 --> 03:07:15,293
Goodbye! Bye!
1742
03:07:23,876 --> 03:07:27,959
I think without FAMU,
there would be no New Wave
1743
03:07:27,959 --> 03:07:30,043
and I wouldn't become a director.
1744
03:07:30,043 --> 03:07:32,709
It's said, each of them, or
almost each one, started out
1745
03:07:32,751 --> 03:07:35,584
wanting to do something
completely different than directing.
1746
03:07:36,168 --> 03:07:38,584
Evald Schorm wanted to do opera
1747
03:07:38,626 --> 03:07:41,168
Jiří Menzel originally wanted
to do theatre.
1748
03:07:41,543 --> 03:07:45,626
Petr Weigl wanted to do ballet, but they
didn't let him since he was homosexual.
1749
03:07:45,709 --> 03:07:49,001
Schorm was turned down for opera,
Menzel was turned down for theatre.
1750
03:07:49,084 --> 03:07:53,293
FAMU was a kind of second option for them,
which is highly paradoxical.
1751
03:07:53,501 --> 03:07:55,793
On top of that, that graduating
class was interesting
1752
03:07:55,876 --> 03:07:57,543
in that they were a really diverse crew.
1753
03:07:57,626 --> 03:08:00,876
Between Věra Chytilová,
the oldest in the year, and
1754
03:08:00,876 --> 03:08:04,043
Jiří Menzel, there was
an age gap of over 9 years.
1755
03:08:04,043 --> 03:08:09,876
I was at school - I was the oldest,
and he was the youngest -
1756
03:08:10,126 --> 03:08:12,084
and we were sitting together
at the same bench
1757
03:08:12,251 --> 03:08:17,376
because when I came to the classroom,
all the seats were already taken.
1758
03:08:18,168 --> 03:08:21,834
Only the first bench was free.
So I sat there and
1759
03:08:21,918 --> 03:08:25,918
there was a free seat next to me.
1760
03:08:26,001 --> 03:08:31,959
And then Menzel came gasping for air
and he sat next to me.
1761
03:08:32,001 --> 03:08:42,000
We practiced some part of theatrical
inscenation and of course we were all cast
1762
03:08:43,293 --> 03:08:47,084
because one of us was a director
and the others had to play in it.
1763
03:08:47,126 --> 03:08:54,334
And I know that when he directed
Věra Chytilová with Evald Schorm,
1764
03:08:54,376 --> 03:09:01,543
Evald said, "You are like a sun,
you are like a sunflower."
1765
03:09:01,584 --> 03:09:10,418
He said that to Chytilová, which was
very unusual, and in one moment Jiří -
1766
03:09:10,459 --> 03:09:16,501
because he was, or he is, very lively -
he took a chair and threw it at them.
1767
03:09:16,543 --> 03:09:24,293
And that belonged... It isn't even a funny
story, it belonged to his vision,
1768
03:09:24,334 --> 03:09:28,626
because he wanted it in one way
and those two acted it differently,
1769
03:09:28,668 --> 03:09:31,501
so he sorted it out in this dramatic way.
1770
03:09:31,709 --> 03:09:36,126
I remember how we'd make a scene
in a workshop at the film faculty,
1771
03:09:36,334 --> 03:09:42,501
he would go second and he did not know
at that moment what the actor should do
1772
03:09:42,626 --> 03:09:46,334
so that it would be interesting.
1773
03:09:46,668 --> 03:09:52,626
So he would lie down on a bench and say,
1774
03:09:52,626 --> 03:09:57,251
"Direct all the head lights at me,
I need to
1775
03:09:57,293 --> 03:10:01,334
light up my head... get some idea!"
1776
03:10:01,793 --> 03:10:10,751
You can see that even though Menzel
puts on airs of being very conventional,
1777
03:10:10,751 --> 03:10:14,251
there is a bit of
a wild artist in him as well.
1778
03:10:16,584 --> 03:10:18,001
Stop shooting!
1779
03:10:18,376 --> 03:10:20,626
I am becoming a bit nervous
because of it.
1780
03:10:20,918 --> 03:10:22,584
It isn't sunny anyway.
1781
03:10:36,834 --> 03:10:43,043
We went for a family trip on
the River Vltava
1782
03:10:43,876 --> 03:10:49,459
and I liked the way
the stokers stoked up the coal.
1783
03:10:49,834 --> 03:10:52,084
I did not want to be just a stoker
1784
03:10:52,084 --> 03:10:54,376
so I told myself that I will
become the main stoker.
1785
03:10:55,501 --> 03:11:01,918
But then I wanted to become a waiter,
and many other professions.
1786
03:11:02,668 --> 03:11:12,667
Only when I was 15 or 16,
my theatre era began.
1787
03:11:18,543 --> 03:11:19,793
Shot 24... Take 1
1788
03:11:51,084 --> 03:11:52,793
I fell asleep, guys.
1789
03:11:55,376 --> 03:11:58,334
It is interesting that
when I met Jirka Menzel
1790
03:11:58,376 --> 03:12:01,168
and he took me to his
flat for the first time
1791
03:12:01,168 --> 03:12:04,251
he used to live in a different flat then
1792
03:12:05,334 --> 03:12:10,918
I went there and was astonished
to see that he lived in his bed.
1793
03:12:11,918 --> 03:12:15,626
He could reach everything from his bed.
1794
03:12:16,376 --> 03:12:21,376
I remembered the slapstick comedy,
I am not sure if it was Chaplin
1795
03:12:22,334 --> 03:12:26,209
who was in his bed and he pulled something
and breakfast would come
1796
03:12:26,209 --> 03:12:28,834
he would pull something else
and trousers would come...
1797
03:12:28,876 --> 03:12:30,293
You know the comedy, don't you?
1798
03:12:30,293 --> 03:12:32,251
That was the way Jirka Menzel
used to live.
1799
03:12:32,293 --> 03:12:34,668
Everything was in his reach
and if something was not
1800
03:12:34,709 --> 03:12:37,001
he called his sister, Hanička,
and she brought it.
1801
03:12:38,043 --> 03:12:41,084
He had a TV in front of him, a video
1802
03:12:41,084 --> 03:12:44,293
I don't know, a telephone,
he had everything.
1803
03:12:44,293 --> 03:12:46,418
He could live in his bed,
he did not have to get out of it.
1804
03:12:47,001 --> 03:12:52,959
I realised that Miloš Forman
1805
03:12:52,959 --> 03:12:58,876
has a very similar lifestyle as well
1806
03:12:59,334 --> 03:13:01,918
he also spends his life in his bed!
1807
03:13:03,334 --> 03:13:09,126
So these Czech guys who collect Oscars,
I don't know about young Svěrák
1808
03:13:09,668 --> 03:13:13,793
love to live in their bed!
1809
03:13:13,876 --> 03:13:18,001
I think he learned me,
in this period, how to
1810
03:13:18,043 --> 03:13:22,501
create the... an idea about
the hero, or anti-hero.
1811
03:13:23,334 --> 03:13:28,376
The one who enters the world
with a laziness
1812
03:13:29,001 --> 03:13:33,334
I would say, even coming from,
designed in...
1813
03:13:33,418 --> 03:13:37,584
the tradition of
some kind of Russian literature
1814
03:13:38,376 --> 03:13:43,084
in which laziness, resistance,
and I would say,
1815
03:13:43,084 --> 03:13:47,793
not very active
but more passive hero,
1816
03:13:48,293 --> 03:13:51,959
was like in a model.
1817
03:13:52,376 --> 03:13:54,418
So he himself...
1818
03:13:55,043 --> 03:13:58,709
He looks like this but
in fact he is very energetic
1819
03:13:58,751 --> 03:14:02,126
and he is very,
I would say, sometimes a bully.
1820
03:14:02,751 --> 03:14:06,668
Very strong! But he always acts
like somebody with
1821
03:14:06,751 --> 03:14:10,709
low blood-pressure and
with a distance to the world
1822
03:14:10,876 --> 03:14:14,626
which gives him a chance
to make it funnier than it is.
1823
03:14:27,876 --> 03:14:30,251
My professor, Otakar Vávra
1824
03:14:31,001 --> 03:14:36,168
was in fact the father of this cinema.
1825
03:14:37,709 --> 03:14:42,751
Whenever I make the movie, I always
try to remember his basic suggestions
1826
03:14:42,751 --> 03:14:47,459
that he was doing while three years
he was giving us his lessons.
1827
03:14:47,459 --> 03:14:52,126
And I always remember him
for this kind of attitude.
1828
03:14:52,751 --> 03:14:59,126
And, I would say, as I said before,
tectonic approach to the cinema
1829
03:14:59,584 --> 03:15:04,751
that cinema is not just...
you're based on the strong conflict.
1830
03:15:04,751 --> 03:15:08,251
He said always.
And I always remember this.
1831
03:15:08,334 --> 03:15:14,626
Without strong conflict, you cannot make
audience 2 hours or 3 hours being seated.
1832
03:16:05,209 --> 03:16:08,418
Please come in!
Hello!
1833
03:16:08,918 --> 03:16:09,751
Hello!
1834
03:16:10,293 --> 03:16:13,251
Hello! Nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you!
1835
03:16:37,251 --> 03:16:38,251
Please!
1836
03:16:39,501 --> 03:16:41,709
Coffee? Tea?
1837
03:16:41,876 --> 03:16:44,209
They came here primarily
because of Vávra this time,
1838
03:16:44,209 --> 03:16:46,834
they already had an appointment
fixed with him.
1839
03:16:46,834 --> 03:16:48,418
They have already made
an appointment with Mrs. Němcová
1840
03:16:48,418 --> 03:16:50,459
and now they're feeling very sorry
that he died.
1841
03:16:50,876 --> 03:16:53,793
They waited the whole year
and they came mainly because of him.
1842
03:16:54,376 --> 03:16:55,918
Yes, it is unfortunate,
but you can talk to
1843
03:16:55,959 --> 03:16:57,418
his wife who knows
everything about him.
1844
03:16:57,668 --> 03:17:04,876
Jitka is a miracle.
She is his student, 40 years younger,
1845
03:17:05,668 --> 03:17:10,126
and she used to take care of him daily
till the last day, which wasn't easy.
1846
03:17:10,126 --> 03:17:12,084
She shot her own films
1847
03:17:12,418 --> 03:17:17,126
and along with that she
managed to take care of Vávra
1848
03:17:17,168 --> 03:17:21,584
in a very special... unkind,
but still loving way.
1849
03:17:22,251 --> 03:17:28,584
I am very grateful to her for what
she had done for him, for my professor.
1850
03:17:28,584 --> 03:17:36,418
Thanks to her he had a very
comfortable old age. That is very nice.
1851
03:17:37,209 --> 03:17:40,918
I, of course, feel sad
that my professor passed away.
1852
03:17:40,918 --> 03:17:45,501
I am grateful to him for many things.
1853
03:17:45,501 --> 03:17:49,001
Apart from my parents,
I learned the most from my professor.
1854
03:18:07,834 --> 03:18:11,668
Otakar Vávra had two loves,
actually three -
1855
03:18:11,918 --> 03:18:17,751
me, Jiří Menzel, and Emir Kusturica.
1856
03:18:17,918 --> 03:18:25,126
Menzel more than me, I think.
They loved each other immensely.
1857
03:18:25,126 --> 03:18:27,626
I am not admirer... he is just opposite.
1858
03:18:27,626 --> 03:18:34,834
First step, when he entered the school as
a chief of the directing department,
1859
03:18:35,626 --> 03:18:45,501
he said no to my diploma work's
screenplay film ready for production,
1860
03:18:45,501 --> 03:18:47,168
and he just stopped it!
1861
03:18:47,459 --> 03:18:51,501
And I was very close to say,
"I'll never finish the school".
1862
03:18:51,501 --> 03:18:56,709
And he just exercised his power
that everybody was afraiding him.
1863
03:18:56,918 --> 03:18:59,209
This is the BIRTH OF FAMU.
1864
03:19:00,543 --> 03:19:02,584
You can see what it looks like...
1865
03:19:02,626 --> 03:19:05,876
It's wonderful...
such a great school later...
1866
03:19:06,001 --> 03:19:08,376
Yes, what else do we have here?
1867
03:19:08,543 --> 03:19:12,043
What's needed here... another VHS...
1868
03:19:14,376 --> 03:19:20,918
Party Congress in Nuremberg, 1934.
Wow! That's great, really!
1869
03:19:21,043 --> 03:19:25,751
Baarová was already there
with that Goebbels, great.
1870
03:19:26,543 --> 03:19:29,876
Here are some albums.
1871
03:19:32,418 --> 03:19:34,918
This is the Czech Technical University
in Brno
1872
03:19:35,001 --> 03:19:37,418
because Vávra studied architecture
1873
03:19:37,501 --> 03:19:39,418
a course he never finished.
1874
03:19:39,418 --> 03:19:43,834
Here are his designs, look!
These are truly incredible.
1875
03:19:44,918 --> 03:19:47,501
Creating a movie,
it's like building a house,
1876
03:19:48,334 --> 03:19:51,209
that you have to go from
the foundation to the roof
1877
03:19:51,584 --> 03:19:57,459
that you have to have the strong sense
of something very tectonic
1878
03:19:58,668 --> 03:20:02,168
vertical, horizontal, and as strong as
1879
03:20:04,043 --> 03:20:09,001
the formal reaction
you could have to some pieces...
1880
03:20:09,043 --> 03:20:14,209
of architecture that belong
to the history of art.
1881
03:20:17,626 --> 03:20:22,584
Otakar Vávra made many good films,
following one after another.
1882
03:20:23,043 --> 03:20:27,084
He wanted to make films properly,
which is why,
1883
03:20:27,293 --> 03:20:29,043
already during the war,
1884
03:20:29,126 --> 03:20:33,793
he invented a system for teaching
new filmmakers after the war.
1885
03:20:34,043 --> 03:20:38,584
He prepared four years of lectures for us
1886
03:20:39,043 --> 03:20:43,918
which taught us everything
we should know about our profession.
1887
03:20:44,168 --> 03:20:54,167
And when he died two years ago,
in 2011, he left me the lectures.
1888
03:20:57,376 --> 03:21:03,751
He never got the lectures copied.
That means that they are nowhere else.
1889
03:21:03,751 --> 03:21:06,126
It is only me who has them.
1890
03:21:07,084 --> 03:21:13,918
I have taken them and I followed Vávra.
I teach them here at FAMU.
1891
03:21:14,084 --> 03:21:19,626
First of all, the beginning
of the lectures is beautiful.
1892
03:21:19,626 --> 03:21:22,626
He reminds us that film is an art,
1893
03:21:23,584 --> 03:21:27,668
and that film can sometimes
get ahead of literature.
1894
03:21:28,043 --> 03:21:30,959
I also think that the Czech New Wave
would not have happened
1895
03:21:31,001 --> 03:21:37,626
if Professor Otakar Vávra did not help
nationalise Czechoslovak cinema in 1945.
1896
03:21:37,626 --> 03:21:41,876
On one hand, he was a great filmmaker.
1897
03:21:41,959 --> 03:21:43,876
But there was also...
1898
03:21:47,543 --> 03:21:50,168
He was able to conform to the regime,
1899
03:21:50,168 --> 03:21:52,709
he was able to make regime-friendly films.
1900
03:21:52,709 --> 03:21:53,418
You know?
1901
03:21:59,793 --> 03:22:07,959
Vávra was the head of Věra Chytilová's
class, but we had lectures with him...
1902
03:22:08,001 --> 03:22:18,000
on directing, on evolution of drama...
I respected him as a professor so much!
1903
03:22:24,084 --> 03:22:28,584
I finished my studies by making a movie
1904
03:22:28,626 --> 03:22:35,668
Fugue on the Black Keys
under his guidance, not under Wassermann's.
1905
03:22:35,709 --> 03:22:41,751
I also was Vávra's assistant director for
Romance for Bugle.
1906
03:23:01,293 --> 03:23:05,293
I had very ambiguous relations with Vávra
when he was teaching me
1907
03:23:05,543 --> 03:23:08,668
because he was very, you know,
very ambiguous man.
1908
03:23:08,709 --> 03:23:12,584
His biography was very,
very complex and complicated.
1909
03:23:12,918 --> 03:23:16,459
And I was very uncompromising
young person.
1910
03:23:16,834 --> 03:23:19,251
So he wasn't the authority to me.
1911
03:23:19,418 --> 03:23:21,668
But I think he was a great teacher.
1912
03:23:21,709 --> 03:23:24,376
It means, he was able
to give the insurance,
1913
03:23:24,376 --> 03:23:29,959
to give some kind of the faith
in the cinema to those students,
1914
03:23:30,001 --> 03:23:33,168
and most of the students
from the generation
1915
03:23:33,209 --> 03:23:35,751
of the New Wave really admired him.
1916
03:23:38,084 --> 03:23:43,626
And just recently after his death
1917
03:23:43,626 --> 03:23:49,334
I read some papers from my prison files
1918
03:23:49,751 --> 03:23:51,751
which I didn't know, of course...
1919
03:23:52,459 --> 03:23:57,584
and I learned that Vávra was
helping me enormously
1920
03:23:58,126 --> 03:24:04,418
giving me very good opinion that
I'm great communist and socialist person
1921
03:24:04,418 --> 03:24:05,709
that I am a... blah, blah...
1922
03:24:05,834 --> 03:24:10,501
just to save me from being thrown out
from the school.
1923
03:24:10,876 --> 03:24:14,084
So, also politically,
he wasn't so black and white
1924
03:24:14,126 --> 03:24:17,293
as some people described him.
1925
03:24:18,084 --> 03:24:23,584
I think Vávra probably is the
quintessence of the 20th century -
1926
03:24:23,584 --> 03:24:27,418
in the filmmaking, in the politics,
the destiny of the man
1927
03:24:27,418 --> 03:24:30,418
who went through
different totalitarian regimes
1928
03:24:30,418 --> 03:24:35,168
and a bit like Zelig, try to know to
change himself to accommodate.
1929
03:24:35,751 --> 03:24:37,876
But in the same time, you know, he...
1930
03:24:38,459 --> 03:24:42,584
He kept something which was
the most important for him
1931
03:24:43,418 --> 03:24:47,418
the faith that making movies
is very important thing.
1932
03:24:48,126 --> 03:24:51,293
Hurray, it's the Red Army!
1933
03:24:52,501 --> 03:24:55,126
There is peace!
1934
03:25:05,251 --> 03:25:11,668
People accuse Vávra of being
a servant of the regime... it's not true.
1935
03:25:12,126 --> 03:25:16,584
What they blame him for, they can
blame the whole generation for.
1936
03:25:16,584 --> 03:25:18,876
I later found in my life
1937
03:25:19,501 --> 03:25:22,876
that making cinema is
much more important than
1938
03:25:23,418 --> 03:25:26,876
directly supporting just one
political option or another.
1939
03:25:26,918 --> 03:25:33,668
That process of making an alliance
with every government is far beyond me.
1940
03:25:33,751 --> 03:25:38,626
I can't talk about my professor
without positive words
1941
03:25:38,709 --> 03:25:45,293
because he taught me things
I never could've learnt anywhere else
1942
03:25:45,376 --> 03:25:48,793
except for here at FAMU in Prague.
1943
03:25:48,793 --> 03:25:55,084
Elia Kazan was getting his
lifelong achievement Academy Award
1944
03:25:55,376 --> 03:26:00,084
and I will never forget the TV screen.
1945
03:26:02,168 --> 03:26:04,376
The audience didn't get up.
1946
03:26:05,251 --> 03:26:08,334
For lifelong achievement Academy Award!
1947
03:26:08,876 --> 03:26:13,001
But they somehow couldn't
forget, they couldn't say
1948
03:26:13,043 --> 03:26:16,834
"Oh, that's OK.
That was in the '50s".
1949
03:26:17,293 --> 03:26:21,793
The same year, Vávra was getting his
lifelong achievement award
1950
03:26:21,793 --> 03:26:24,501
in Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
1951
03:26:25,001 --> 03:26:26,418
and I was sitting there
1952
03:26:26,626 --> 03:26:31,751
and I was so curious whether
the Czech audience or Czech filmmakers
1953
03:26:32,084 --> 03:26:38,793
would give this kind of honour
and give him standing ovation.
1954
03:26:39,043 --> 03:26:39,959
They did!
1955
03:26:39,959 --> 03:26:43,584
When the whole New Wave came,
Vávra used to teach them.
1956
03:26:43,918 --> 03:26:49,126
But then he made two of his best films,
Romance for Bugle and Golden Queen,
1957
03:26:49,751 --> 03:26:54,043
and thereafter Witchhammer
1958
03:26:54,043 --> 03:27:00,501
at the same time when Menzel, Chytilová,
Jakubisko, and others used to shoot.
1959
03:27:00,501 --> 03:27:06,334
That means that in his older age,
he had the same poetics like them.
1960
03:27:09,376 --> 03:27:14,918
After the screening of
Romance for Bugle, I told Otakar Vávra
1961
03:27:14,918 --> 03:27:21,501
"Professor, you are as good as
the New Wave!"
1962
03:27:21,626 --> 03:27:25,834
And he said, "What do you mean?
I can't stand the New Wave!"
1963
03:27:25,876 --> 03:27:29,001
But at the start of Normalisation,
he once again
1964
03:27:29,834 --> 03:27:33,418
became a turncoat,
and recorded propaganda films.
1965
03:27:33,459 --> 03:27:35,084
Light Penetrates the Dark -
have you heard about that?
1966
03:27:35,084 --> 03:27:39,251
That is a three-minute film,
the first film by Otakar Vávra.
1967
03:27:39,668 --> 03:27:46,084
It's a musical piano, a wonderful film.
Take it as you want, it's amazing.
1968
03:28:02,959 --> 03:28:05,501
Wow, get a look at him!
1969
03:28:05,834 --> 03:28:08,251
Such a gentle young boy!
1970
03:28:12,793 --> 03:28:15,751
I know that one, it's all Vávra.
1971
03:28:16,876 --> 03:28:23,126
Here he is with his brother,
who was eight years older.
1972
03:28:24,709 --> 03:28:29,709
And he wrote... "A hned má hlad".
He was a writer.
1973
03:28:30,376 --> 03:28:32,501
And they really cared about each other,
I have to say.
1974
03:28:32,626 --> 03:28:36,376
When he started going out
with me, his brother said,
1975
03:28:36,418 --> 03:28:39,959
"But Vávra, you'll get
bored of fucking one day."
1976
03:28:40,084 --> 03:28:42,709
But I have to say
he stuck it out a fair bit.
1977
03:29:18,501 --> 03:29:23,834
It was a relationship that was
based on great tactfulness.
1978
03:29:24,043 --> 03:29:26,918
It was a relationship based on talking.
1979
03:29:26,918 --> 03:29:35,418
When he lost his sight,
I used to read books to him.
1980
03:29:36,834 --> 03:29:38,793
He used to read books to me before that.
1981
03:29:38,793 --> 03:29:39,918
He would read books to me
for twenty years.
1982
03:29:39,918 --> 03:29:42,459
And I'd read books to him
for twenty years.
1983
03:29:42,959 --> 03:29:45,084
We exchanged the roles a bit.
1984
03:29:45,793 --> 03:29:52,334
He was one of the best narrators.
1985
03:29:52,334 --> 03:29:56,251
He knew what a story
is supposed to look like.
1986
03:29:56,251 --> 03:30:02,459
Not only did he know this, but he was
a great analyst as well.
1987
03:30:03,334 --> 03:30:07,793
When I shot my films, I could never
show them to him...
1988
03:30:07,793 --> 03:30:09,876
he would crush them.
1989
03:30:10,251 --> 03:30:13,793
I showed them to him only when
they were ready, never before that.
1990
03:30:13,793 --> 03:30:16,626
And when I showed them to him then
in the end,
1991
03:30:17,376 --> 03:30:22,334
he told me about my mistakes
and of course, he was right.
1992
03:30:23,126 --> 03:30:31,418
Sometimes he wouldn't say, because
when there were many mistakes,
1993
03:30:31,668 --> 03:30:36,084
I threatened not to give him dinner.
So he kept his mouth shut.
1994
03:30:36,418 --> 03:30:44,918
He was a great partner,
we were together for 41 years,
1995
03:30:45,209 --> 03:30:47,418
from morning to evening,
from evening 'til morning.
1996
03:30:48,084 --> 03:30:53,501
He is still with me, that is how it is.
1997
03:30:53,501 --> 03:30:59,376
When we were in our first year,
he called us all and told us,
1998
03:30:59,793 --> 03:31:05,251
"Okay, so you all want to be directors,
don't you?"
1999
03:31:05,376 --> 03:31:09,501
"You can still change your mind
because, as UNESCO says
2000
03:31:09,751 --> 03:31:16,084
test pilots have
the highest mortality rate
2001
03:31:16,168 --> 03:31:22,501
and second place belongs to
film directors."
2002
03:31:23,209 --> 03:31:25,793
And this Otakar Vávra,
who was telling us
2003
03:31:25,834 --> 03:31:28,584
this information,
lived to be 100 years old.
2004
03:31:51,584 --> 03:31:55,043
I sometimes say "Czech",
sometimes "Czechoslovak" wave,
2005
03:31:55,251 --> 03:31:58,251
as it was only me who was a member
2006
03:31:58,293 --> 03:32:01,376
of some sort of Czechoslovak Wave
2007
03:32:01,543 --> 03:32:06,376
because my friends and
all the others kept a certain distance.
2008
03:32:06,501 --> 03:32:11,459
So, although I shot
my first film in Slovakia
2009
03:32:11,501 --> 03:32:15,293
I was more a part of the Czech wave
2010
03:32:15,584 --> 03:32:18,209
because we understood each other better.
2011
03:32:18,209 --> 03:32:21,209
When I asked my colleagues,
like Hanák, Havetta,
2012
03:32:21,584 --> 03:32:29,209
to start a Slovak 'branch'
of the wave as well, to join it,
2013
03:32:29,918 --> 03:32:31,626
everybody said,
"Well, I have other problems",
2014
03:32:31,668 --> 03:32:33,209
or "I don't think it's
politically feasible",
2015
03:32:33,209 --> 03:32:37,376
"I have my problems",
or "I don't have a prop master"
2016
03:32:37,418 --> 03:32:41,501
or "I just cannot do it in anyway".
2017
03:32:41,751 --> 03:32:44,418
So, in fact, I was alone.
2018
03:32:44,876 --> 03:32:47,959
It would be a bit unfair
to say that I was alone
2019
03:32:48,001 --> 03:32:51,793
since there was
Slovak film director Štefan Uher,
2020
03:32:51,834 --> 03:32:55,043
who made a film called
The Sun in a Net,
2021
03:32:55,168 --> 03:33:02,084
and everybody said that this was
a sort of precursor, an inspiration.
2022
03:33:03,459 --> 03:33:04,834
Don't move your arm!
2023
03:33:06,918 --> 03:33:08,293
You are a good-for-nothing.
2024
03:33:08,876 --> 03:33:11,376
- There's going to be solar eclipse.
- Your arm!
2025
03:33:13,418 --> 03:33:14,959
Shall we watch it together...?
2026
03:33:15,501 --> 03:33:16,668
Dear Bela,
2027
03:33:17,918 --> 03:33:21,168
you don't care about snowdrops or eclipses.
2028
03:33:22,293 --> 03:33:24,168
Your problem is you hate staying in.
2029
03:33:24,918 --> 03:33:29,376
Is that why you said,
"Let's go to the roof?"
2030
03:33:32,626 --> 03:33:35,418
I could have looked at you in the street.
2031
03:33:37,418 --> 03:33:41,709
The Sun in a Net
is a mix of documentary film
2032
03:33:41,709 --> 03:33:44,459
and psychological painting.
2033
03:33:44,459 --> 03:33:47,168
That's Uher's method.
2034
03:33:47,209 --> 03:33:50,418
Stanislav Barabáš was
among the first FAMU graduates
2035
03:33:50,459 --> 03:33:54,126
and shot Song of a Grey Dove (1961).
2036
03:33:54,418 --> 03:33:59,459
Second important
FAMU graduate was Peter Solan
2037
03:34:00,084 --> 03:34:05,084
I know Solan, because we got on very well.
2038
03:34:05,501 --> 03:34:09,793
And Barabáš was
my lifelong intimate friend.
2039
03:34:11,501 --> 03:34:16,126
And after the Occupation
he left Czechoslovakia.
2040
03:34:16,876 --> 03:34:20,834
And he wanted me to leave too,
2041
03:34:20,834 --> 03:34:24,126
that if we both left,
we would find better jobs
2042
03:34:24,126 --> 03:34:27,626
and he even got me a job
in a Canadian TV station.
2043
03:34:28,293 --> 03:34:32,251
But I couldn't force myself
to leave Slovakia.
2044
03:34:32,251 --> 03:34:36,168
1950s graduate Martin Hollý joined them.
2045
03:34:36,251 --> 03:34:43,084
All three of them brought new topics
into Slovakian cinema. New topics!
2046
03:34:54,626 --> 03:34:56,876
That's enough!
To the right!
2047
03:34:57,376 --> 03:34:58,251
Pull!
2048
03:34:58,918 --> 03:35:00,418
More - keep pulling!
2049
03:35:12,834 --> 03:35:14,251
Damn it! Move it!
2050
03:35:15,834 --> 03:35:16,959
C'mon, move!
2051
03:35:18,293 --> 03:35:19,418
Damn it!
2052
03:35:19,793 --> 03:35:20,876
Kiril!
2053
03:35:20,876 --> 03:35:22,168
Jump to the rope!
2054
03:35:22,459 --> 03:35:24,501
Grab the rope!
2055
03:35:25,668 --> 03:35:27,793
Leave it and jump!
2056
03:35:27,918 --> 03:35:29,043
Jump!
2057
03:35:29,959 --> 03:35:32,501
Jump!
You've got it!
2058
03:35:42,459 --> 03:35:45,043
Hanák, Havetta, Jakubisko...
2059
03:35:47,168 --> 03:35:49,543
each one of them is different.
2060
03:35:49,584 --> 03:35:51,459
Each one has his own style,
2061
03:35:52,501 --> 03:35:54,376
which is what makes them interesting.
2062
03:35:55,876 --> 03:35:58,668
Films by these three directors
2063
03:35:58,709 --> 03:36:02,751
who are the main representatives
apart from Uher -
2064
03:36:03,626 --> 03:36:08,293
three most prominent
Slovak directors of the 60s.
2065
03:36:08,293 --> 03:36:15,293
Because it brought great desire to
experiment and great...
2066
03:36:17,293 --> 03:36:19,293
spontaneous playfulness.
2067
03:36:19,543 --> 03:36:24,126
They weren't afraid to break taboos,
to break the rules.
2068
03:36:48,251 --> 03:36:56,293
So, I can say I'm the most popular
director, sort of, in Slovakia.
2069
03:36:56,626 --> 03:36:58,751
I'm, in fact, sort of a 'Slovak Menzel'.
2070
03:36:58,793 --> 03:37:05,084
Havetta and Jakubisko were friends,
from high school, VŠUP
2071
03:37:05,459 --> 03:37:08,043
where they both studied photography.
2072
03:37:08,709 --> 03:37:13,959
Juro came to FAMU a year before Havetta.
2073
03:37:15,293 --> 03:37:17,126
He was one year ahead.
2074
03:37:18,584 --> 03:37:23,293
He was the one to convince Eliáš
to study at FAMU.
2075
03:37:24,168 --> 03:37:29,168
They made a lot of things together,
such as St Nicholas Day newsreels
2076
03:37:29,251 --> 03:37:31,209
original and funny things.
2077
03:37:31,293 --> 03:37:34,418
They were both witty and artists...
2078
03:37:34,709 --> 03:37:36,084
very gifted!
2079
03:37:37,043 --> 03:37:41,084
Later, they started heading
in different directions
2080
03:37:41,168 --> 03:37:46,001
but during their studies,
they were friends.
2081
03:37:47,876 --> 03:37:52,209
I know one thing, you love me.
2082
03:37:53,501 --> 03:37:55,959
- No, I don't.
- Yes, you do.
2083
03:38:00,751 --> 03:38:01,626
No.
2084
03:38:03,709 --> 03:38:05,001
I will not lie to myself.
2085
03:38:07,418 --> 03:38:10,168
Better to kill myself....
2086
03:38:13,001 --> 03:38:17,043
My parents and brother didn't die.
2087
03:38:17,251 --> 03:38:21,084
They perished like sick animals.
2088
03:38:21,668 --> 03:38:23,418
And the others...
2089
03:38:23,876 --> 03:38:24,876
You understand...
2090
03:39:17,959 --> 03:39:24,168
I felt closest to the works of Havetta.
They were most acceptable for me.
2091
03:39:24,918 --> 03:39:29,418
It was something that...
I don't know where the tradition...
2092
03:39:29,834 --> 03:39:31,251
I would...
2093
03:39:32,418 --> 03:39:35,918
see it also in Parajanov
2094
03:39:36,376 --> 03:39:38,793
or in what came from the East.
2095
03:39:38,876 --> 03:39:43,084
It was something between
Babel, Parajanov and...
2096
03:39:43,626 --> 03:39:48,668
and a kind of
satirised Slovak reality.
2097
03:39:55,751 --> 03:40:01,918
I think that documentaries,
as a specific kind of film,
2098
03:40:02,168 --> 03:40:07,626
and fiction films can sometimes
influence each other
2099
03:40:07,626 --> 03:40:10,918
and they do, in the history of cinema.
2100
03:40:16,209 --> 03:40:21,418
We wanted to make films
about life as it really was.
2101
03:40:21,418 --> 03:40:27,626
But we were only allowed to make
films about how life should look.
2102
03:40:27,626 --> 03:40:32,126
By that I mean the future. And that
was not compatible with cinema,
2103
03:40:32,501 --> 03:40:36,126
that has a documentary character
after all.
2104
03:40:36,376 --> 03:40:39,959
It records reality, not illusions.
2105
03:40:40,709 --> 03:40:42,959
And so our defiance began.
2106
03:40:42,959 --> 03:40:47,668
Defiance against the rules
set by the regime.
2107
03:41:25,876 --> 03:41:32,043
It's a film about an individual,
one very strong individualist
2108
03:41:32,043 --> 03:41:35,126
that hated everyone else in the group.
2109
03:41:35,126 --> 03:41:37,751
Because individuality is different
2110
03:41:37,751 --> 03:41:40,209
and doesn't blend in with the crowd.
2111
03:41:40,209 --> 03:41:45,168
And that's the subtext that motivated me.
2112
03:41:45,168 --> 03:41:49,626
That's why I was
so attracted to this topic.
2113
03:41:49,626 --> 03:41:54,668
Of course, it's a film about love, too.
Unfulfilled love and so on.
2114
03:41:54,668 --> 03:41:59,459
But it's essential to say that it's
a film about disdain of the crowd too.
2115
03:41:59,459 --> 03:42:05,168
For example, the scene where the village
is deciding the fate of the Dragon
2116
03:42:05,168 --> 03:42:10,084
and they are talking as the Central Committee
of the Communist Party did
2117
03:42:10,084 --> 03:42:11,459
when they were asking each other,
"What to do with Grečner?"
2118
03:42:11,501 --> 03:42:16,543
It seems to me that Slovak films
are more emotional.
2119
03:42:18,959 --> 03:42:21,293
Perhaps you could say that they are,
2120
03:42:22,584 --> 03:42:26,084
sort of, more honest, more heartfelt...
2121
03:42:26,084 --> 03:42:31,709
Slovaks have their Slovak context,
cultural context,
2122
03:42:32,168 --> 03:42:34,043
some approach to folklore
2123
03:42:34,126 --> 03:42:37,418
which they wanted
to revolutionise and modernise.
2124
03:42:37,501 --> 03:42:40,668
They had a completely
unsentimental approach.
2125
03:42:40,751 --> 03:42:43,209
It wasn't that important to Czechs.
2126
03:42:43,501 --> 03:42:45,751
In the Czech New Wave,
2127
03:42:45,834 --> 03:42:50,251
the emphasis was on a psychological
approach to things
2128
03:42:50,834 --> 03:42:53,293
and a social approach to things.
2129
03:43:05,385 --> 03:43:08,385
Have they announced it?
2130
03:43:08,427 --> 03:43:13,635
They announced the abdication
of President Novotný.
2131
03:43:15,593 --> 03:43:19,635
There were movements for change
from '63 onwards.
2132
03:43:19,927 --> 03:43:21,677
So you're looking at a progression.
2133
03:43:22,635 --> 03:43:28,010
And I think, there was... while there was
movement for change within the arts
2134
03:43:28,510 --> 03:43:31,427
there was also
a movement for change
2135
03:43:31,468 --> 03:43:34,093
within society and
insofar as it was possible.
2136
03:43:34,510 --> 03:43:38,635
But this didn't really come to head
2137
03:43:38,718 --> 03:43:42,968
until '68 with the removal
of President Novotný
2138
03:43:43,177 --> 03:43:46,760
who, shall we say, was an
old-style communist
2139
03:43:47,218 --> 03:43:52,927
and his replacement by Alexander Dubček,
who oversaw the Prague Spring.
2140
03:43:53,052 --> 03:43:56,885
They were trying to introduce
greater degrees of democracy
2141
03:43:57,343 --> 03:44:00,302
towards the end
they were trying to introduce
2142
03:44:00,343 --> 03:44:05,052
workers' councils, workers' control...
they never got that far.
2143
03:44:05,718 --> 03:44:13,177
And as Dubček put it, the idea was
the widest possible democratisation.
2144
03:44:13,510 --> 03:44:19,052
He came up with a slogan,
"Socialism with a Human Face"
2145
03:44:20,927 --> 03:44:25,468
which was automatically
really saying that what
2146
03:44:25,510 --> 03:44:29,593
was there before
didn't have a human face.
2147
03:44:35,760 --> 03:44:44,468
In my case, The Elective Affinities
meant that communists and anti-communists
2148
03:44:44,802 --> 03:44:46,760
you understand...
2149
03:44:47,135 --> 03:44:50,843
united for some time.
2150
03:44:50,927 --> 03:44:53,468
They realised they needed each other
2151
03:44:53,510 --> 03:44:58,802
and that they would be happier
in a different mutual relationship.
2152
03:44:59,218 --> 03:45:03,052
And it only lasted those eight months.
2153
03:45:03,343 --> 03:45:04,010
You understand?
2154
03:45:04,093 --> 03:45:09,260
For eight months,
Czechs lived in a different structure.
2155
03:45:09,552 --> 03:45:14,677
And those eight months in 1968
2156
03:45:14,718 --> 03:45:24,717
stood for a great intellectual power
of this nation, which still lasts today.
2157
03:45:28,260 --> 03:45:34,093
This afternoon I'll be writing a speech...
2158
03:45:34,260 --> 03:45:38,635
If it's cleverly used, it'll be true...
2159
03:45:39,635 --> 03:45:42,593
This is the harvest period,
for the film people.
2160
03:45:42,635 --> 03:45:47,843
Let's have lunch now...
2161
03:45:47,885 --> 03:45:52,177
Afterwards I'm to call up some people.
2162
03:45:52,218 --> 03:45:57,968
I'm working on the final version
2163
03:45:58,010 --> 03:46:01,468
for the Central Committee
plenary session.
2164
03:46:01,510 --> 03:46:04,677
So we'll talk afterwards, right?
2165
03:46:04,718 --> 03:46:09,552
- We're off to lunch.
- We'll be here.
2166
03:46:11,802 --> 03:46:14,968
To explain what is the Czech culture
2167
03:46:15,010 --> 03:46:18,385
I think that's the best image
I can give you
2168
03:46:19,010 --> 03:46:25,218
is writers, filmmakers, singers -
all these guys and girls
2169
03:46:25,468 --> 03:46:29,302
rent a balcony on
opposite side of the square
2170
03:46:29,843 --> 03:46:33,885
and find someone half-crazy actor or
2171
03:46:33,927 --> 03:46:37,468
I don't know,
person from the street probably.
2172
03:46:38,927 --> 03:46:47,593
They wait with him, when Dubček went
on balcony and huge crowd start to scream
2173
03:46:48,635 --> 03:46:53,593
at the same moment, this crazy guy
appeared on this balcony on opposite side
2174
03:46:53,593 --> 03:46:56,218
and they start to applaud him.
2175
03:46:56,385 --> 03:47:03,010
So they were laughing in probably the most
important moment of new Czech history.
2176
03:47:03,552 --> 03:47:04,927
They have these things.
2177
03:47:05,552 --> 03:47:12,552
They didn't fall in pathetic moment
and start to cry or big Czech and so on.
2178
03:47:12,927 --> 03:47:17,843
So, if you want to explain
what is the Czech New Wave...
2179
03:47:18,802 --> 03:47:19,802
that's it.
2180
03:47:20,718 --> 03:47:26,302
They were laughing to themselves
in very dramatic moments.
2181
03:47:26,302 --> 03:47:35,135
I shot the icon of Prague Spring,
that is Dubček
2182
03:47:35,343 --> 03:47:37,885
and even worse,
I was making fun of them.
2183
03:47:45,885 --> 03:47:49,010
We captured director Jiří Menzel
and cameraman Jaromír Šofr
2184
03:47:49,052 --> 03:47:51,927
working on the final scenes
of the new film.
2185
03:47:52,468 --> 03:47:54,677
Bohumil Hrabal wrote the screenplay.
2186
03:47:55,177 --> 03:48:04,135
He published the book "Larks on a String",
which was short stories from the 50s
2187
03:48:05,010 --> 03:48:07,218
about the stupidity of the regime.
2188
03:48:07,677 --> 03:48:11,135
It was beautifully written!
And I said to myself then
2189
03:48:12,260 --> 03:48:15,635
that it was a pity that
we couldn't make a movie about it
2190
03:48:15,718 --> 03:48:19,885
because the Bolsheviks
would never allow us to
2191
03:48:19,885 --> 03:48:24,385
make fun of the silly things
they did in the 50s.
2192
03:48:24,802 --> 03:48:28,385
It wasn't silly as much as tragic, though.
2193
03:48:29,135 --> 03:48:33,468
And that's exactly what
the stories were about.
2194
03:48:33,510 --> 03:48:36,677
It was merciless
as much as funny.
2195
03:48:38,052 --> 03:48:44,885
It happened that Dubček came,
the atmosphere changed
2196
03:48:45,427 --> 03:48:52,635
and the communists suddenly realised
the regime can't be as hard as it was.
2197
03:48:53,718 --> 03:48:57,718
And right out of the blue
they cancelled the censorship.
2198
03:48:58,135 --> 03:49:06,093
Prague Spring was about relaxing the rules
that had been put in place
2199
03:49:06,135 --> 03:49:12,385
by those horrible communists
under Moscow's patronage.
2200
03:49:12,427 --> 03:49:17,760
Many of them were murderers,
they set up concentration camps.
2201
03:49:18,052 --> 03:49:18,718
You understand?
2202
03:49:18,927 --> 03:49:20,677
And the point was
to get rid of all of that.
2203
03:49:20,677 --> 03:49:23,885
It was an amazing time
2204
03:49:25,343 --> 03:49:27,302
of great hopes
2205
03:49:28,468 --> 03:49:31,593
and growing optimism among people.
2206
03:49:33,343 --> 03:49:35,302
I was surprised to find
2207
03:49:36,302 --> 03:49:40,427
that they still could be optimistic
after all those years.
2208
03:49:41,177 --> 03:49:46,218
We didn't know what to do first -
watch TV, listen to the radio
2209
03:49:46,302 --> 03:49:47,510
or go out and walk in the streets.
2210
03:49:47,927 --> 03:49:51,593
We asked several people
in that month of August 1968
2211
03:49:51,968 --> 03:49:53,718
"What is their greatest wish?"
2212
03:49:54,343 --> 03:49:58,802
A young woman -"That the beautiful
National Spring doesn't end too soon...
2213
03:49:59,135 --> 03:50:02,260
that I may be able to bring up
my sons in its spirit."
2214
03:50:02,552 --> 03:50:05,385
An old woman - "That I
get back my apartment
2215
03:50:05,427 --> 03:50:08,343
which was unlawfully taken away
from me two years ago."
2216
03:50:08,593 --> 03:50:12,468
A hippie - "The most important
thing is love. War is crap."
2217
03:50:12,885 --> 03:50:16,510
The beautiful thing was
he called me to his office
2218
03:50:16,635 --> 03:50:20,635
read the screenplay for
All My Good Countrymen and said
2219
03:50:20,760 --> 03:50:24,468
"You can make this film your way
and nobody's going to interfere."
2220
03:50:24,593 --> 03:50:28,885
"You can do whatever you like.
You are the boss now."
2221
03:50:29,427 --> 03:50:30,843
That was beautiful.
2222
03:50:31,260 --> 03:50:33,552
It was thanks to Dubček.
2223
03:51:26,010 --> 03:51:31,468
In such a short period,
utopia happened and utopia died.
2224
03:51:31,885 --> 03:51:33,927
It was basically six or seven months.
2225
03:51:33,968 --> 03:51:37,135
And you know how long you
are preparing the movies.
2226
03:51:37,218 --> 03:51:47,217
So basically in result, practically,
only few films were done in this freedom...
2227
03:51:47,593 --> 03:51:50,718
One was this Menzel
film which was banned;
2228
03:51:50,968 --> 03:51:54,218
one was this Kachyňa film
which was banned later.
2229
03:51:54,260 --> 03:51:57,218
I could finally shoot The Cremator.
2230
03:52:16,718 --> 03:52:20,718
What about the President
becoming a granddad?
2231
03:52:20,885 --> 03:52:24,302
Is that classified information too?
Can the Ear hear that?
2232
03:52:29,218 --> 03:52:32,843
Listen, Ear, Comrade President
is a granddad.
2233
03:52:32,927 --> 03:52:35,760
It's a boy. Everything's fine.
2234
03:52:36,968 --> 03:52:39,552
The mother, unfortunately,
hasn't got enough milk.
2235
03:52:42,718 --> 03:52:47,927
WE WILL DEFEND SOCIALISM
2236
03:52:49,843 --> 03:52:53,843
WE WILL UNITE THE PEOPLE
2237
03:52:54,510 --> 03:53:00,968
I walked and walked
2238
03:53:01,510 --> 03:53:10,385
through the green meadow
2239
03:53:11,260 --> 03:53:20,135
through the green meadow
2240
03:53:20,593 --> 03:53:25,177
Honoured guests director Jiří Menzel,
Václav Neckář, Jitka Zelenohorská
2241
03:53:25,302 --> 03:53:29,510
together with the audience marked 40 years
since Larks on a string was made.
2242
03:53:29,635 --> 03:53:31,552
The filmmakers shot it in Kladno.
2243
03:53:33,135 --> 03:53:36,302
Socialist-era songs, waving ribbons,
banners, red scarves
2244
03:53:36,343 --> 03:53:38,968
and a kiss for the director
from a girl Pioneer.
2245
03:53:39,010 --> 03:53:43,135
The organisers of the event
recreated the atmosphere of the 1950s
2246
03:53:43,177 --> 03:53:46,302
in which the plot of
Larks on a string is set.
2247
03:53:46,635 --> 03:53:52,302
What is interesting is that
I had a Saab, a new car
2248
03:53:53,260 --> 03:53:59,927
and it had seatbelts, which was new,
cars didn't have belts then.
2249
03:54:00,552 --> 03:54:02,718
I was driving Mr. Šofr to the stage
2250
03:54:03,427 --> 03:54:07,343
and he noticed the seatbelts,
so he fastened his.
2251
03:54:08,135 --> 03:54:13,677
We were driving to Kladno to film,
and there was this road, which...
2252
03:54:14,718 --> 03:54:18,093
It started raining, so the road was slippery
and I did a full turn, 360 degree!
2253
03:54:18,760 --> 03:54:22,177
We went to the field
and ended up on the side.
2254
03:54:22,927 --> 03:54:24,385
So as we were sitting.
2255
03:54:24,677 --> 03:54:27,552
Mr. Šofr, who until then
was talking about something
2256
03:54:27,593 --> 03:54:30,635
he stopped, we were looking around
2257
03:54:30,968 --> 03:54:34,760
and suddenly he said, "Where was I?"
2258
03:54:35,635 --> 03:54:41,135
And he wanted to resume our
conversation. That was genius.
2259
03:54:41,635 --> 03:54:47,010
All that you can see here will be
smelted down into high-grade steel.
2260
03:54:48,052 --> 03:54:51,677
We'll make tractors out of this steel
to plough our fields.
2261
03:54:52,260 --> 03:54:56,093
We'll make more washing machines
so you can wash your dirty overalls.
2262
03:54:56,885 --> 03:54:58,677
These are our voluntary workers
2263
03:54:59,052 --> 03:55:01,010
mostly of bourgeois origin.
2264
03:55:01,177 --> 03:55:02,885
We'll also smelt them down...
2265
03:55:03,010 --> 03:55:05,343
into a new kind of people.
2266
03:55:07,427 --> 03:55:12,468
When all of a sudden you can look back
truthfully at that recent past
2267
03:55:12,635 --> 03:55:14,885
which everyone remembers how
they experienced it
2268
03:55:15,093 --> 03:55:18,593
but they couldn't see the real picture
anywhere in literature, in film
2269
03:55:18,635 --> 03:55:22,760
because it was a false, ideological
picture that the regime wanted.
2270
03:55:23,010 --> 03:55:24,802
In that sense, in fact...
2271
03:55:25,260 --> 03:55:29,010
that film was highly dangerous
for the communist bigwigs
2272
03:55:29,093 --> 03:55:31,968
because it was not only revelatory
in a precise way
2273
03:55:32,052 --> 03:55:34,135
but was witty and pointed too.
2274
03:55:34,135 --> 03:55:36,968
And, of course, it hurts to see
the true picture
2275
03:55:37,052 --> 03:55:41,177
but when the audience laughs at it,
it hurts twice as much.
2276
03:55:41,468 --> 03:55:43,385
Which is why Larks on a String
caused such bother.
2277
03:55:43,385 --> 03:55:49,885
I remembered a joke from the 50s...
2278
03:55:50,468 --> 03:55:54,427
There is some training
going on for workers...
2279
03:55:54,468 --> 03:55:58,260
a comrade is teaching
his comrade workers...
2280
03:55:58,635 --> 03:56:00,843
teaching them how good
it is that we have socialism
2281
03:56:00,885 --> 03:56:03,218
and that we will have communism...
2282
03:56:03,760 --> 03:56:07,260
so he speaks, he lectures,
then asks if there are questions
2283
03:56:07,343 --> 03:56:10,843
and a worker raises his hand and says
2284
03:56:11,052 --> 03:56:13,593
"It's good that we have socialism
and that we will have communism."
2285
03:56:13,843 --> 03:56:18,343
"But where is the milk, and
the meat and the bread?"
2286
03:56:19,843 --> 03:56:21,218
And the comrade said
2287
03:56:21,260 --> 03:56:25,427
"That's an interesting question, but
I'll answer it only next time."
2288
03:56:25,552 --> 03:56:30,927
And the next week, the next
lecture was scheduled.
2289
03:56:31,885 --> 03:56:37,718
So the next lecture ended and
he again asked, "Any questions?"
2290
03:56:38,302 --> 03:56:42,843
And another man says,
"It's nice there will be communism."
2291
03:56:43,302 --> 03:56:47,552
"But where is the bread, milk, meat?"
2292
03:56:47,968 --> 03:56:53,843
"And where is that worker
who asked about it last week?"
2293
03:56:53,968 --> 03:56:56,385
We really would like to know
what happened to dairyman.
2294
03:56:56,635 --> 03:56:58,927
And where's the professor of philosophy?
2295
03:56:59,010 --> 03:57:01,260
And where are the good days...
2296
03:57:01,468 --> 03:57:03,385
- Yes, yes, yes.
- ...when people respected
2297
03:57:03,718 --> 03:57:05,135
and loved each other?
2298
03:57:05,302 --> 03:57:08,718
What a nice person!
Who is he?
2299
03:57:08,885 --> 03:57:11,635
A prematurely-wise person...
2300
03:57:20,010 --> 03:57:22,635
That was the joke which made me realise...
2301
03:57:24,135 --> 03:57:27,177
Aha! We have to put one in jail,
then a second and a third...
2302
03:57:27,885 --> 03:57:30,677
and that made
the structure of the movie.
2303
03:57:33,218 --> 03:57:37,468
I'm very proud of the idea.
Naturally, Hrabal wrote it beautifully.
2304
03:57:42,885 --> 03:57:49,677
I shot it in the naïve belief that
the communists can reform themselves...
2305
03:57:50,135 --> 03:57:53,843
and when we joked about
how stupid they were
2306
03:57:53,885 --> 03:57:57,885
that they would stop doing
this kind of nonsense
2307
03:57:58,302 --> 03:58:01,760
for example, sending intellectuals
to be part of the production line...
2308
03:58:02,135 --> 03:58:05,385
But I was the stupid one,
because I didn't realise
2309
03:58:05,427 --> 03:58:08,260
that the Bolsheviks can't
reform themselves.
2310
03:58:09,010 --> 03:58:11,968
I think that the best scene was
2311
03:58:12,093 --> 03:58:14,552
- I was in that scene only
for a little bit -
2312
03:58:14,760 --> 03:58:21,427
when Mr. Šmeral came
as Minister Nejedlý.
2313
03:58:21,843 --> 03:58:26,843
That was such a wonderful scene!
2314
03:58:26,885 --> 03:58:32,718
That's why the communists
cut it out straight away.
2315
03:58:33,135 --> 03:58:38,260
I think it's one of the greatest
films of Czech cinema
2316
03:58:38,427 --> 03:58:43,093
especially as a paragon
of mixing comedy and tragedy.
2317
03:58:44,010 --> 03:58:46,968
I would rank it alongside
The Shop on Main Street
2318
03:58:47,343 --> 03:58:53,177
which is also a film
with great comic scenes
2319
03:58:53,760 --> 03:58:56,968
even though it is a drama.
2320
03:58:57,427 --> 03:59:03,552
That was the only case when I myself
decided what should be filmed.
2321
03:59:03,593 --> 03:59:07,177
All the other films I made,
someone had offered me.
2322
03:59:15,677 --> 03:59:18,302
Look at me! Good!
2323
03:59:25,968 --> 03:59:27,177
Sit, please!
2324
03:59:32,760 --> 03:59:37,260
Czech culture...
I call it existential humour.
2325
03:59:37,260 --> 03:59:40,802
That's... Švejk.
2326
03:59:41,427 --> 03:59:45,052
That's the style of
the most typical Czech...
2327
03:59:46,343 --> 03:59:48,302
cultural figure.
2328
03:59:48,843 --> 03:59:51,385
And Menzel belongs here.
2329
03:59:51,385 --> 03:59:56,968
His irony...
that's all from Švejk
2330
03:59:56,968 --> 04:00:01,593
and from the author
that Menzel likes to adapt.
2331
04:00:01,593 --> 04:00:05,593
Now I can't... Cutting it Short
Hrabal.
2332
04:00:05,885 --> 04:00:09,552
Hrabal is a successor of Švejk.
2333
04:00:09,552 --> 04:00:12,635
Did you hear anything about
a soldier Švejk, named Švejk?
2334
04:00:12,677 --> 04:00:15,010
- Švejk? A Soldier?
- Yeah.
2335
04:00:15,385 --> 04:00:16,052
Well...
2336
04:00:16,093 --> 04:00:18,552
Well, it's a popular figure
in our literature, you see?
2337
04:00:18,552 --> 04:00:21,010
- Did you hear about him?
- Well, no, you tell me about him!
2338
04:00:21,052 --> 04:00:23,718
Well, it's such a funny soldier,
he was in the army
2339
04:00:23,718 --> 04:00:25,760
and always making fun
of everything around, you see?
2340
04:00:25,885 --> 04:00:30,093
And we saw, as you are such a man
making fun of all and laughing at all
2341
04:00:30,260 --> 04:00:31,760
you can know about this man too.
2342
04:00:32,010 --> 04:00:34,385
Well, where is he from?
He's a Czech boy?
2343
04:00:34,385 --> 04:00:35,718
He's already... Well it's...
2344
04:00:35,760 --> 04:00:38,843
It's just a story about him,
from the First World War.
2345
04:00:38,885 --> 04:00:39,927
Oh yeah! I see!
2346
04:00:40,052 --> 04:00:41,593
Well, we shall send you the book of him.
2347
04:00:41,635 --> 04:00:45,843
Yeah, ok, I'd love to read about him
because before my time, I was just a kid.
2348
04:00:46,885 --> 04:00:49,968
We are quite a small community
which is oppressed
2349
04:00:49,968 --> 04:00:55,260
from the Germans from one side
and from the Russians from the other side.
2350
04:00:55,552 --> 04:01:00,885
And we can't fight them either way
2351
04:01:01,093 --> 04:01:04,843
not with the arms,
and not with the military
2352
04:01:04,843 --> 04:01:07,010
but we are fighting them with humour.
2353
04:01:07,010 --> 04:01:11,718
That's the only thing we can do
against those big powers.
2354
04:01:12,302 --> 04:01:18,802
And probably, that's the root
from where the Czech humour comes.
2355
04:01:18,802 --> 04:01:24,510
"Oh, cats' ball...
is better than dogs' dance."
2356
04:01:25,010 --> 04:01:29,802
"And a cat crawls through a hole,
and a dog crawls through a window."
2357
04:01:30,802 --> 04:01:36,552
"The cat's king himself..."
I can't remember how it goes.
2358
04:01:37,010 --> 04:01:38,802
My memory...
2359
04:01:38,843 --> 04:01:40,718
No dogs were invited
2360
04:01:41,885 --> 04:01:43,927
No mice were allowed
2361
04:01:44,760 --> 04:01:47,177
When all of a sudden
2362
04:01:48,093 --> 04:01:50,552
A mouse appeared in the crowd
2363
04:01:51,302 --> 04:01:53,552
Oh, the cat's ball
2364
04:01:54,385 --> 04:01:56,510
In the cat house
2365
04:01:57,177 --> 04:01:58,968
Is the one place
2366
04:01:59,302 --> 04:02:01,468
Which is no good for a...
2367
04:02:01,677 --> 04:02:03,093
Mouse!
2368
04:02:07,510 --> 04:02:11,093
All of us grew up in the spirit of
the Liberated Theatre.
2369
04:02:11,302 --> 04:02:15,677
In the spirit of the Liberated Theatre,
Suchý and Šlitr started the Semafor.
2370
04:02:15,677 --> 04:02:17,718
It was something completely different
2371
04:02:19,927 --> 04:02:23,010
but the first reason was humour,
to make people laugh.
2372
04:02:23,052 --> 04:02:27,927
But they were intelligent people
who had a certain education
2373
04:02:28,218 --> 04:02:32,510
so the humour in Semafor was wonderful.
2374
04:02:32,885 --> 04:02:39,927
At that time, it was also the biggest
or the most frequented theatre.
2375
04:02:40,593 --> 04:02:43,593
A bit later, the Cimrman Theatre emerged.
2376
04:02:43,593 --> 04:02:50,010
It took intellectual humour
to an even higher level.
2377
04:02:50,468 --> 04:02:53,885
It's intellectual, but accessible
to everyone
2378
04:02:54,218 --> 04:02:55,552
who has finished at least high school.
2379
04:03:06,468 --> 04:03:11,010
When the national television had a poll
to find the greatest Czech of all time
2380
04:03:11,052 --> 04:03:14,385
Cimrman won,
even though he never existed.
2381
04:03:14,677 --> 04:03:17,385
Their whole theatre is based
on a mystification
2382
04:03:17,385 --> 04:03:19,635
about an alleged historical Czech person
2383
04:03:19,635 --> 04:03:23,343
who was a forgotten inventor
who invented just about everything.
2384
04:03:24,343 --> 04:03:29,968
And this is what I consider
representative of good Czech humour.
2385
04:03:29,968 --> 04:03:32,802
Being poetic, ironic
and using mystification.
2386
04:03:32,885 --> 04:03:39,718
So we lived knowing, 'You can't do this.
Look out!' 'Be careful! '
2387
04:03:39,843 --> 04:03:49,842
And humour, the jokes people told,
were a liberating social adhesive
2388
04:03:50,302 --> 04:03:55,010
when you told them in a group
of people you trusted...
2389
04:03:55,052 --> 04:03:59,510
the laughter made you feel
that we all think the same.
2390
04:03:59,635 --> 04:04:03,052
It was binding us together, the humour.
2391
04:04:03,135 --> 04:04:09,343
And when you're helpless,
you turn to very dark humour.
2392
04:04:09,385 --> 04:04:14,552
It's our way to face death.
We know we can't defeat death.
2393
04:04:14,593 --> 04:04:22,010
None of us can. But fighting back
with humour is beautiful. Liberating.
2394
04:04:27,093 --> 04:04:32,593
Dear children!
I think you all know me well!
2395
04:04:33,302 --> 04:04:37,218
I'm sure Jirka recognised me
straight away...
2396
04:04:49,635 --> 04:04:53,177
Dear children!
I think you all know me well!
2397
04:04:53,260 --> 04:04:59,135
I'm sure Jirka recognised me straight
away, and so did Alenka in the back.
2398
04:04:59,218 --> 04:05:03,927
I'm your old friend,
the Long, Broad and Sharpsight.
2399
04:05:04,010 --> 04:05:08,927
Yes, you're probably missing
my two partners: Long and Broad.
2400
04:05:09,010 --> 04:05:13,760
You must be wondering,
where are they hiding from us?
2401
04:05:13,843 --> 04:05:17,468
They aren't hiding, dear children.
They died!
2402
04:05:22,885 --> 04:05:24,343
Films had humour, you know?
2403
04:05:24,343 --> 04:05:28,052
And humour... it sounds
paradoxical nowadays, but...
2404
04:05:28,552 --> 04:05:34,260
you have to imagine the...
very narrow-minded type of government
2405
04:05:34,677 --> 04:05:39,968
and they were anxious that
2406
04:05:40,010 --> 04:05:45,052
humour could bring something like,
you know, open mindness.
2407
04:05:45,093 --> 04:05:48,593
We were not allowed to fight
the Russians with weapons.
2408
04:05:49,052 --> 04:05:51,593
But, you know, the films and movies
2409
04:05:51,635 --> 04:05:53,968
let's say, I think they
made a lot of damages
2410
04:05:54,135 --> 04:05:58,343
to their 'peaceful' face, what
they were trying to show to the world.
2411
04:05:58,468 --> 04:06:00,968
This is what upset the Russians.
2412
04:06:00,968 --> 04:06:03,843
They knew that this kind of democracy
2413
04:06:04,510 --> 04:06:07,427
- whatever they said in
terms of propaganda -
2414
04:06:07,427 --> 04:06:11,343
they knew that this kind of democracy
was a threat to the Soviet system.
2415
04:06:11,343 --> 04:06:18,635
All of us knew it was a sensitive matter,
because it was right after 1968.
2416
04:06:18,635 --> 04:06:28,634
We spent there whole vacations,
many days, just to shoot it
2417
04:06:30,010 --> 04:06:34,968
and we saw the film only after 20 years.
They did not release it.
2418
04:06:34,968 --> 04:06:37,218
You two hold your hands
2419
04:06:38,135 --> 04:06:41,510
and pretend to look joyfully
into each other's eyes.
2420
04:06:43,593 --> 04:06:44,552
That's it.
2421
04:06:45,218 --> 04:06:47,593
And there will be
the following commentary
2422
04:06:47,593 --> 04:06:48,802
about the two of you.
2423
04:06:50,260 --> 04:06:54,635
We're doing all this for our future,
for the future of our young new people
2424
04:06:56,093 --> 04:06:59,927
who love each other, who raise families
to have lovely children...
2425
04:07:01,135 --> 04:07:05,010
who will never again know war,
suffering, but ever lasting peace.
2426
04:07:05,843 --> 04:07:07,760
I was ready to cry.
2427
04:07:11,802 --> 04:07:16,343
I'm sorry,
it's just that...
2428
04:07:17,802 --> 04:07:19,968
It was clear to us all
2429
04:07:20,260 --> 04:07:22,635
that this would be the
last time we'd see it.
2430
04:07:22,927 --> 04:07:25,385
So then it took 20 years
2431
04:07:26,718 --> 04:07:30,593
before they released the film.
2432
04:07:31,427 --> 04:07:32,760
I'm sorry!
2433
04:07:40,968 --> 04:07:42,302
You have beautiful eyes.
2434
04:07:48,010 --> 04:07:49,218
It's a nice film.
2435
04:07:49,427 --> 04:07:50,802
But I think that
2436
04:07:51,552 --> 04:07:55,927
the concentration camps
were much more cruel.
2437
04:07:56,510 --> 04:08:02,177
And it's a kind of a soap opera
set in a concentration camp.
2438
04:08:02,677 --> 04:08:07,260
And philosophy is deeper
than just quoting Kant.
2439
04:08:08,302 --> 04:08:10,510
The film quotes Kant.
2440
04:08:10,760 --> 04:08:12,343
It's a bit more complicated.
2441
04:08:12,385 --> 04:08:17,552
And Kant was talking
about more essential things
2442
04:08:17,635 --> 04:08:20,385
that are absent in Menzel's thinking.
2443
04:08:20,427 --> 04:08:23,677
So I don't care about that film.
But it's a nice film.
2444
04:08:24,093 --> 04:08:31,427
The movie was screened after 25 years
and it got the Golden Bear Award
2445
04:08:31,718 --> 04:08:35,552
and there when they asked
me how I felt, I said it's sad.
2446
04:08:35,843 --> 04:08:42,052
Over 25 years, our lives and careers
could've gone on a different path.
2447
04:09:07,677 --> 04:09:11,427
I guess it's a very powerful,
comic portrait of communism.
2448
04:09:11,427 --> 04:09:16,802
I don't know of any similar film
which actually deals with that era
2449
04:09:17,052 --> 04:09:18,260
and deals with it as comedy.
2450
04:09:18,302 --> 04:09:21,885
In fact, I think
Menzel and Hrabal were
2451
04:09:21,927 --> 04:09:26,385
criticised for having
treated it as comedy, even.
2452
04:09:26,593 --> 04:09:30,052
And Menzel said somewhere
around the time that he...
2453
04:09:30,468 --> 04:09:36,468
he believed one needed to transcend
these things and be able to laugh at them
2454
04:09:36,760 --> 04:09:41,843
even though they were, in fact, tragic and
even though people were being persecuted
2455
04:09:42,927 --> 04:09:45,968
imprisoned, killed,
whatever because of it.
2456
04:09:45,968 --> 04:09:48,343
It shows
the genius of Jiří Menzel
2457
04:09:48,468 --> 04:09:52,177
that after 20 years, 21 years
2458
04:09:52,343 --> 04:09:55,468
when the film was screened
at the main Berlinale competition
2459
04:09:55,677 --> 04:09:58,927
nobody wanted to believe
how old the film was
2460
04:09:59,135 --> 04:10:03,427
because it was wonderfully filmed
using absolutely modern cinema language.
2461
04:10:03,552 --> 04:10:07,052
And were it not for Václav Neckář,
the main protagonist
2462
04:10:07,177 --> 04:10:10,593
who turned up looking very different
from 20 years before
2463
04:10:10,593 --> 04:10:12,552
they might not have
been believed at all it
2464
04:10:12,552 --> 04:10:14,468
wasn't a new film,
but a 20-year old film.
2465
04:11:09,802 --> 04:11:14,677
The stroke came when
I was on stage in 2002
2466
04:11:14,677 --> 04:11:18,218
eight years ago...
2467
04:11:19,010 --> 04:11:24,552
For half a year, I wasn't at all
able to say a full sentence.
2468
04:11:24,593 --> 04:11:27,093
But now I'm already trying.
2469
04:11:27,260 --> 04:11:32,552
I speak like a book now, but
like a badly written one...
2470
04:11:55,427 --> 04:11:57,968
August 21st, 1968.
2471
04:11:58,093 --> 04:12:02,552
At night, 500,000 soldiers
from the Warsaw Pact army
2472
04:12:02,760 --> 04:12:05,510
crossed the border into Czechoslovakia.
2473
04:12:06,802 --> 04:12:09,635
This was the beginning
of the Occupation of the country.
2474
04:12:18,968 --> 04:12:23,093
This is Radio Prague, Czechoslovakia.
2475
04:12:23,343 --> 04:12:28,052
The legitimate voice of
occupied Czechoslovakia.
2476
04:12:28,343 --> 04:12:33,468
We were under Austrian rule,
then we were attacked by Germany
2477
04:12:33,885 --> 04:12:37,510
and we were even attacked
by our Russian brothers.
2478
04:12:37,718 --> 04:12:42,968
They already arrived here in 1945,
but we welcomed them as liberators
2479
04:12:43,760 --> 04:12:48,468
until we grew to understand
they were the next military occupation.
2480
04:12:49,010 --> 04:12:52,927
It showed most clearly when our country
wanted real independence
2481
04:12:53,177 --> 04:12:57,135
and the Russians
returned to Czechoslovakia
2482
04:12:57,260 --> 04:13:00,677
with tanks and an army of half a million
2483
04:13:01,343 --> 04:13:03,677
Long live Mr. Dubček!
2484
04:13:08,843 --> 04:13:14,677
When the Warsaw pact
troops invaded the country
2485
04:13:14,718 --> 04:13:20,468
with tanks, we were in
the middle of shooting.
2486
04:13:20,635 --> 04:13:27,593
And they invaded my WWII set
and period props.
2487
04:13:27,593 --> 04:13:37,592
They thought some counter-revolutionaries
put mines on the bridges...
2488
04:13:38,635 --> 04:13:40,927
to prevent them from advancing.
2489
04:13:41,052 --> 04:13:47,927
We had to hide old weapons, no longer
functional, from the Second World War
2490
04:13:48,010 --> 04:13:49,427
because otherwise they would shoot at us.
2491
04:13:49,427 --> 04:13:53,718
On the morning of the 21st of August,
we went out to film our last scenes.
2492
04:13:54,218 --> 04:13:58,635
The filmmakers whom you see here
were not the only ones to be shocked.
2493
04:13:58,968 --> 04:14:01,718
Soviet tanks were thundering
through the streets.
2494
04:14:06,802 --> 04:14:11,635
I had a handycam, a 35 mm Arriflex.
2495
04:14:11,635 --> 04:14:16,635
So I was shooting and people were
even lifting me up as if we were a crane.
2496
04:14:16,718 --> 04:14:19,468
So I was able to shoot everything that
was happening above and beneath us.
2497
04:14:19,885 --> 04:14:22,510
And this one situation happened.
2498
04:14:22,802 --> 04:14:27,427
There was this one tank and then
another and people brought this one car
2499
04:14:27,427 --> 04:14:30,760
and one tram and put it
in front of the tanks.
2500
04:14:31,010 --> 04:14:33,260
And that's where one of the
beautiful characteristics
2501
04:14:33,302 --> 04:14:34,843
of the Czech nation manifested itself.
2502
04:14:34,843 --> 04:14:39,343
The tank tried to come through
and was hitting the tram
2503
04:14:39,677 --> 04:14:43,260
and people were shouting, "Šájbu!"
2504
04:14:43,635 --> 04:14:45,427
"Šájbu!"
2505
04:14:45,635 --> 04:14:49,385
Šajba is a thing in ice-hockey
2506
04:14:49,385 --> 04:14:54,968
which is a Czech-Soviet-Russian
constant problem
2507
04:14:55,093 --> 04:14:57,177
where they shoot šajba,
which means a goal.
2508
04:15:00,968 --> 04:15:02,093
We are the generation
2509
04:15:02,177 --> 04:15:06,510
that first welcomed
the Russian army in 1945.
2510
04:15:06,593 --> 04:15:11,593
I was 9 years old.
I climbed on the tank, hugged them
2511
04:15:11,677 --> 04:15:15,093
feeling the pure joy of liberation.
2512
04:15:15,177 --> 04:15:19,177
And now the same tanks
came to suffocate us.
2513
04:15:19,260 --> 04:15:24,385
And I spoke Russian, so as
a radio reporter
2514
04:15:24,468 --> 04:15:27,802
I went to the trucks
with my microphone
2515
04:15:27,885 --> 04:15:31,218
asking, "Why have you come?"
2516
04:15:31,510 --> 04:15:36,968
But I found just sleepy
and very confused soldiers
2517
04:15:37,052 --> 04:15:40,093
who didn't know
where they were or why.
2518
04:15:40,093 --> 04:15:45,593
It was a real tragedy for me
as well as for many other people.
2519
04:15:45,593 --> 04:15:46,843
This was a tragedy
2520
04:15:46,843 --> 04:15:50,760
because it occurred against
all the expectations we had.
2521
04:15:50,927 --> 04:15:53,885
We expected liberal reforms.
2522
04:15:54,218 --> 04:15:57,510
We were waiting for liberty
but we got totalitarianism.
2523
04:15:57,593 --> 04:16:02,635
Those tanks entered Prague
2524
04:16:02,885 --> 04:16:05,802
but we had the feeling
they'd occupied our hearts and souls
2525
04:16:05,802 --> 04:16:11,552
and I was amongst the opponents
of this occupation.
2526
04:16:11,552 --> 04:16:15,135
Because we felt an affinity to their work
2527
04:16:15,177 --> 04:16:21,468
we felt...
2528
04:16:22,968 --> 04:16:26,427
had a sense of their pain, and had
a sense of what they were experiencing.
2529
04:16:26,593 --> 04:16:29,843
But, like,
two-three days after Occupation
2530
04:16:30,343 --> 04:16:35,135
Russian small troops,
like five or six soldiers with some
2531
04:16:35,177 --> 04:16:39,760
I don't know, person in charge of them
2532
04:16:39,927 --> 04:16:43,218
went around, institution by institution.
2533
04:16:43,593 --> 04:16:46,885
As FAMU is between Academy of Science,
National Theatre
2534
04:16:46,927 --> 04:16:50,510
and all those huge important institutions
2535
04:16:50,927 --> 04:16:52,677
they entered FAMU too.
2536
04:16:53,468 --> 04:16:56,385
And they said,
"Okay, move! We are now..."
2537
04:16:56,635 --> 04:17:03,510
And Brousil was there, he came on the
first floor, and they were entering down
2538
04:17:03,927 --> 04:17:07,885
and said, "Stop! Don't move!
What do you want?"
2539
04:17:08,468 --> 04:17:14,510
"This is a school where we are teaching
Russian history, Russian films."
2540
04:17:14,510 --> 04:17:16,760
"Do you know who is Eisenstein?"
2541
04:17:16,843 --> 04:17:19,885
He asked some stupid soldiers.
2542
04:17:20,052 --> 04:17:22,968
The guys were so impressed
that - they hear
2543
04:17:23,010 --> 04:17:26,135
someone talking about the
Russian in Russian -
2544
04:17:26,635 --> 04:17:28,968
they say, "Okay, fine!"
and they exit.
2545
04:17:29,010 --> 04:17:35,385
So, legend is that FAMU was one of
very few, maybe the only institution
2546
04:17:35,385 --> 04:17:39,885
which was never completely
controlled physically by Russians.
2547
04:17:55,677 --> 04:17:57,343
If you were king
2548
04:17:57,343 --> 04:17:59,260
and could give me
2549
04:17:59,427 --> 04:18:01,802
just as a present
2550
04:18:01,968 --> 04:18:03,427
your country
2551
04:18:03,593 --> 04:18:04,885
or state...
2552
04:18:05,093 --> 04:18:07,510
If you buy me a castle
2553
04:18:07,718 --> 04:18:09,718
and a shield of gold
2554
04:18:10,218 --> 04:18:12,177
and a collection of all the stamps
2555
04:18:12,385 --> 04:18:13,510
I...
2556
04:18:14,302 --> 04:18:15,593
wouldn't want it.
2557
04:18:16,760 --> 04:18:19,552
All I want is to live!
2558
04:18:19,718 --> 04:18:23,010
As one should
2559
04:18:23,010 --> 04:18:26,343
live
2560
04:18:26,343 --> 04:18:29,052
and nothing more
2561
04:18:29,677 --> 04:18:34,177
that's just my crazy
2562
04:18:34,510 --> 04:18:36,968
wish.
2563
04:18:38,385 --> 04:18:41,427
And I mean
2564
04:18:42,510 --> 04:18:46,218
I envy the rivers,
I see them flow
2565
04:18:46,510 --> 04:18:50,843
I envy the loaves,
I smell them bake
2566
04:18:50,968 --> 04:18:54,885
I envy the fires
their fragrant smoke
2567
04:18:55,135 --> 04:18:58,968
I envy the roses
and don't walk
2568
04:18:59,510 --> 04:19:01,427
I envy the bees
2569
04:19:01,593 --> 04:19:04,010
their honey paradise
2570
04:19:04,052 --> 04:19:05,885
I envy April
2571
04:19:05,885 --> 04:19:08,677
for bringing May
2572
04:19:08,677 --> 04:19:14,052
I envy the blue cloud its freedom
2573
04:19:15,468 --> 04:19:21,093
When it was said that street signs
must be removed so as to
2574
04:19:21,135 --> 04:19:26,885
make it impossible for
the Soviet army to find its way
2575
04:19:27,177 --> 04:19:32,885
within ten minutes,
all ladders to be found in Prague
2576
04:19:32,927 --> 04:19:35,802
were put against the walls
2577
04:19:35,968 --> 04:19:42,718
and people were removing
street names and signs.
2578
04:19:42,885 --> 04:19:47,052
The Russians had no idea
where the streets were leading to.
2579
04:19:47,468 --> 04:19:54,260
I told myself, "This nation
can't be broken. It sticks together."
2580
04:19:54,343 --> 04:19:57,593
I was very cruelly mistaken.
2581
04:19:57,593 --> 04:20:01,135
My wife, who was a beautiful girl
2582
04:20:01,552 --> 04:20:03,427
and her friend
2583
04:20:04,927 --> 04:20:06,510
Jana Slánská -
2584
04:20:06,552 --> 04:20:10,760
maybe you know her from Czech films,
she uses a pseudonym
2585
04:20:10,885 --> 04:20:13,135
she works as Kristina Vlachová.
2586
04:20:13,802 --> 04:20:17,010
The girls distributed
and pasted the posters.
2587
04:20:17,135 --> 04:20:21,177
They got the idea
to wear super mini skirts
2588
04:20:21,302 --> 04:20:24,260
to make the Russians desperate.
2589
04:20:26,510 --> 04:20:29,468
There was a humorous side to it
2590
04:20:29,593 --> 04:20:33,302
which doesn't mean
we didn't know we were screwed
2591
04:20:33,385 --> 04:20:36,510
that it was all over.
2592
04:20:36,510 --> 04:20:41,802
I'm coming from the country where
everything is very tragic.
2593
04:20:42,135 --> 04:20:45,552
Everything ends up with
the blood every 50 years.
2594
04:20:46,093 --> 04:20:49,260
So when Czechs were
occupied by Russians
2595
04:20:49,468 --> 04:20:52,135
in my country, in
Yugoslavia at that time
2596
04:20:52,135 --> 04:20:55,677
no one understood why they are
not fighting against them.
2597
04:20:56,302 --> 04:20:58,927
And when you live in Prague
at the time
2598
04:20:59,010 --> 04:21:03,010
it was quite clear why they are not...
they are never fighting.
2599
04:21:03,177 --> 04:21:04,635
They try to survive.
2600
04:21:05,260 --> 04:21:10,302
That's why Charles Bridge is there
for 700 years.
2601
04:21:10,510 --> 04:21:13,552
In my country, everything is ruined
every 50 years.
2602
04:21:13,593 --> 04:21:18,677
I arrived at a bridge over the Vltava
2603
04:21:19,427 --> 04:21:22,510
and there were soldiers stopping
and checking all the cars there.
2604
04:21:22,760 --> 04:21:27,218
And I said to myself, "No. I can only
be checked by a Czech policeman."
2605
04:21:27,218 --> 04:21:30,343
I drove on along Dlouhá Street
to Náměstí Republiky
2606
04:21:30,343 --> 04:21:31,385
where there were soldiers
2607
04:21:31,385 --> 04:21:33,718
who'd already heard
the soldiers on the bridge
2608
04:21:33,718 --> 04:21:35,468
shooting at my car
as I was driving past them.
2609
04:21:35,760 --> 04:21:40,593
They started running at me
in a spread line
2610
04:21:40,802 --> 04:21:44,385
and I couldn't drive past them,
because I'd have to drive over them.
2611
04:21:44,552 --> 04:21:47,093
So I stopped and they surrounded me.
2612
04:21:48,302 --> 04:21:51,427
They wanted to pull me out of the car
but I locked myself inside.
2613
04:21:51,718 --> 04:21:53,593
I was terribly angry.
2614
04:21:54,177 --> 04:21:59,468
But fortunately, as I was surrounded
by the Russians, the strange faces
2615
04:21:59,510 --> 04:22:02,385
there were Czech citizens
right behind them
2616
04:22:02,385 --> 04:22:04,093
shouting at me, "Don't give in, Jirka!"
2617
04:22:04,093 --> 04:22:09,927
They were shouting at me
not to let the soldiers arrest me.
2618
04:22:10,302 --> 04:22:13,885
Then a Russian army officer showed up
2619
04:22:14,010 --> 04:22:18,843
and he was smart. He was way more
educated than the Russians around him.
2620
04:22:19,010 --> 04:22:22,677
He asked me very politely
to stop acting foolishly
2621
04:22:22,760 --> 04:22:25,427
and to get out of the car,
that no harm would come to me.
2622
04:22:25,760 --> 04:22:27,552
Everything suddenly collapsed.
2623
04:22:30,302 --> 04:22:31,135
The...
2624
04:22:32,885 --> 04:22:36,760
Jakubisko, Havetta and Hanák
had new films out
2625
04:22:36,802 --> 04:22:40,093
which were banned
right after the Occupation.
2626
04:22:41,427 --> 04:22:44,302
The censors withdrew these films
from movie theatres
2627
04:22:44,302 --> 04:22:46,968
and they shelved them.
They weren't screened anymore.
2628
04:22:47,593 --> 04:22:57,592
So the situation was...
absolutely depressing and hopeless.
2629
04:22:58,260 --> 04:23:03,802
In case of Jakubisko one can say why
2630
04:23:04,010 --> 04:23:09,343
the films were extremely inventive
and free flowing.
2631
04:23:10,135 --> 04:23:12,385
They showed the influence of Godard.
2632
04:23:12,927 --> 04:23:18,843
They were critical indirectly or
very directly with the Russians
2633
04:23:18,843 --> 04:23:21,052
for instance
The Deserter And The Nomads (1968)
2634
04:23:21,843 --> 04:23:27,635
which was filmed with three parts,
the first part on the First World War
2635
04:23:27,635 --> 04:23:31,760
second on the Second World War
and the third after the nuclear holocaust.
2636
04:23:32,510 --> 04:23:39,927
The Occupation took away from me
the most free period of my creative life.
2637
04:23:39,927 --> 04:23:41,552
I was young.
2638
04:23:41,552 --> 04:23:44,718
Wherever I looked,
I saw a theme for a film.
2639
04:23:44,718 --> 04:23:46,718
I needed to make films.
2640
04:23:46,718 --> 04:23:50,510
I wanted to make a feature film
every two years.
2641
04:23:50,510 --> 04:23:53,510
My notes would've given me
enough material
2642
04:23:53,510 --> 04:23:55,135
I knew what films I wanted to make.
2643
04:23:55,135 --> 04:23:56,760
I had to say goodbye to that.
2644
04:23:56,760 --> 04:24:01,343
So much time has gone by since
I last shot anything.
2645
04:24:10,260 --> 04:24:11,843
Well, who was Jan Palach...
2646
04:24:12,052 --> 04:24:13,760
He was a child of that era.
2647
04:24:14,593 --> 04:24:20,010
As I am continuously saying,
it was a transformation
2648
04:24:20,052 --> 04:24:23,093
from Nazism and Communism
2649
04:24:23,093 --> 04:24:27,177
the change that was forming somewhere
2650
04:24:27,177 --> 04:24:29,802
and out of it the Prague Spring was born.
2651
04:24:29,802 --> 04:24:34,552
He was one of the children
of the Prague Spring who believed
2652
04:24:34,677 --> 04:24:38,010
that it was bringing a certain
freedom to the filmmakers
2653
04:24:38,052 --> 04:24:41,218
as well as to everyone else.
2654
04:24:41,802 --> 04:24:45,593
I don't like to walk in the crowd
when I'm feeling sad
2655
04:24:47,010 --> 04:24:50,593
because I'm afraid I'll meet
someone...
2656
04:24:51,177 --> 04:24:53,718
who doesn't feel sad...
2657
04:24:54,802 --> 04:24:56,677
or is just pretending.
2658
04:24:57,885 --> 04:25:04,218
As for cheerfulness, that is something
I haven't felt for a long time...
2659
04:25:04,968 --> 04:25:06,802
a couple of years, I think.
2660
04:25:06,802 --> 04:25:12,177
From the euphoria that the
Prague Spring brought with itself
2661
04:25:12,177 --> 04:25:17,135
the shock was so immense that the
adults behaved in a way that they were
2662
04:25:17,135 --> 04:25:21,468
coming back to their former ways, they
started to collaborate within themselves.
2663
04:25:21,468 --> 04:25:26,593
He was one of the few who wanted to
point it out. He wanted to cry for help
2664
04:25:26,593 --> 04:25:29,052
that it couldn't go on like that,
that we had to do something.
2665
04:25:34,468 --> 04:25:38,468
You can only hear people
scuffing their feet as they were walking.
2666
04:25:38,468 --> 04:25:42,218
But other than that... silence.
The entire nation knelt down
2667
04:25:42,343 --> 04:25:45,593
in front of this individual
2668
04:25:45,927 --> 04:25:49,468
who took the weight
of the era on his own shoulders.
2669
04:26:26,635 --> 04:26:35,218
Well, hello there! I see somebody walking.
Where are you coming from?
2670
04:26:36,052 --> 04:26:37,218
From the forest.
2671
04:26:38,718 --> 04:26:41,677
- Did you go mushrooming?
- Well, we kind of lost our way.
2672
04:26:41,802 --> 04:26:44,302
Come in. Come in.
2673
04:26:46,552 --> 04:26:54,802
I was ready to make my dream
film. But suddenly the Russians came
2674
04:26:55,135 --> 04:26:57,260
and everything fell apart.
2675
04:27:01,093 --> 04:27:05,302
All My Good Countrymen
was banned
2676
04:27:05,760 --> 04:27:09,968
because it was against the crimes
of the Communist Party
2677
04:27:10,135 --> 04:27:12,885
which were similar to those of the Nazis.
2678
04:27:13,010 --> 04:27:16,343
Not that much,
but Stalin killed even more people.
2679
04:27:16,343 --> 04:27:20,135
In a way, the films made in 1969
2680
04:27:20,718 --> 04:27:25,593
were the most political ones
of the whole New Wave period.
2681
04:27:25,968 --> 04:27:34,802
That's why some 8 to 9 films
made in Bohemia and Slovakia were banned.
2682
04:27:34,968 --> 04:27:37,802
My film 322was to be burnt.
2683
04:27:38,177 --> 04:27:43,552
This was related to five movies:
Sirovy's Funeral Ceremonies
2684
04:27:44,135 --> 04:27:47,760
Menzel's Larks on a String
2685
04:27:47,760 --> 04:27:51,260
Evald's
The Seventh Day, the Eighth Night
2686
04:27:51,635 --> 04:27:56,218
Kachyna's The Ear,
and Squandered Sunday.
2687
04:27:57,718 --> 04:27:59,052
Those five movies.
2688
04:27:59,302 --> 04:28:03,635
I don't know if they told anybody
any reason, but they never told me.
2689
04:28:37,677 --> 04:28:40,635
I wrote a sort of an appeal
2690
04:28:40,635 --> 04:28:45,427
that was published
in the most read newspaper back then.
2691
04:28:45,885 --> 04:28:49,177
In the appeal I was referring to Gandhi
2692
04:28:49,177 --> 04:28:52,635
that we should adopt
his views to the Occupation.
2693
04:28:52,635 --> 04:28:54,593
And to not co-operate.
2694
04:28:54,677 --> 04:28:59,052
It was published
and it had a strong reaction.
2695
04:28:59,302 --> 04:29:03,135
But it became the reason why
2696
04:29:03,135 --> 04:29:05,593
I then had to explain myself.
2697
04:29:05,885 --> 04:29:07,552
And not only me.
2698
04:29:08,093 --> 04:29:11,802
To tell you the truth, we were
being watched the entire time.
2699
04:29:11,802 --> 04:29:17,593
They asked everybody
especially the question
2700
04:29:17,843 --> 04:29:22,968
whether we agreed with the international
"assistance" from our allied armies.
2701
04:29:24,010 --> 04:29:25,552
I was...
2702
04:29:26,802 --> 04:29:29,218
I wasn't able to say I agreed.
2703
04:29:30,302 --> 04:29:33,760
I said I couldn't come to terms with it...
2704
04:29:35,843 --> 04:29:39,677
that it was
so deeply traumatising for me
2705
04:29:40,093 --> 04:29:42,718
that I hadn't come to terms with it.
2706
04:29:45,927 --> 04:29:49,802
With that answer, I risked my existence.
2707
04:29:50,718 --> 04:29:54,593
But I couldn't say I agreed.
2708
04:29:56,052 --> 04:30:00,302
Everybody who remained
in the Party had to say they did.
2709
04:30:00,385 --> 04:30:04,968
I think it must have been
extremely humiliating for them.
2710
04:30:05,052 --> 04:30:09,343
They had to say so
even though they didn't think so.
2711
04:30:10,635 --> 04:30:14,427
Everybody was just fighting
for their living,
2712
04:30:14,510 --> 04:30:19,385
for a little red book which, in fact,
served as a working permit.
2713
04:30:20,010 --> 04:30:26,093
It was the Party membership ID
and it was much harder without it.
2714
04:30:26,218 --> 04:30:30,135
But, of course,
Menzel is a great filmmaker
2715
04:30:30,135 --> 04:30:34,593
and he's made excellent films.
2716
04:30:36,468 --> 04:30:41,177
And if somebody says, "OK, but he never
said anything about the occupation"
2717
04:30:41,218 --> 04:30:42,677
that remark is completely irrelevant.
2718
04:30:42,968 --> 04:30:44,635
Because people who said something
2719
04:30:44,760 --> 04:30:47,177
about it couldn't work anymore.
2720
04:30:47,177 --> 04:30:55,927
Somebody... I know...
Menzel once said that he agreed
2721
04:30:55,927 --> 04:31:05,926
with the statement that Russians
aren't occupants, that it was a brotherly help
2722
04:31:06,843 --> 04:31:12,218
I don't know the exact formulation.
I think that he came on television
2723
04:31:12,218 --> 04:31:20,843
and he started to repent and
he started to relativize the Occupation.
2724
04:31:20,885 --> 04:31:23,677
Menzel said he did that
2725
04:31:23,677 --> 04:31:26,593
because he wanted
to make movies.
2726
04:31:26,635 --> 04:31:31,385
Everyone has to answer
this question on his own.
2727
04:31:31,427 --> 04:31:38,010
I said to myself, "I can't
proclaim that it was otherwise
2728
04:31:38,010 --> 04:31:43,635
or that I agree with it just to be able
to make movies."
2729
04:31:43,635 --> 04:31:48,510
Plus what kind of films
would be made
2730
04:31:48,552 --> 04:31:52,760
under the new head dramaturges
at Barrandov?
2731
04:31:52,760 --> 04:31:59,343
They were awful.
I can remember two, maybe three movies
2732
04:31:59,677 --> 04:32:03,635
from the 20-year period
of Normalisation.
2733
04:32:03,677 --> 04:32:06,468
Who would remember those films?
2734
04:32:06,468 --> 04:32:07,635
They were terrible!
2735
04:32:07,677 --> 04:32:14,843
Regardless of a group of directors
who were absolutely incompetent.
2736
04:32:14,885 --> 04:32:24,884
Balik, Kachlik, Jaromir, Borek,
they were the new favourites.
2737
04:32:26,135 --> 04:32:31,968
I didn't want to make movies
with people like that, no way.
2738
04:32:31,968 --> 04:32:40,843
But Jirka wanted to make movies,
and so he put up with it.
2739
04:32:40,843 --> 04:32:48,343
And I don't judge him, because
everyone's responsible for himself.
2740
04:32:48,343 --> 04:32:51,343
That's everyone's personal matter
2741
04:32:51,343 --> 04:32:53,427
how they handled themselves.
2742
04:32:53,427 --> 04:32:55,843
I don't want to judge them
2743
04:32:55,843 --> 04:32:58,843
but the truth is, I've never done that.
2744
04:32:58,843 --> 04:33:04,635
Because I would feel like I had
lost my identity had I done it.
2745
04:33:04,635 --> 04:33:07,927
That's all I have to say about that.
2746
04:33:07,927 --> 04:33:13,968
But we all had to say it and if someone
didn't, they were punished.
2747
04:33:13,968 --> 04:33:18,635
Jakubisko couldn't
shoot feature films anymore.
2748
04:33:18,635 --> 04:33:21,427
He was transferred to documentary films.
2749
04:33:21,677 --> 04:33:27,802
The same happened to Peter Solan.
2750
04:33:28,885 --> 04:33:32,927
They wanted to transfer me
to documentary films as well
2751
04:33:32,927 --> 04:33:34,468
but I was defending myself
2752
04:33:34,468 --> 04:33:38,010
because deep inside I am
not a documentary filmmaker.
2753
04:33:38,052 --> 04:33:41,260
There were people telling me
2754
04:33:41,260 --> 04:33:46,052
"Careful! Careful! We're going to
scrutinise your film with a microscope
2755
04:33:46,302 --> 04:33:50,052
to make sure
there's nothing anti-socialist."
2756
04:33:50,177 --> 04:33:53,218
I didn't want to make
anti-socialist films.
2757
04:33:53,427 --> 04:34:01,010
But the three feature films I made that
got banned were considered anti-socialist.
2758
04:34:01,093 --> 04:34:04,468
They also banned three
of my short documentaries.
2759
04:34:08,635 --> 04:34:11,802
My parents were in the fields
when I was about to be born.
2760
04:34:12,802 --> 04:34:16,718
My dad ran for help.
2761
04:34:18,260 --> 04:34:23,135
I fell out onto a spread apron
2762
04:34:25,260 --> 04:34:27,343
Thus I was born.
2763
04:34:41,927 --> 04:34:43,843
What is it?
2764
04:34:47,927 --> 04:34:49,760
I know nothing.
2765
04:34:49,968 --> 04:34:58,760
It took at least five years before
Hanák could make another film.
2766
04:34:59,802 --> 04:35:03,677
For Jakubisko,
it was perhaps 10-15 years.
2767
04:35:03,885 --> 04:35:05,802
And it killed Havetta.
2768
04:35:06,177 --> 04:35:09,177
Havetta could never
come to terms with it.
2769
04:35:09,802 --> 04:35:13,843
And it's believed that...
2770
04:35:14,718 --> 04:35:17,177
he intentionally didn't go see a doctor
2771
04:35:17,718 --> 04:35:19,802
when he had problems with his stomach
2772
04:35:22,218 --> 04:35:25,885
and he quietly died at home
instead of looking for help.
2773
04:35:26,302 --> 04:35:30,468
That was how depressed he was about it
and how unable to cope with it he was.
2774
04:35:31,010 --> 04:35:32,052
So...
2775
04:35:32,760 --> 04:35:34,802
Havetta died of Normalisation.
2776
04:35:34,802 --> 04:35:39,052
One important figure was
Jan Procházka, who was a writer
2777
04:35:39,427 --> 04:35:41,677
who was a member of the
communist party and
2778
04:35:41,718 --> 04:35:43,843
so he had close links
with the President.
2779
04:35:45,093 --> 04:35:49,052
He wrote his own scripts,
some of them highly critical
2780
04:35:49,343 --> 04:35:51,843
like, for instance,
Long Live the Republic
2781
04:35:51,885 --> 04:35:54,802
which came out in the mid-60s
2782
04:35:54,885 --> 04:36:01,302
and The Ear, which came out in... well it
came out in 1990, because it was banned
2783
04:36:01,427 --> 04:36:04,510
but that was really one
which was one of
2784
04:36:04,552 --> 04:36:07,468
the most hard hitting films about
the communist system.
2785
04:36:07,760 --> 04:36:12,260
But he made it possible for some of
the New Wave directors to work.
2786
04:36:12,385 --> 04:36:15,843
He defended, for instance,
Němec's The Party and the Guests.
2787
04:36:16,177 --> 04:36:19,968
If you allow me, I'd like to remind you
that I haven't committed any offence.
2788
04:36:20,593 --> 04:36:21,510
Neither have I.
2789
04:36:23,343 --> 04:36:24,552
Neither have I.
2790
04:36:26,260 --> 04:36:27,968
And I haven't either.
2791
04:36:37,093 --> 04:36:40,093
If it isn't too much trouble,
could I ask you for an explanation?
2792
04:36:40,177 --> 04:36:41,635
What have we done?
2793
04:36:42,385 --> 04:36:44,135
Don't you know?
2794
04:36:46,260 --> 04:36:47,843
He doesn't know.
2795
04:36:49,843 --> 04:36:51,260
Did you hear that?
2796
04:36:55,843 --> 04:37:00,302
And at one moment, in 1970, I think...
2797
04:37:02,135 --> 04:37:05,427
His profile was broadcasted in television
2798
04:37:05,968 --> 04:37:10,468
created from materials made by
the secret service.
2799
04:37:10,593 --> 04:37:17,010
You probably know the story.
It was the worst case of film media abuse.
2800
04:37:18,552 --> 04:37:24,010
I think he died of cancer, but there
was another reason for his death
2801
04:37:24,635 --> 04:37:27,593
the internal fight of Normalisation.
2802
04:37:28,593 --> 04:37:32,510
He died exhausted...
Exhausted.
2803
04:37:32,510 --> 04:37:37,260
Because on his shoulders he had to bear
2804
04:37:37,260 --> 04:37:39,760
the entire weight of the defiance.
2805
04:37:39,760 --> 04:37:43,302
He had to shoot films
that he didn't like shooting.
2806
04:37:43,302 --> 04:37:48,802
And that is, of course, going
to affect every sensitive artist.
2807
04:37:48,802 --> 04:37:52,260
Because then he feels like a servant
2808
04:37:52,260 --> 04:37:55,302
and not like a creator.
2809
04:37:55,302 --> 04:37:58,218
That was an inner problem of Štefan Uher
2810
04:37:58,218 --> 04:38:01,260
and that's what cut his life short.
2811
04:38:01,260 --> 04:38:04,343
He was just simply
exhausted from everything.
2812
04:38:04,468 --> 04:38:08,010
Therefore, they no longer wanted to
be rebels. They were exhausted.
2813
04:38:08,052 --> 04:38:12,302
They said to themselves,
"No, let's just bow down
2814
04:38:12,302 --> 04:38:14,927
just so we can do something."
2815
04:38:14,927 --> 04:38:18,385
Everything was considered
to be hostile - sex...
2816
04:38:18,468 --> 04:38:21,468
love, despair were hostile to them.
2817
04:38:21,760 --> 04:38:25,052
But those are the basics of a human story.
2818
04:38:25,968 --> 04:38:28,593
In that sense, we were anti-regime.
2819
04:38:28,635 --> 04:38:35,010
They said I have caused enough troubles
because End of August at Hotel Ozone
2820
04:38:35,052 --> 04:38:40,927
was banned no matter what
the political climate was.
2821
04:38:40,968 --> 04:38:44,218
The same with Josef Kilián.
2822
04:38:44,260 --> 04:38:51,968
So if I wanted to work at all, they
suggested that I make films for children.
2823
04:38:53,427 --> 04:39:00,343
So I got a chance after five years,
and not even in Barrandov
2824
04:39:00,385 --> 04:39:04,927
but with Krátký Film, to make a fairytale.
2825
04:39:04,968 --> 04:39:09,677
So I filmed two fairytales,
and the irony was
2826
04:39:09,677 --> 04:39:13,843
that I've become
a specialist in fairytales
2827
04:39:13,885 --> 04:39:17,760
which was fairly rare,
because there were
2828
04:39:17,927 --> 04:39:22,468
not many of us.
So I continued with that
2829
04:39:22,593 --> 04:39:28,052
and suddenly people forgot
that I made regular films.
2830
04:39:28,093 --> 04:39:33,343
I was labelled someone who
makes films for children.
2831
04:39:33,468 --> 04:39:41,552
I wasn't the only one
who was fired from Barrandov.
2832
04:39:41,843 --> 04:39:51,177
It was Standa Milota, Ladislav Helge,
Antonín Máša, Pavel Juráček...
2833
04:39:51,177 --> 04:39:54,427
They said, "Juráček? No! Never!"
2834
04:39:54,468 --> 04:39:57,218
"He is done, fire him and end him."
2835
04:39:57,677 --> 04:40:00,927
I admit this might look
suspicious to you.
2836
04:40:00,927 --> 04:40:04,010
It would to me, but I...
2837
04:40:04,052 --> 04:40:07,468
I really don't know
how it happened.
2838
04:40:07,468 --> 04:40:11,135
It just occurred to me
that I might borrow a cat.
2839
04:40:11,177 --> 04:40:11,968
That's all.
2840
04:40:12,010 --> 04:40:16,760
I'll gladly tell you why I did it,
but I'd have to lie.
2841
04:40:16,802 --> 04:40:21,510
I had no reason.
It never dawned on me that I needed one.
2842
04:40:21,510 --> 04:40:26,135
I know it was my mistake.
One should have a reason.
2843
04:40:26,177 --> 04:40:30,218
Next time
I'd like to set things right.
2844
04:40:30,260 --> 04:40:36,635
You see, whatever happened,
I'm just an ordinary person.
2845
04:40:37,302 --> 04:40:44,218
Evald Schorm - one of the major
directors made no films until '89.
2846
04:40:44,927 --> 04:40:45,885
And so on...
2847
04:40:46,135 --> 04:40:48,385
As is quite apart from the ones
who went abroad
2848
04:40:48,635 --> 04:40:56,385
who were not merely Němec, Forman,
Passer, Kadár, Barabáš, Jasný...
2849
04:40:56,677 --> 04:41:00,677
you know, more, even more,
plenty more you can name
2850
04:41:01,677 --> 04:41:07,302
who just went abroad, and some of them
were able to pursue their careers
2851
04:41:07,343 --> 04:41:08,885
some of them weren't.
2852
04:41:08,885 --> 04:41:11,010
I had to leave because
2853
04:41:12,510 --> 04:41:15,093
otherwise they would kill me.
2854
04:41:18,010 --> 04:41:19,510
That's it.
2855
04:41:19,635 --> 04:41:25,843
That's why I emigrated to President Tito
who provided the best protection.
2856
04:41:26,093 --> 04:41:30,885
If it weren't for President Tito, I'd be dead.
The KGB would've murdered me.
2857
04:41:30,968 --> 04:41:38,177
The ambassador Trpe Jakovlevski was
helping certain intellectuals, directors
2858
04:41:38,260 --> 04:41:41,968
and dramaturges to cross borders
to Yugoslavia in order to
2859
04:41:42,343 --> 04:41:46,052
emigrate to America, Canada, Germany,
and other countries.
2860
04:41:46,135 --> 04:41:53,635
Approximately 80 intellectuals
left Czechoslovakia via Yugoslavia.
2861
04:41:53,635 --> 04:41:58,010
But those who stayed, of course
2862
04:41:58,052 --> 04:42:02,135
suddenly found themselves
on the horns of a dilemma
2863
04:42:02,135 --> 04:42:06,177
because they were not allowed to shoot
2864
04:42:06,177 --> 04:42:13,427
and at the same time
did not want to claim allegiance
2865
04:42:13,427 --> 04:42:19,802
to the current that came thereafter
approximately from the year 1970
2866
04:42:19,802 --> 04:42:24,802
actually already in the
end of the year 1969
2867
04:42:24,802 --> 04:42:29,593
the period of "Normalisation"
as we call it.
2868
04:42:29,677 --> 04:42:35,927
It was a period when the rule over politics
2869
04:42:35,927 --> 04:42:39,885
but also over culture was
captured by totally different people
2870
04:42:39,885 --> 04:42:46,635
those who did not share the ideals
of the young people
2871
04:42:46,635 --> 04:42:50,802
who were considered to be
a part of the New Wave.
2872
04:42:50,802 --> 04:42:55,677
Well, I worked at an incineration plant
operating the incinerators
2873
04:42:56,968 --> 04:43:03,302
I drove a van for the grocery company,
so I was a professional driver.
2874
04:43:03,468 --> 04:43:09,218
Then I worked as a book salesman.
2875
04:43:09,302 --> 04:43:12,593
It's ridiculous.
2876
04:43:13,343 --> 04:43:15,218
But you have to live with it.
2877
04:43:15,218 --> 04:43:20,218
You've made your choice,
so you have to enjoy what you have.
2878
04:43:20,302 --> 04:43:23,843
At the Muzeum metro station,
I worked as a cleaner.
2879
04:43:24,843 --> 04:43:26,427
That was great.
2880
04:43:26,510 --> 04:43:28,718
I remember that
2881
04:43:29,343 --> 04:43:35,343
Andrej Barla, my friend and
Jakubisko's original cinematographer
2882
04:43:35,760 --> 04:43:39,760
- he was shooting with Vávra,
the big films of his -
2883
04:43:41,218 --> 04:43:44,510
he was in the metro,
saw me on the stairs and said
2884
04:43:44,593 --> 04:43:48,260
"What are you doing here?"
I said, "Cleaning the stairs."
2885
04:43:48,343 --> 04:43:50,302
It was quite obvious.
2886
04:43:50,343 --> 04:43:55,885
I was married to a famous
pop singer Marta Kubišová
2887
04:43:55,885 --> 04:43:58,010
and she was not allowed to sing
2888
04:43:58,052 --> 04:44:02,010
as she was part of the protest
movement against invasion.
2889
04:44:02,343 --> 04:44:05,385
We lost the child before
the child was born.
2890
04:44:05,718 --> 04:44:11,885
That means it was only very bad thing and
then I was really very close to suicide.
2891
04:44:11,885 --> 04:44:18,927
That means it doesn't look that there is
any light at the end of the tunnel.
2892
04:44:23,260 --> 04:44:30,302
When I recall this period, it seems
to me almost impossible.
2893
04:44:30,302 --> 04:44:36,135
As if you were walking
in winter, freezing
2894
04:44:36,177 --> 04:44:40,968
almost exhausted,
lying in the snow
2895
04:44:41,302 --> 04:44:44,218
and somebody would find you
and take you home
2896
04:44:44,302 --> 04:44:47,302
and from a fireplace it is pleasant
to think about it.
2897
04:44:47,302 --> 04:44:49,760
Like this, it is so pleasant
to think about it
2898
04:44:49,843 --> 04:44:53,385
that it all seems to
you like a dream
2899
04:44:53,468 --> 04:44:57,010
you wonder about it all,
you imagine and sigh.
2900
04:44:57,343 --> 04:45:02,510
We were so traumatised
that I feel the trauma even today.
2901
04:45:02,885 --> 04:45:07,093
I really liked
Russian literature and other things
2902
04:45:07,552 --> 04:45:12,385
but I still feel a certain aloofness
towards Russia
2903
04:45:12,677 --> 04:45:14,427
and Russian language.
2904
04:45:15,052 --> 04:45:19,552
It's still inside me.
The tanks in our streets and...
2905
04:45:21,135 --> 04:45:22,760
I will never...
2906
04:45:23,260 --> 04:45:27,802
I will never get rid
of the image in my mind's eye.
2907
04:45:28,052 --> 04:45:30,843
It was the 9th of January
2908
04:45:31,843 --> 04:45:39,343
I got a phone call from somebody that
the Russian tanks are leaving the barracks
2909
04:45:40,052 --> 04:45:42,427
in a small town near Prague
2910
04:45:43,677 --> 04:45:46,593
and they are coming towards Prague.
2911
04:45:47,427 --> 04:45:49,302
And so I took my car and
2912
04:45:50,343 --> 04:45:52,968
went to take a look at it,
and sure enough
2913
04:45:53,885 --> 04:45:56,968
I saw them coming.
So I turned back
2914
04:45:57,010 --> 04:46:00,052
went home, called Miloš,
told him what I saw
2915
04:46:00,677 --> 04:46:05,968
and Miloš said, "Ok, pick me up
in an hour, and we'll leave!"
2916
04:46:06,760 --> 04:46:15,593
So, I packed up my little
luggage, and we went to...
2917
04:46:15,593 --> 04:46:23,135
Miloš chose a small border crossing
between Czechoslovakia and Austria.
2918
04:46:24,218 --> 04:46:28,802
We go there at 4 o'clock in the morning
2919
04:46:28,843 --> 04:46:33,010
there were patches of snow
around, nobody there.
2920
04:46:34,010 --> 04:46:40,260
So we stopped, and the
officer came out
2921
04:46:40,260 --> 04:46:46,968
with a Kalashnikov over his shoulder, and
he said, "Comrades, where are you going?"
2922
04:46:47,593 --> 04:46:52,718
And we said, "We are going
to Vienna for a weekend."
2923
04:46:54,218 --> 04:46:58,052
And he said, "Can I see your passports?"
2924
04:46:58,552 --> 04:47:02,510
So I was sitting on the
right side, Miloš was driving
2925
04:47:03,593 --> 04:47:06,427
I gave him our passports and he said
2926
04:47:06,760 --> 04:47:10,010
he was going through it, he said,
"Where is your exit visa?"
2927
04:47:10,718 --> 04:47:13,968
which was a yellow piece of paper which
2928
04:47:14,010 --> 04:47:17,010
you had to have in order
to leave the country.
2929
04:47:17,052 --> 04:47:19,760
And they never gave it to anybody, yeah
2930
04:47:20,260 --> 04:47:23,677
except some prominent Party people.
2931
04:47:25,885 --> 04:47:28,010
So I said, "They are not there.
2932
04:47:28,052 --> 04:47:31,593
They must be in the luggage
in the back of the car."
2933
04:47:32,468 --> 04:47:40,635
And I got out of the car pretending
that I know that we have it
2934
04:47:40,635 --> 04:47:45,718
and I opened the back side and
I'm going through the luggage
2935
04:47:46,510 --> 04:47:48,760
and I hear this kind of a dialogue...
2936
04:47:50,218 --> 04:47:54,760
The officer said, "Are you
Miloš Forman, the film director?"
2937
04:47:55,427 --> 04:47:59,135
And Miloš, who has a very
deep voice, says, "Yes."
2938
04:48:00,218 --> 04:48:02,718
He said, "You know, I have
seen all your movies."
2939
04:48:03,468 --> 04:48:06,885
And Miloš said - I didn't
believe what I heard -
2940
04:48:06,927 --> 04:48:10,635
Miloš said, "And I bet you didn't like
any of them."
2941
04:48:11,052 --> 04:48:13,218
I thought... Is he crazy or what?
2942
04:48:13,635 --> 04:48:16,427
And the officer said,
"Are you kidding?
2943
04:48:16,468 --> 04:48:18,760
Do you remember that scene from
Loves of a Blonde...
2944
04:48:19,218 --> 04:48:22,927
that ring rolling on the floor and..."
2945
04:48:22,927 --> 04:48:27,427
And he began to talk about different
scenes from Miloš's movies.
2946
04:48:27,802 --> 04:48:29,843
Then he leaned like that and he said...
2947
04:48:30,260 --> 04:48:32,885
looked at me, he said,
"Don't look for those exit visa!"
2948
04:48:33,802 --> 04:48:34,927
And he let us go...
2949
04:48:35,510 --> 04:48:38,760
and he used an expression in Czech
2950
04:48:38,802 --> 04:48:42,218
which you use only when you never
see the people again...
2951
04:48:42,510 --> 04:48:43,718
"Be with God!"
2952
04:48:43,718 --> 04:48:49,385
So within five days, two French guys
picked me up in a roadster
2953
04:48:49,468 --> 04:48:54,343
and took me and the two kids,
poor things, in the backseat to Paris.
2954
04:48:54,468 --> 04:48:58,677
So we were there.
2955
04:48:58,718 --> 04:49:04,302
They got us a flat in Paris and all.
2956
04:49:04,385 --> 04:49:08,260
But Miloš didn't have any money for us
as he hadn't finished the movie yet.
2957
04:49:08,260 --> 04:49:10,260
And I never quite understood it
2958
04:49:10,302 --> 04:49:12,968
I think, he didn't want to
make the movie with them
2959
04:49:12,968 --> 04:49:16,843
with Claude Berri, the film producer.
2960
04:49:16,843 --> 04:49:19,177
Maybe he disliked the script,
I don't know.
2961
04:49:19,218 --> 04:49:24,802
So he left us in Paris
and went to America, to New York.
2962
04:49:24,802 --> 04:49:30,677
We had no idea that
it's going to last that long.
2963
04:49:31,593 --> 04:49:35,343
It was so bizarre, it was so... you know
2964
04:49:35,385 --> 04:49:38,968
"An Invasion of Czechoslovakia",
I mean it's...
2965
04:49:41,135 --> 04:49:45,552
you know, it would be a great comedy,
if I ever had a chance to do it.
2966
04:49:49,302 --> 04:49:51,843
We thought we are leaving just for a year.
2967
04:49:53,260 --> 04:50:00,385
We had... I had 300 dollars, Miloš had
600 dollars, one small piece of luggage...
2968
04:50:00,385 --> 04:50:04,552
Altogether I went three times to New York,
always with a ten-year break.
2969
04:50:04,635 --> 04:50:10,343
So I went there
and he was living quite well.
2970
04:50:10,343 --> 04:50:18,677
And he would later send us some money,
but never very much, as the dollar was high
2971
04:50:18,677 --> 04:50:23,177
and he thought,
"That should do for them."
2972
04:50:23,218 --> 04:50:30,343
So we got by. I mean,
not that we scraped along.
2973
04:50:30,635 --> 04:50:38,843
I played in the theatre, I went for tours,
I would knit clothes for my friends.
2974
04:50:39,010 --> 04:50:45,635
So we somehow managed to get by
and Miloš was abroad all that time.
2975
04:50:45,635 --> 04:50:48,218
So we stayed in touch
2976
04:50:48,218 --> 04:50:52,468
we would call each other, every Christmas,
then less and less.
2977
04:50:52,468 --> 04:50:59,010
Then not even on Christmas.
Then we met once, in Paris.
2978
04:50:59,052 --> 04:51:01,343
Then we didn't see each other anymore.
2979
04:51:01,427 --> 04:51:07,468
I told him once
how sorry I was that his films
2980
04:51:07,677 --> 04:51:12,635
Loves of a Blonde, The Firemen's Ball,
a wonderful film...
2981
04:51:13,052 --> 04:51:20,760
I told him I was sorry these got lost
because of his later films
2982
04:51:20,802 --> 04:51:25,385
like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
2983
04:51:25,468 --> 04:51:30,427
He told me, "If I wanted to gain
something new, I had to sacrifice something."
2984
04:51:30,593 --> 04:51:33,302
So I came to understand him.
2985
04:51:33,385 --> 04:51:37,677
And I was so happy for him
and his great success
2986
04:51:37,718 --> 04:51:41,593
which made the regime here
so terribly upset
2987
04:51:41,760 --> 04:51:50,510
that a man of Forman's quality
had to flee the country
2988
04:51:50,802 --> 04:51:52,427
in order to be able to create.
2989
04:51:52,760 --> 04:51:55,093
Not every Czech can run away.
2990
04:51:56,135 --> 04:52:00,218
So I ruined my Hollywood career.
2991
04:52:00,718 --> 04:52:01,552
But...
2992
04:52:01,760 --> 04:52:05,802
I don't think I would
make such good films in America...
2993
04:52:06,468 --> 04:52:08,302
as I did here.
2994
04:52:08,302 --> 04:52:09,927
I was replaceable...
2995
04:52:11,385 --> 04:52:13,343
making American movies.
2996
04:52:14,468 --> 04:52:16,843
But nobody could make
Intimate Lighting.
2997
04:52:24,510 --> 04:52:26,302
I guess you'd prefer a leg.
2998
04:52:26,635 --> 04:52:28,427
I want a leg!
2999
04:52:28,510 --> 04:52:29,927
No talking during the meal!
3000
04:52:30,260 --> 04:52:34,093
Kaya, grandpa also didn't get a leg and
doesn't complain!
3001
04:52:34,093 --> 04:52:35,593
Do you grandpa?
3002
04:52:37,510 --> 04:52:40,718
Please stay! He doesn't have
to have everything he sees.
3003
04:52:40,760 --> 04:52:43,968
But he likes it.
Here, have the leg, and...
3004
04:52:44,843 --> 04:52:48,010
Kaja, what are you doing?
Put it back immediately.
3005
04:52:48,010 --> 04:52:50,968
Let him have both of them,
I'll share with Peter, right?
3006
04:52:50,968 --> 04:52:52,427
Of course!
3007
04:52:52,427 --> 04:52:57,302
No, you can't do that!
You won't have enough. Take mine!
3008
04:52:57,718 --> 04:53:00,302
Leave that, leave it!
3009
04:53:00,552 --> 04:53:02,510
Here, take mine!
3010
04:53:02,510 --> 04:53:05,427
No, then you won't have any.
We'll share ours.
3011
04:53:05,635 --> 04:53:08,218
Why do you want to split a leg?
3012
04:53:08,260 --> 04:53:09,927
We'll manage
3013
04:53:10,968 --> 04:53:13,718
I cannot really take credit for it
3014
04:53:14,343 --> 04:53:18,468
because I saw it
in my brother-in-law's family.
3015
04:53:18,968 --> 04:53:21,927
In his family, if they had, like
3016
04:53:22,010 --> 04:53:26,385
six people for dinner,
they only had food for five.
3017
04:53:26,635 --> 04:53:27,968
I mean, always!
3018
04:53:28,635 --> 04:53:31,260
And so, I saw exactly that scene.
3019
04:53:31,260 --> 04:53:36,010
They had a chicken, and they...
suddenly one portion was missing.
3020
04:53:36,385 --> 04:53:38,093
So there was this game.
3021
04:53:38,885 --> 04:53:42,760
You know, of course,
in a film we made it more funny.
3022
04:54:01,552 --> 04:54:06,427
When it was finished,
there was a screening for the group
3023
04:54:07,302 --> 04:54:11,593
and Mr Šebor, the group's chief
and a great fan of Forman
3024
04:54:11,718 --> 04:54:15,427
and the rest of us,
said after the screening
3025
04:54:15,510 --> 04:54:19,343
"Guys, this is the most boring film
of all times."
3026
04:54:19,343 --> 04:54:20,968
That was my first review.
3027
04:54:22,635 --> 04:54:24,968
So I thought, "Ah! Okay."
3028
04:54:25,885 --> 04:54:30,552
And then, it was just before the
Karlovy Vary Film Festival
3029
04:54:31,177 --> 04:54:36,010
and somehow the studio didn't have
enough new Czech films to show
3030
04:54:37,260 --> 04:54:40,135
because it's a 'A' type festival in Europe
3031
04:54:40,135 --> 04:54:46,593
so there are lots of critics and important
people from all over the world, really.
3032
04:54:46,968 --> 04:54:48,968
So they showed Intimate Lighting.
3033
04:54:49,552 --> 04:54:55,343
It became such a success that
they had to show it several times over.
3034
04:54:55,427 --> 04:54:59,927
I said to myself, that I would
never make anything better.
3035
04:54:59,968 --> 04:55:02,177
That's pure film. Beautiful!
3036
04:55:37,718 --> 04:55:40,010
We'll be standing here like this
until judgement day
3037
04:55:40,302 --> 04:55:49,843
After five years of trying
to get some smaller jobs
3038
04:55:50,260 --> 04:55:53,427
in television or the dubbing industry
3039
04:55:53,510 --> 04:55:55,677
where I ended up working
for about six months
3040
04:55:56,468 --> 04:56:01,593
when I was...
how should I put it...
3041
04:56:01,593 --> 04:56:02,802
let into...
3042
04:56:02,802 --> 04:56:08,385
when I was mercifully allowed
to make a film
3043
04:56:08,385 --> 04:56:12,968
- as a test, as it was called -
which all of us had to do
3044
04:56:13,885 --> 04:56:19,177
it was something
I wouldn't wish for anybody
3045
04:56:19,302 --> 04:56:23,468
because not only was there
a five-year break
3046
04:56:23,468 --> 04:56:28,885
we actually had to sign
that the film was just a test.
3047
04:56:30,260 --> 04:56:35,385
And if we didn't pass the test,
they would kick us out.
3048
04:56:35,427 --> 04:56:39,385
This is what happened. At Barrandov,
they did not want me to work.
3049
04:56:39,385 --> 04:56:41,635
In the same way, they did not want
Jan Němec to work
3050
04:56:42,010 --> 04:56:44,468
as well as our whole generation.
It's the same old story.
3051
04:56:45,343 --> 04:56:55,342
Our colleagues, Sekvenc, Vorlíček, etc.,
wanted us, who were more successful...
3052
04:56:56,052 --> 04:56:57,427
to disappear.
3053
04:56:58,385 --> 04:57:00,135
That is the Czech character.
3054
04:57:01,968 --> 04:57:04,385
And they were successful,
because they had
3055
04:57:04,385 --> 04:57:06,927
the support of the
management of Barrandov.
3056
04:57:08,135 --> 04:57:11,385
They could not fire me
3057
04:57:11,385 --> 04:57:14,218
because at that time,
the law did not allow that.
3058
04:57:14,218 --> 04:57:15,468
They did not have any reason.
3059
04:57:15,718 --> 04:57:18,593
They could not fire Jireš, Bočan,
Mrs. Chytilová either.
3060
04:57:18,843 --> 04:57:22,052
Nevertheless, when we
wanted to do something
3061
04:57:22,093 --> 04:57:25,218
they would tell us that
it does not suit them
3062
04:57:25,218 --> 04:57:28,843
and they offered us scripts
that were un-filmable.
3063
04:57:28,843 --> 04:57:31,427
To put it bluntly
and to be completely vulgar
3064
04:57:31,468 --> 04:57:33,968
it provided opportunities for
pillocks, half-wits...
3065
04:57:34,010 --> 04:57:36,052
all of a sudden they
had this enormous power.
3066
04:57:36,218 --> 04:57:38,427
All the capable people
were suddenly cut off.
3067
04:57:38,427 --> 04:57:40,635
It was a horrible regime!
3068
04:57:40,843 --> 04:57:44,468
And there were enough communists
in this country
3069
04:57:44,468 --> 04:57:47,218
who joined this regime.
3070
04:57:48,177 --> 04:57:50,635
Or who would pretend
nothing had ever happened
3071
04:57:50,843 --> 04:57:55,302
such as Menzel when he made
Who Looks for Gold?
3072
04:57:55,718 --> 04:57:57,802
I would pee myself.
3073
04:57:59,010 --> 04:58:01,343
And that's horrible.
3074
04:58:01,343 --> 04:58:01,927
Horrible!
3075
04:58:02,052 --> 04:58:05,802
Everything, especially in the arts
and especially in filmmaking
3076
04:58:05,802 --> 04:58:07,677
is the result of a compromise.
3077
04:58:08,302 --> 04:58:12,135
If you're an engineer,
you have to make a compromise
3078
04:58:12,135 --> 04:58:14,093
with the laws of physics.
3079
04:58:14,093 --> 04:58:16,843
You have to adapt to them,
you have to accept them.
3080
04:58:17,135 --> 04:58:22,927
If you're an architect, a joiner,
anything, a shoemaker or a waiter
3081
04:58:22,927 --> 04:58:28,010
you have to accept the restaurant
you work at, carry the food they make
3082
04:58:28,010 --> 04:58:28,885
you simply have to do that.
3083
04:58:28,885 --> 04:58:32,510
The point is to do it the best
you can under the given conditions.
3084
04:58:33,218 --> 04:58:34,427
The same goes for filmmaking.
3085
04:58:35,093 --> 04:58:39,593
You can't stop making movies
just because the communists want it.
3086
04:59:08,927 --> 04:59:13,468
I called Evald, who was
sort of our counsellor
3087
04:59:13,468 --> 04:59:15,260
as he was the eldest one of us
3088
04:59:15,260 --> 04:59:17,468
and the wisest one as well, I think
3089
04:59:17,468 --> 04:59:20,302
and I asked him, "Do you think
I should quit the job, Evald?"
3090
04:59:21,802 --> 04:59:24,968
And Evald said, "It's they
who have to fire you."
3091
04:59:25,802 --> 04:59:28,385
"Don't quit. Wait for them to fire you."
3092
04:59:28,843 --> 04:59:34,093
"If you quit, what are you going to do?
Sweep the streets?"
3093
04:59:34,385 --> 04:59:35,510
"And how are you going to sweep them?"
3094
04:59:35,552 --> 04:59:38,385
"You'll do it well, because you do
things well
3095
04:59:38,510 --> 04:59:40,593
and you'll support the regime
with your work anyway."
3096
04:59:41,135 --> 04:59:43,093
"So, don't do anything and just wait."
3097
04:59:43,427 --> 04:59:49,010
During totalitarianism I chose a tactic...
3098
04:59:49,802 --> 04:59:54,593
I made certain
they knew I was prepared
3099
04:59:56,177 --> 04:59:59,760
for them to drown me...
But I'd take them down with me.
3100
05:00:00,010 --> 05:00:02,885
I made sure I could
take them down with me.
3101
05:00:03,177 --> 05:00:06,593
I would have made such a scandal
3102
05:00:06,593 --> 05:00:09,760
it would've
cost them their positions.
3103
05:00:09,760 --> 05:00:13,343
She said, "They all have wives at home."
3104
05:00:13,635 --> 05:00:18,135
"And they're all terrified of them,
particularly when they become hysterical."
3105
05:00:18,468 --> 05:00:22,427
"So I decided to play the
hysterical wife, basically."
3106
05:00:22,760 --> 05:00:29,052
And so she threw fits and she behaved
in whatever way was necessary to
3107
05:00:30,010 --> 05:00:33,385
try and persuade them to let
her do what she wanted to do.
3108
05:00:33,427 --> 05:00:38,010
Among the scripts I'd been offered,
there was this one...
3109
05:00:38,385 --> 05:00:43,427
I met the writers,
they were two journalists
3110
05:00:43,427 --> 05:00:47,302
and the script was about the construction
of an oil pipeline.
3111
05:00:47,302 --> 05:00:50,302
I met the authors and I asked them
3112
05:00:50,302 --> 05:00:54,343
if they would go to see a film
based on that script...
3113
05:00:54,343 --> 05:00:56,427
if they would buy the tickets.
3114
05:00:57,093 --> 05:00:58,427
They said that they would not!
3115
05:00:59,635 --> 05:01:01,593
I liked their honesty,
so I told them
3116
05:01:01,635 --> 05:01:04,177
"Alright, I will do it.
I really have to do something."
3117
05:01:04,177 --> 05:01:06,593
We went to see the construction
3118
05:01:07,677 --> 05:01:10,093
but it was just a hole in the ground.
3119
05:01:10,885 --> 05:01:15,510
A digger here and there, but otherwise
nothing that could be filmed.
3120
05:01:16,135 --> 05:01:19,927
So I again said that it was not filmable
3121
05:01:19,927 --> 05:01:23,427
and they advised me to
go and look at a dam
3122
05:01:23,468 --> 05:01:27,135
which was being built -
and it was interesting.
3123
05:01:27,135 --> 05:01:33,968
It was a beautiful space and the people
who were there were really nice.
3124
05:01:33,968 --> 05:01:41,177
The employees were mostly people
who were thrown out from better posts.
3125
05:01:41,343 --> 05:01:45,052
"If you shoot this
film, we might allow you
3126
05:01:45,093 --> 05:01:48,802
to shoot something
better as well."
3127
05:01:51,260 --> 05:01:54,760
At that very moment,
he invited me to
3128
05:01:54,802 --> 05:01:58,177
a pub, he told me about it and said
3129
05:01:58,385 --> 05:02:02,260
"Zdeněk, I wouldn't shoot this normally
3130
05:02:02,302 --> 05:02:05,843
but help me improve the
dialogues at least."
3131
05:02:06,010 --> 05:02:07,260
In order to build this dyke
3132
05:02:07,302 --> 05:02:10,885
they first had to blow a tunnel
through that rock face there.
3133
05:02:11,135 --> 05:02:13,135
The river runs through there now.
3134
05:02:13,593 --> 05:02:17,302
The four pipes you see over there
will go under the dyke.
3135
05:02:17,343 --> 05:02:19,718
Each is six metres in diameter.
3136
05:02:19,927 --> 05:02:22,218
The water will power the turbine.
3137
05:02:22,218 --> 05:02:25,177
And at night, when there is
less need for electricity
3138
05:02:25,218 --> 05:02:27,718
the turbines will pump
water back into the dam.
3139
05:02:27,760 --> 05:02:33,302
After the Revolution, many people
didn't have a clear conscience
3140
05:02:34,093 --> 05:02:37,302
but they were very eager to
point fingers, saying
3141
05:02:37,343 --> 05:02:39,135
"Aha! Menzel made pro-regime films."
3142
05:02:39,468 --> 05:02:42,802
If you watch the film, you will see
that it is not good
3143
05:02:42,802 --> 05:02:45,510
but it is not pro-regime,
not in any way.
3144
05:02:50,802 --> 05:02:53,093
The story can be whatever.
3145
05:02:54,135 --> 05:02:58,552
What's important is
the creator's approach.
3146
05:02:59,843 --> 05:03:02,010
That's what's interesting
and unique.
3147
05:03:02,010 --> 05:03:04,302
It's original
because we're all different.
3148
05:03:04,635 --> 05:03:07,010
We perceive things differently.
3149
05:03:07,552 --> 05:03:10,760
That's what interests me,
the relationship to it.
3150
05:03:10,802 --> 05:03:16,135
Naturally, Věra Chytilová
decides to do it her own way.
3151
05:03:16,218 --> 05:03:20,343
So instead of celebrating the construction
of the housing estate
3152
05:03:20,427 --> 05:03:24,885
which was the pride and
joy of the socialist regime
3153
05:03:25,010 --> 05:03:28,802
she made a film unmasking the regime.
3154
05:03:28,843 --> 05:03:32,302
Jireš made a film about the
building of the Prague Metro.
3155
05:03:32,677 --> 05:03:37,510
other people made equally vacuous
and empty films at the same time.
3156
05:03:37,635 --> 05:03:40,635
It was, as if,
the authorities were saying
3157
05:03:40,968 --> 05:03:44,010
"You know, here's the theme.
Make a film about that!"
3158
05:03:44,385 --> 05:03:47,093
"We're not interested
in the quality.
3159
05:03:47,135 --> 05:03:50,552
We just want to fulfil
the production program."
3160
05:04:45,927 --> 05:04:53,427
So we had to make films
so that certain ideas were hidden
3161
05:04:53,677 --> 05:04:57,468
so that we did not say directly
what we wanted to say
3162
05:04:57,760 --> 05:05:03,135
to let people feel it,
put it in between lines, so to say.
3163
05:05:03,510 --> 05:05:10,260
And that was very interesting
because we put... we put there...
3164
05:05:10,552 --> 05:05:19,010
we call it a white dog,
or a white animal.
3165
05:05:20,093 --> 05:05:24,510
We wanted to hide there something
they would not be able to see.
3166
05:05:24,718 --> 05:05:32,135
They started to notice it
and also started to interpret symbols.
3167
05:05:33,010 --> 05:05:37,927
So then the worst was happening,
fortunately not too often
3168
05:05:37,927 --> 05:05:47,218
they started to see symbols even
in places where we intended none at all.
3169
05:05:47,218 --> 05:05:54,635
For example, after the Warsaw Pact troops
entered our country on 21st
3170
05:05:54,718 --> 05:06:00,802
we could not use 21st in a calendar or so,
this number could not be used.
3171
05:06:00,802 --> 05:06:02,927
If we used it,
they would argue.
3172
05:06:02,927 --> 05:06:05,885
Or the clocks could never show
midnight because
3173
05:06:05,927 --> 05:06:08,468
it was at midnight
when the troops entered.
3174
05:06:08,468 --> 05:06:11,010
So they were searching for symbols
everywhere in a film.
3175
05:06:11,052 --> 05:06:18,343
I remember that when I made one film...
due to the censorship... one film...
3176
05:06:18,552 --> 05:06:22,968
it was not... it was not
Build a House, Plant a Tree
3177
05:06:22,968 --> 05:06:27,968
it was before, before,
I'm Sitting on a Branch and I'm Fine.
3178
05:06:28,718 --> 05:06:33,385
In this film, I consciously
made a scene where a man
3179
05:06:33,427 --> 05:06:37,927
is kicking Russian flags
and throwing them around
3180
05:06:38,052 --> 05:06:41,843
so that a censor could look and say
3181
05:06:42,093 --> 05:06:45,510
"Yes, this is it. This is the white dog.
3182
05:06:45,552 --> 05:06:49,718
This must be cut out,
otherwise it is all right".
3183
05:06:49,843 --> 05:06:52,635
By the way, I heard this idea once
3184
05:06:52,677 --> 05:06:56,010
I also talked
to Jaromil Jireš about it
3185
05:06:57,135 --> 05:07:02,010
that there's no doubt the New Wave
was severed by outside forces.
3186
05:07:03,427 --> 05:07:07,302
But inside, with the possible exception
of Mr. Forman
3187
05:07:08,135 --> 05:07:12,177
they were already abandoning
3188
05:07:12,260 --> 05:07:17,760
that exploratory documentary
style of narration anyway
3189
05:07:18,385 --> 05:07:22,052
as if they had somewhat
drained it already.
3190
05:07:23,052 --> 05:07:25,885
Let me point out,
I can't speak on their behalf
3191
05:07:25,968 --> 05:07:28,093
but this was a feeling I had...
3192
05:07:28,552 --> 05:07:34,635
that the excitement that you could have
to see living people on the silver screen
3193
05:07:34,635 --> 05:07:38,385
as opposed to the films
that were shot before
3194
05:07:38,427 --> 05:07:42,218
and that the people on the screen could
communicate with the same language
3195
05:07:42,260 --> 05:07:44,010
as the people sitting in the audience
3196
05:07:45,010 --> 05:07:47,635
that suddenly, everybody
started abandoning that
3197
05:07:47,677 --> 05:07:50,260
because they wanted to express
something more
3198
05:07:51,385 --> 05:08:01,384
in the sense of expressing
more fatal, existential moments.
3199
05:08:01,635 --> 05:08:04,760
That was why, I think, Jaromil Jireš shot
3200
05:08:04,802 --> 05:08:07,718
for example...
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.
3201
05:08:08,427 --> 05:08:11,843
Věra Chytilová shot Fruit of Paradise.
3202
05:08:12,552 --> 05:08:14,552
Almost all of them shifted
3203
05:08:14,635 --> 05:08:19,302
as if they wanted to start
expressing themselves differently.
3204
05:08:34,927 --> 05:08:39,052
Where is the Paris poorhouse,
dear child?
3205
05:08:40,885 --> 05:08:43,093
Over there, Father.
3206
05:08:44,593 --> 05:08:48,927
One thing, what I think, what we
were trying to do is in a way has
3207
05:08:49,927 --> 05:08:55,093
diverged a little from what the Czech
directors did, was that there...
3208
05:08:56,885 --> 05:09:01,052
there seemed to be increasingly
an element of surrealism and...
3209
05:09:01,593 --> 05:09:06,968
a kind of surrealist humour
in their later work.
3210
05:09:06,968 --> 05:09:10,760
And I guess we've stuck
fairly closely, I guess
3211
05:09:10,802 --> 05:09:14,302
to trying to tell stories
of how things are.
3212
05:09:14,593 --> 05:09:19,552
And that's because in film
culture here, it is about...
3213
05:09:19,593 --> 05:09:23,177
the film culture is
about exaggeration
3214
05:09:23,468 --> 05:09:29,968
it's about escape, it's about pretending
that everything is fine, that...
3215
05:09:32,052 --> 05:09:33,343
it's about promoting wealth
3216
05:09:33,343 --> 05:09:36,010
it's about saying the United States is
3217
05:09:36,052 --> 05:09:38,593
the defender of freedom
and democracy and...
3218
05:09:39,260 --> 05:09:42,885
their soldiers do nothing but
help the human race to progress.
3219
05:09:43,302 --> 05:09:47,760
And I suppose,
our response to that is to say
3220
05:09:47,802 --> 05:09:50,760
"No, no. Look at how it is!
Look at how it is!"
3221
05:09:50,760 --> 05:09:54,968
and trying to make films that have said,
"Look! This is how it really is."
3222
05:09:55,468 --> 05:10:00,135
And the political and
social circumstance
3223
05:10:00,177 --> 05:10:04,635
I guess, in Czechoslovakia
or Czech Republic
3224
05:10:05,093 --> 05:10:09,510
has been to... they have to
work through images and metaphors
3225
05:10:10,135 --> 05:10:12,885
because they couldn't say,
"This is how it is"
3226
05:10:13,427 --> 05:10:16,218
because that would have been
deemed unacceptable.
3227
05:10:16,427 --> 05:10:18,802
One day Mr. Toman
3228
05:10:18,843 --> 05:10:22,552
gentleman who made all the decisions
regarding what gets made at Barrandov
3229
05:10:22,593 --> 05:10:26,468
offered me a story
which I turned down.
3230
05:10:26,468 --> 05:10:27,677
He summoned me to his office and said
3231
05:10:28,385 --> 05:10:30,135
"Are you sure
you don't want to shoot it?"
3232
05:10:30,177 --> 05:10:33,010
I started making excuses that I didn't
understand this subject, etc.
3233
05:10:33,552 --> 05:10:37,343
And he told me in this voice
I still remember today
3234
05:10:37,385 --> 05:10:41,468
"But it would be a pity
to have you on hold for a long time."
3235
05:10:41,677 --> 05:10:43,968
It meant, "Turn it down
and you're done."
3236
05:10:44,468 --> 05:10:46,135
I don't know.
3237
05:10:47,468 --> 05:10:51,635
It is true that...
3238
05:10:53,010 --> 05:10:59,510
thanks to Toman
the New Wave disappeared
3239
05:10:59,552 --> 05:11:04,718
because all of them stopped working.
3240
05:11:04,718 --> 05:11:05,635
Had I not shot it
3241
05:11:05,802 --> 05:11:09,760
I wouldn't have shot
My sweet Little Village
3242
05:11:09,760 --> 05:11:11,677
I wouldn't have shot Cutting It Short.
3243
05:11:11,802 --> 05:11:16,260
Nevertheless, there are some zealots here
who cannot forgive me for this.
3244
05:11:17,052 --> 05:11:18,593
Do you have enough material?
3245
05:11:28,677 --> 05:11:32,510
It's Larks on a String here -
Jiří Menzel film...
3246
05:11:33,718 --> 05:11:36,427
This is Věra Chytilová...
Something Different
3247
05:11:36,427 --> 05:11:39,968
an amazing combination of
documentary and fiction.
3248
05:11:40,968 --> 05:11:45,093
You can see Evald Schorm, Jan Němec.
3249
05:11:59,260 --> 05:12:00,677
Seclusion near a Forest
is one of...
3250
05:12:00,968 --> 05:12:04,260
the most popular films amongst Czechs.
3251
05:12:04,760 --> 05:12:07,760
Everyone knows all the catchphrases
3252
05:12:07,968 --> 05:12:11,510
that people hear from the film
and are used in everyday speech.
3253
05:12:12,302 --> 05:12:17,052
Somewhere else the frogs croak
in an unpleasant way.
3254
05:12:18,218 --> 05:12:23,427
But here they do just, "Hu... Hu..."
3255
05:12:31,093 --> 05:12:34,052
What do you do about the mice?
3256
05:12:44,760 --> 05:12:53,468
It was after the long break,
I felt insecure.
3257
05:12:54,635 --> 05:12:59,968
I was afraid that I would spoil
Zdeněk's and Ladislav's work
3258
05:12:59,968 --> 05:13:04,927
so I was very tense.
3259
05:13:04,927 --> 05:13:08,927
The Bolsheviks shut the borders and
people were not allowed to go abroad
3260
05:13:08,927 --> 05:13:10,677
that is why they started
fleeing to the country.
3261
05:13:10,677 --> 05:13:13,343
There was a big boom at that time.
3262
05:13:13,385 --> 05:13:17,552
People started buying village
houses, or building them
3263
05:13:17,552 --> 05:13:20,343
to be able to escape the city
at least during the weekend
3264
05:13:20,343 --> 05:13:22,260
and live their own lives.
3265
05:13:23,218 --> 05:13:26,260
We want to talk about the cottage.
3266
05:13:26,510 --> 05:13:29,260
Yes, you should buy it.
3267
05:13:29,510 --> 05:13:31,677
- Yes! It's all the same to you
- Exactly!
3268
05:13:31,718 --> 05:13:34,427
That's what we wanted to talk about.
3269
05:13:34,552 --> 05:13:39,260
I'd keep my little room,
and the rest would be yours.
3270
05:13:39,593 --> 05:13:44,343
I'd keep an eye on the place for you.
You would have milk...
3271
05:13:44,760 --> 05:13:48,302
You mean, live on here with us?
3272
05:13:48,510 --> 05:13:51,427
Yes. When I die,
it'll be all yours.
3273
05:13:57,135 --> 05:13:59,468
You know, we'll have to think about that.
3274
05:13:59,510 --> 05:14:02,218
We hadn't thought about that solution.
3275
05:14:02,343 --> 05:14:05,927
We get on so well though, no?
3276
05:14:57,593 --> 05:15:07,343
It was nicely dingy, and one could feel
the smell of the village house.
3277
05:15:07,427 --> 05:15:15,052
I had wonderful kids there
who came for casting on their own.
3278
05:15:15,885 --> 05:15:17,843
It's nice to meet them today.
3279
05:15:17,927 --> 05:15:22,302
Mafia is a midwife
3280
05:15:22,760 --> 05:15:29,177
and her brother, the small one,
is an IT guy. He works with computers.
3281
05:15:29,177 --> 05:15:30,760
It is terrible how time flies...
3282
05:15:44,177 --> 05:15:54,176
When he moved here...
in 1965 or 1966...
3283
05:15:54,760 --> 05:15:58,302
he was getting to know his neighbours
3284
05:15:58,552 --> 05:16:00,718
and wrote some short stories about them.
3285
05:16:00,718 --> 05:16:06,510
It's simply an illustration of how people
live here, the Czech nature, and so on.
3286
05:16:06,510 --> 05:16:13,802
It is about Czech hedonists,
about their drinking and eating.
3287
05:16:52,427 --> 05:16:55,468
I will not tell you a funny story
from the shoot...
3288
05:16:55,468 --> 05:16:57,760
They do not exist.
3289
05:16:57,760 --> 05:17:01,343
They exist only for people
who took part in the shoot.
3290
05:17:01,343 --> 05:17:06,510
It's usually not funny for people
who were not there.
3291
05:17:06,843 --> 05:17:10,510
So, I don't have
a funny story, unfortunately.
3292
05:17:11,135 --> 05:17:15,968
The crew that is here with me
wants to take some shots with me
3293
05:17:17,385 --> 05:17:19,135
because they like Hrabal.
3294
05:17:19,927 --> 05:17:22,218
They're from India.
It's an Indian crew.
3295
05:18:12,843 --> 05:18:19,177
Somewhere here there was a cesspit
because there was no toilet...
3296
05:18:20,260 --> 05:18:22,885
Mr. Hrabal refused to act in the film.
3297
05:18:23,260 --> 05:18:27,552
In the end, I persuaded him
to appear in one shot.
3298
05:18:27,552 --> 05:18:37,551
He agreed, he took a ladle and started
spilling the shit on the flowerbeds.
3299
05:18:41,135 --> 05:18:45,010
He would come, feed the cats and
then sit inside near the tile stove.
3300
05:18:45,718 --> 05:18:49,218
I'd come and knock on the window.
3301
05:18:49,552 --> 05:18:53,135
I'd hear, "What is it?
Why are you bothering me? Who is it?"
3302
05:18:53,593 --> 05:18:57,218
So, I'd always enter very cautiously
and he would say, "Oh, it's you!"
3303
05:18:57,843 --> 05:18:59,093
And then he would calm down.
3304
05:18:59,177 --> 05:19:02,052
He was ill and that is why he was nervous.
3305
05:19:03,052 --> 05:19:06,260
It was a sad ending.
But otherwise I liked coming here.
3306
05:19:07,427 --> 05:19:09,093
We were fond of each other.
3307
05:19:09,552 --> 05:19:11,552
Oh - and there were cats everywhere.
3308
05:20:10,677 --> 05:20:16,177
As with all the Hrabal film adaptations
3309
05:20:16,593 --> 05:20:21,843
you have to mix the material
and put it together in a new way.
3310
05:20:22,260 --> 05:20:28,718
Because the content of his prose
isn't the actual plot.
3311
05:20:29,093 --> 05:20:33,635
It's the way the individual
situations are told.
3312
05:20:34,052 --> 05:20:35,468
And it was always about...
3313
05:20:35,468 --> 05:20:37,468
It was true for Tra in s
3314
05:20:37,510 --> 05:20:41,218
Cutting it Short and
all the other Hrabal adaptations
3315
05:20:41,218 --> 05:20:45,927
that it had to somehow connect together.
3316
05:21:07,343 --> 05:21:11,052
I swapped this camera for
two sacks of grouts.
3317
05:21:48,510 --> 05:21:51,927
It was an innocent film
about the countryside
3318
05:21:51,927 --> 05:21:54,010
or how people lived there
3319
05:21:54,718 --> 05:22:00,427
but it scared the watchdogs,
the communists, etc.
3320
05:22:01,010 --> 05:22:06,260
I had to promise that
it wouldn't be against the regime.
3321
05:22:06,718 --> 05:22:07,927
And I received training.
3322
05:22:07,927 --> 05:22:11,635
I was invited to the police, who explained
3323
05:22:11,635 --> 05:22:15,968
that in the film the policeman
must not be an antagonist.
3324
05:22:16,885 --> 05:22:20,260
I told them, "He's portrayed by Mr. Somr."
3325
05:22:20,260 --> 05:22:25,968
"He's a very congenial person.
It will be... It will be okay."
3326
05:22:25,968 --> 05:22:29,010
But they were still afraid.
They were scared by Larks
3327
05:22:29,052 --> 05:22:32,052
that I'd be protesting
against something again.
3328
05:22:32,635 --> 05:22:34,885
Eventually, the film was green-lighted.
3329
05:22:34,885 --> 05:22:41,135
But later, when we were shooting
Mr. Somr in a police uniform
3330
05:22:41,135 --> 05:22:44,135
he got so drunk during the shoot
3331
05:22:44,135 --> 05:22:48,010
that when he was supposed to rebuke
a drunk, in a close-up shot
3332
05:22:48,010 --> 05:22:49,760
you could tell that he was himself drunk!
3333
05:22:50,343 --> 05:22:52,135
That was a problem. I thought
3334
05:22:52,135 --> 05:22:55,343
they will never let me
shoot a foot of film again!
3335
05:22:55,343 --> 05:22:58,260
So, we had to reshoot the scene later.
3336
05:23:12,510 --> 05:23:15,135
The Snowdrop Festival
comes very close to
3337
05:23:16,052 --> 05:23:17,385
Closely Watched Trains
3338
05:23:17,510 --> 05:23:20,927
when that main - Herr Zedníček,
who's a negative character
3339
05:23:21,135 --> 05:23:23,218
says Czechs are "laughing beasts"
3340
05:23:23,260 --> 05:23:26,218
think this is captured perfectly
in The Snowdrop Festival.
3341
05:23:26,302 --> 05:23:27,593
Do you know what Czechs are?
3342
05:23:28,593 --> 05:23:29,885
Laughing beasts.
3343
05:23:41,343 --> 05:23:43,802
The soup, gentlemen!
3344
05:24:31,552 --> 05:24:37,218
Menzel found, exactly
in Hrabal's drafts, which he then filmed
3345
05:24:37,760 --> 05:24:40,093
in particular with
The Snowdrop Festival
3346
05:24:40,343 --> 05:24:45,260
something like the core
of Hrabal's statement
3347
05:24:46,010 --> 05:24:50,718
which is precisely the Czechs' enjoyment
of good food and...
3348
05:24:52,177 --> 05:24:54,052
good beer, and such things.
3349
05:24:54,427 --> 05:24:55,885
The same thing happens in
Cutting it Short
3350
05:24:56,552 --> 05:25:01,510
where a brewery is actually...
the main setting.
3351
05:25:01,843 --> 05:25:06,927
But it's also a great flattening of
Hrabal's text or draft
3352
05:25:07,093 --> 05:25:10,302
because Hrabal obviously
didn't write about this
3353
05:25:10,677 --> 05:25:12,760
- the way the Czechs
like to eat and drink well -
3354
05:25:13,135 --> 05:25:15,468
instead, he wrote about
the mentality of the Czech nation.
3355
05:25:16,802 --> 05:25:19,927
I fell asleep with the rosy image
3356
05:25:20,093 --> 05:25:22,677
of two steaks for breakfast.
3357
05:25:24,885 --> 05:25:25,802
Yes!
3358
05:25:36,468 --> 05:25:38,635
It will be long, long, long film.
3359
05:25:39,427 --> 05:25:40,093
Yes?
3360
05:25:59,760 --> 05:26:04,343
Every woman has a tendency to evil.
3361
05:26:07,302 --> 05:26:08,635
Good morning!
3362
05:26:12,843 --> 05:26:15,427
What were we talking about?
3363
05:26:15,802 --> 05:26:16,843
Women.
3364
05:26:17,802 --> 05:26:20,593
Woman is the only good
3365
05:26:20,593 --> 05:26:22,677
we have in this world.
3366
05:26:24,177 --> 05:26:27,427
My mum used to tell me that
3367
05:26:27,802 --> 05:26:30,135
if a girl is nice
3368
05:26:30,260 --> 05:26:33,593
I shouldn't start anything with her.
3369
05:26:34,177 --> 05:26:38,177
And if she's bad, I definitely should.
3370
05:26:39,177 --> 05:26:42,218
So I had real bad feelings.
3371
05:26:42,218 --> 05:26:46,302
And it took a while
before I understood that
3372
05:26:47,052 --> 05:26:49,260
there is nothing bad about liking girls.
3373
05:26:49,385 --> 05:26:52,427
So then I tried to catch up.
3374
05:26:53,552 --> 05:26:57,218
I had a lot of...
"friendships", as I would call it.
3375
05:26:57,718 --> 05:27:00,302
You couldn't say that they were
3376
05:27:00,385 --> 05:27:02,718
love affairs or...
3377
05:27:02,968 --> 05:27:05,385
I kept my distance.
3378
05:27:06,052 --> 05:27:10,885
Because I knew if I was with just one girl,
I wouldn't get to have the others.
3379
05:27:12,010 --> 05:27:13,510
That would make me sad, so...
3380
05:27:14,052 --> 05:27:16,260
I knew that it was all...
3381
05:27:16,802 --> 05:27:18,802
on the basis of...
3382
05:27:21,468 --> 05:27:23,760
that we should like each other but only...
3383
05:27:24,385 --> 05:27:27,885
so much that we could go to bed together.
3384
05:27:28,385 --> 05:27:30,802
But... nothing more.
3385
05:27:30,927 --> 05:27:35,718
Jiří Menzel claimed that one of the ways
that helped him survive Normalisation
3386
05:27:35,968 --> 05:27:41,218
was climbing into bed with one woman,
then another woman, and that
3387
05:27:41,260 --> 05:27:43,052
helped him a bit
to survive Normalisation.
3388
05:28:04,968 --> 05:28:10,052
His penchant for presenting eroticism
3389
05:28:10,218 --> 05:28:14,218
in a semi-theatrical manner
3390
05:28:14,260 --> 05:28:17,218
and even his protagonists
3391
05:28:17,427 --> 05:28:22,260
are Don Juans, womanisers.
3392
05:28:22,510 --> 05:28:28,468
Menzel is always interested
in semi-nudity.
3393
05:28:28,718 --> 05:28:30,427
There is always
an element of voyeurism
3394
05:28:30,427 --> 05:28:35,177
and it is always present with him,
whatever the theme or story.
3395
05:28:56,718 --> 05:28:58,635
Well... You know
3396
05:28:59,677 --> 05:29:02,385
you can't make a nice movie
without girls.
3397
05:29:02,510 --> 05:29:04,843
But they have to be pretty girls.
3398
05:29:05,843 --> 05:29:12,510
It may be my weakness, but...
I know no other way.
3399
05:29:13,427 --> 05:29:15,468
I have to like the girls.
3400
05:29:20,093 --> 05:29:22,010
Sometimes, one of them ends up here.
3401
05:29:25,218 --> 05:29:28,635
Eliška, there's a cobweb
up there
3402
05:29:29,135 --> 05:29:30,968
on the very top
3403
05:29:31,635 --> 05:29:33,343
on that clock...
3404
05:30:01,927 --> 05:30:02,260
Good.
3405
05:30:02,593 --> 05:30:03,135
Got this.
3406
05:30:03,510 --> 05:30:04,802
Lovely questions.
3407
05:30:12,802 --> 05:30:14,552
Finally, quiet place!
3408
05:30:19,635 --> 05:30:21,677
So... what do you think?
3409
05:30:21,927 --> 05:30:26,218
As we have Democracy and
the Rule of Law behind us.
3410
05:30:49,427 --> 05:30:53,510
One day we met on the street
and he asked me how I was
3411
05:30:53,510 --> 05:30:57,677
and we went for a coffee together
and we laughed all the time.
3412
05:30:57,677 --> 05:31:01,343
We had lots of fun and
I ate about two pastries
3413
05:31:01,385 --> 05:31:04,802
and in the end
when we were parting, he said
3414
05:31:04,802 --> 05:31:08,468
"Magda, I have a script...
Would you take a look at it?"
3415
05:31:08,593 --> 05:31:14,385
And I said to the producer that
I found the actress, Mrs. Vašáryová.
3416
05:31:14,427 --> 05:31:19,052
And the producer told me
I was crazy - she acted daily
3417
05:31:19,093 --> 05:31:24,093
in the theatre in Bratislava,
really far away.
3418
05:31:24,385 --> 05:31:31,510
She worked for TV as well, and
she wasn't ideal for the production.
3419
05:31:32,010 --> 05:31:35,385
I called Magda in Bratislava
3420
05:31:35,593 --> 05:31:40,927
and when she heard my voice
she asked, "Jirka, you saw my message?"
3421
05:31:41,760 --> 05:31:47,427
It was just a postcard and I wrote on it
3422
05:31:47,427 --> 05:31:53,885
"I like the book a lot.
I've emptied the fridge. Yours, Magda."
3423
05:31:53,885 --> 05:31:58,843
And I realised, for God's sake,
that this was it.
3424
05:31:59,635 --> 05:32:06,927
This is a woman who knows how to live,
in every sense of the word.
3425
05:32:15,927 --> 05:32:20,135
I met Mrs. Hrabalová,
the mother of Mr. Hrabal
3426
05:32:20,177 --> 05:32:24,302
when she was still alive.
She was a real lady.
3427
05:32:24,385 --> 05:32:28,552
Mr. Hrabal writes
she was queen of the town...
3428
05:32:28,552 --> 05:32:31,718
she was beautiful,
she was admired.
3429
05:32:36,718 --> 05:32:45,468
He was conceived while his mother
was unmarried, and his real father...
3430
05:32:46,677 --> 05:32:53,093
the war came and he had to go fight.
So they did not marry.
3431
05:32:53,510 --> 05:32:57,260
And then she had a baby
and she started to work in a brewery...
3432
05:32:58,385 --> 05:33:06,010
in Nymburk, I guess. And the administrator
of the brewery asked to marry her.
3433
05:33:06,052 --> 05:33:10,635
He incorporated all this in his novel
Cutting it Short
3434
05:33:10,635 --> 05:33:15,260
which Jiří Menzel adapted
in an ingenious way
3435
05:33:15,260 --> 05:33:20,927
making it perhaps one
of the most wonderful films of
3436
05:33:21,010 --> 05:33:26,093
I would say, popular culture.
3437
05:33:26,093 --> 05:33:29,802
And later, we filmed
somewhere in Moravia
3438
05:33:30,177 --> 05:33:35,468
and some man came to him and said
3439
05:33:36,010 --> 05:33:42,968
that Hrabal's real father was nearby
and wanted to meet him.
3440
05:33:43,135 --> 05:33:50,177
And Mr. Hrabal told him that
his father was the one who'd raised him
3441
05:33:51,385 --> 05:33:54,468
and that he didn't want to see his father.
3442
05:33:55,260 --> 05:33:59,218
That's the other thing
I keep in myself...
3443
05:34:00,052 --> 05:34:10,051
Fatherhood isn't... isn't in the sperm.
Fatherhood is in the raising and
3444
05:34:10,677 --> 05:34:14,552
how much the father
is concerned about the baby.
3445
05:35:03,385 --> 05:35:07,760
When we were climbing the chimney,
he turned back
3446
05:35:07,760 --> 05:35:13,260
covered his eyes with his hands and asked
all the time, "Am I down yet? Am I down?"
3447
05:35:13,260 --> 05:35:20,177
He was scared... But I'm never scared.
3448
05:35:20,385 --> 05:35:28,760
Jirka Menzel, because he is a bit of
an artiste, I mean a circus performer
3449
05:35:28,968 --> 05:35:34,093
started climbing the chimney first.
He showed us, "Look, it's nothing".
3450
05:35:35,218 --> 05:35:40,218
And right after him,
Magda started climbing.
3451
05:35:40,385 --> 05:35:43,718
With the director and
lead actress climbing
3452
05:35:43,760 --> 05:35:46,968
I had no option but to climb as well.
Right?
3453
05:35:46,968 --> 05:35:55,760
We built the top of the chimney on
the roof of another building
3454
05:35:55,843 --> 05:35:58,885
and it was just one and half metres.
3455
05:35:59,260 --> 05:36:09,259
That is where the scene with the flowing
hair was shot, with the help of a fan.
3456
05:36:09,718 --> 05:36:14,177
The actors obviously
do not climb the 20 metres
3457
05:36:14,218 --> 05:36:18,843
only the first two, three steps...
3458
05:36:18,968 --> 05:36:25,427
I still remember the revelation that
Cutting it Short was for me in the 80s
3459
05:36:25,468 --> 05:36:28,302
with Magda Vašáryová.
3460
05:36:28,302 --> 05:36:34,510
He made her an icon, a beautiful
goddess with that long hair
3461
05:36:34,552 --> 05:36:36,927
drinking a pint of beer.
3462
05:36:36,927 --> 05:36:42,385
He always had a gift for the erotic,
seeing every woman as beautiful
3463
05:36:42,635 --> 05:36:44,635
and he's able to present it
in such a way
3464
05:36:44,760 --> 05:36:47,010
that the person watching
must fall in love with her
3465
05:36:47,052 --> 05:36:49,218
whether she is a laundress
or a countess.
3466
05:37:07,260 --> 05:37:14,177
We shot it at night... it was cold...
and used only three little lamps.
3467
05:37:15,177 --> 05:37:20,302
I was worried, had a bad feeling,
and when we finished shooting
3468
05:37:20,302 --> 05:37:23,177
I told myself that
we'd have to cut the scene
3469
05:37:23,177 --> 05:37:25,635
because I didn't like it at all.
3470
05:37:26,218 --> 05:37:30,135
Then I saw the dailies,
and I was astonished how
3471
05:37:30,135 --> 05:37:34,843
Šofr is able to conjure up
the atmosphere.
3472
05:37:35,760 --> 05:37:37,010
He is indeed a magician.
3473
05:37:37,468 --> 05:37:39,260
For some reason, that film is magic.
3474
05:37:39,260 --> 05:37:43,302
When you saw this film in times
when everything was grey
3475
05:37:44,593 --> 05:37:48,927
disgusting, bad morale,
bad relationships
3476
05:37:50,718 --> 05:37:53,510
generally terrible taste
3477
05:37:53,510 --> 05:37:57,135
and he brings in
this image of the good old times
3478
05:37:58,260 --> 05:38:02,468
and some kind of elegance.
3479
05:38:02,468 --> 05:38:11,302
It really felt like a memory
of some better... better past
3480
05:38:11,302 --> 05:38:13,843
and a glimpse of hope for the future.
3481
05:38:17,010 --> 05:38:18,468
When I was cutting it later
3482
05:38:18,802 --> 05:38:24,677
I realised the movie was too
sweet, too rosy, too idyllic...
3483
05:38:24,718 --> 05:38:28,093
I needed to bring
it down a notch.
3484
05:38:28,218 --> 05:38:33,593
So, I made up these stories...
3485
05:38:33,635 --> 05:38:39,677
Whenever Junior Ruda sees
Uncle Peppin, he gets hurt.
3486
05:38:40,052 --> 05:38:48,093
And it worked very well because
it lightened the romantic bit...
3487
05:38:53,593 --> 05:38:54,760
It wasn't scripted.
3488
05:38:54,760 --> 05:38:57,510
You must come up with it
because you can see
3489
05:38:57,510 --> 05:39:00,802
that the film is heading
in a different direction
3490
05:39:00,802 --> 05:39:03,843
into seriousness or into sentimentality.
3491
05:39:04,385 --> 05:39:05,510
And...
3492
05:39:06,468 --> 05:39:09,510
So you have to
come up with gags to lighten it up.
3493
05:39:10,093 --> 05:39:12,343
Shakespeare did nothing different.
3494
05:39:13,177 --> 05:39:15,218
Where would Hamlet be without...
3495
05:39:17,302 --> 05:39:18,427
those... the gravediggers?
3496
05:39:19,135 --> 05:39:23,343
Jiří Menzel, already when
directing in theatre
3497
05:39:23,385 --> 05:39:27,510
was capable of building each gag
in such a way
3498
05:39:27,760 --> 05:39:30,760
as to have the punchline
at a specific place.
3499
05:39:30,760 --> 05:39:33,427
This is very...
that's mathematics.
3500
05:39:33,427 --> 05:39:39,052
And he did the same when working on films.
3501
05:39:39,260 --> 05:39:40,635
All the...
3502
05:39:41,010 --> 05:39:43,927
the fights in Chaplin's films
3503
05:39:44,135 --> 05:39:47,010
or the awkward situations
of Laurel and Hardy
3504
05:39:47,385 --> 05:39:49,552
it all has a big human drive in it.
3505
05:39:49,552 --> 05:39:52,218
It's a sort of a shortcut of
3506
05:39:52,677 --> 05:39:54,552
what we experience in life.
3507
05:39:54,843 --> 05:39:57,635
And when you can laugh at it
3508
05:39:57,635 --> 05:40:00,802
that's... there's a big lesson in it.
3509
05:40:01,135 --> 05:40:03,135
That's why I want to make comedies
3510
05:40:03,427 --> 05:40:05,552
because those are the things that...
3511
05:40:05,552 --> 05:40:08,260
that stay in your head and heart longer
3512
05:40:08,260 --> 05:40:12,260
than the serious, pretentious stuff.
3513
05:40:47,843 --> 05:40:56,427
The film was screened
at the festival in Venice in 1980.
3514
05:40:56,427 --> 05:41:04,677
When Italian feminists saw the movie,
they held a demonstration against me
3515
05:41:04,677 --> 05:41:09,135
and even threw eggs at me.
So I had to pay the price...
3516
05:41:09,510 --> 05:41:16,468
One critic referred to Cutting it short
as "a flower in a desert of Barrandov".
3517
05:41:17,052 --> 05:41:21,927
As though, sort of, suddenly in this
desert of, sort of, meaningless films
3518
05:41:21,927 --> 05:41:24,177
there emerges this, sort of, blossom.
3519
05:41:24,552 --> 05:41:27,802
And I think that's true. And I think...
3520
05:41:28,385 --> 05:41:33,885
it's an effective adaptation of
Hrabal's novel about his
3521
05:41:34,260 --> 05:41:38,718
life in the provinces
and living in a brewery
3522
05:41:38,760 --> 05:41:43,427
and his uncle used to
tell his unending stories
3523
05:41:43,802 --> 05:41:50,010
and the, sort of, idealised picture
of the mother and so on and so forth.
3524
05:41:51,010 --> 05:41:55,468
Yeah, I think it is a very good
film, and it's one of...
3525
05:41:56,802 --> 05:42:00,093
possibly, even the best film
produced in the next 20 years
3526
05:42:01,218 --> 05:42:06,177
you know, during the period of
Normalisation which is 1970 to 1989.
3527
05:42:06,260 --> 05:42:09,718
A pig fell in a gutter,
not so wide, not for long.
3528
05:42:09,718 --> 05:42:12,635
Ferda rides a bike,
Ferda rides away.
3529
05:42:12,677 --> 05:42:15,677
Who'd have thought
the pig would fall?
3530
05:42:15,677 --> 05:42:17,843
Ferda rides a bike,
he carries a spade.
3531
05:43:15,677 --> 05:43:23,302
Personally, I think the late 60s
3532
05:43:23,302 --> 05:43:25,135
were so inspiring to me
3533
05:43:25,135 --> 05:43:29,885
I so much appreciated what the New Wave
had the opportunity to speak about
3534
05:43:29,885 --> 05:43:31,552
and what it actually did speak about
3535
05:43:31,677 --> 05:43:35,052
that I didn't even want to make
any other kind of films.
3536
05:43:35,135 --> 05:43:39,260
In other words,
Pictures of the Old World
3537
05:43:40,385 --> 05:43:46,010
Rosy Dreams and I Love, You Love
all represent a continuation of the New Wave.
3538
05:43:46,135 --> 05:43:50,427
There were also so few brave ones
3539
05:43:50,885 --> 05:43:53,677
maybe not even seven brave ones
3540
05:43:54,302 --> 05:43:57,135
who moved abroad
3541
05:43:58,885 --> 05:44:04,552
and were able to function there,
they were able to work there.
3542
05:44:04,968 --> 05:44:10,052
Of course, a director is
in a better situation if he is Czech
3543
05:44:10,093 --> 05:44:14,802
and wants to make a living in France
or in the USA.
3544
05:44:14,843 --> 05:44:20,718
Still, I think it's an immense change.
3545
05:44:21,135 --> 05:44:27,885
Many filmmakers find it absolutely unique
3546
05:44:27,927 --> 05:44:37,593
that Miloš Forman could succeed abroad
to the extent he did
3547
05:44:37,927 --> 05:44:47,926
because others, such as Mr. Passer
or Mr. Jasný, could get teaching jobs.
3548
05:44:48,427 --> 05:44:53,635
When arrived the new medium
home video - VHS
3549
05:44:53,635 --> 05:44:59,427
then I was the first to get the idea that
people would need it - home video
3550
05:44:59,427 --> 05:45:03,093
at first to like to have it -
not funeral, but wedding.
3551
05:45:03,635 --> 05:45:07,302
And I start to do wedding video.
3552
05:45:07,302 --> 05:45:13,427
The people who left the country ceased
to exist for the Czechoslovak government.
3553
05:45:13,760 --> 05:45:15,177
They couldn't write about them.
3554
05:45:15,218 --> 05:45:19,968
It went so far that, for example, when
Martina Navrátilová won the Wimbledon
3555
05:45:20,593 --> 05:45:25,635
the newspaper headlines said
"Evert Lost".
3556
05:45:26,468 --> 05:45:30,218
Martina's name could not appear
in the newspaper!
3557
05:45:30,635 --> 05:45:33,552
The same thing happened
when Miloš got his first Oscar.
3558
05:45:33,635 --> 05:45:36,218
It was nowhere in the newspapers.
3559
05:45:46,635 --> 05:45:51,260
Miloš finished school when I came there.
3560
05:45:51,343 --> 05:45:55,718
He left school when
I was in my first year.
3561
05:45:55,760 --> 05:45:58,927
He was my senior by five years.
3562
05:45:59,302 --> 05:46:01,260
I found him very annoying.
3563
05:46:01,260 --> 05:46:06,385
He was handsome, had this flair,
was always in jeans.
3564
05:46:06,385 --> 05:46:08,010
But mainly, he'd speak so loudly
3565
05:46:08,052 --> 05:46:11,010
he was impossible to miss.
3566
05:46:11,218 --> 05:46:16,052
I felt inferior. And... I envied him.
3567
05:46:16,343 --> 05:46:21,052
I found him annoying because he was
so self-confident, so easy-going.
3568
05:46:21,510 --> 05:46:28,135
Then he made his first film, Black Peter,
which was screened in the film club.
3569
05:46:28,968 --> 05:46:34,510
I thought what kind of a film
can such a dandy make?
3570
05:46:34,510 --> 05:46:37,010
It must be some rubbish.
3571
05:46:37,468 --> 05:46:42,385
I went there with a friend and
I told her, "Be ready to leave".
3572
05:46:42,927 --> 05:46:47,427
The film started and I stopped breathing.
3573
05:46:48,510 --> 05:46:52,427
It's such a wonderful film
about how people really are.
3574
05:46:53,010 --> 05:47:00,593
In my mind, I apologised to him, and
much later I apologised to him for real.
3575
05:47:06,927 --> 05:47:14,593
Thereafter, he shot the most beautiful
Czech film ever, The Firemen's Ball.
3576
05:47:14,593 --> 05:47:19,760
It's about the real nature of the Czechs,
the ill-mannered bastards...
3577
05:47:20,343 --> 05:47:22,218
And then he fled.
3578
05:47:22,593 --> 05:47:24,468
He struggled there...
3579
05:47:24,468 --> 05:47:28,593
He made Taking Off, which
wasn't successful in America
3580
05:47:28,635 --> 05:47:30,677
but it is a beautiful film.
3581
05:47:31,635 --> 05:47:35,468
It took him a long time...
He had a longer break than me
3582
05:47:36,177 --> 05:47:40,427
before he could shoot
the Cuckoo's film.
3583
05:47:41,677 --> 05:47:46,635
By then, the situation here had improved
3584
05:47:46,802 --> 05:47:51,552
and a French actress, Marlène Jobert,
had seen my films
3585
05:47:51,552 --> 05:47:54,718
and she got the idea that
I will shoot with her.
3586
05:47:54,927 --> 05:47:59,677
She came to Prague and she persuaded
the authorities to let me to go to France.
3587
05:48:00,052 --> 05:48:01,468
That was somehow possible at that time.
3588
05:48:01,927 --> 05:48:06,927
So I went to France. She waited for me
at the railway station in Paris.
3589
05:48:07,177 --> 05:48:09,052
And she said she had a surprise for me.
3590
05:48:09,218 --> 05:48:12,302
She took me to a hotel
where Miloš was staying.
3591
05:48:12,718 --> 05:48:17,843
Exactly at the same time, he was in Paris
because of the première of Cuckoo's.
3592
05:48:19,385 --> 05:48:24,010
In that room, Milan Kundera was
sitting there as well.
3593
05:48:24,927 --> 05:48:32,968
We had a nice chat. They asked me
what's new in Bohemia. It was nice.
3594
05:48:34,260 --> 05:48:38,468
Miloš bought me a record of the soundtrack
and bought me a ticket for the film.
3595
05:48:38,468 --> 05:48:40,427
So that is where I saw
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
3596
05:48:41,218 --> 05:48:46,927
I told him that I hadn't liked him,
that I'd found him annoying.
3597
05:48:47,218 --> 05:48:50,593
And that after seeing his films,
I couldn't help but like him!
3598
05:48:51,218 --> 05:48:53,802
The last time we saw each other
was when I was in the US.
3599
05:48:53,802 --> 05:48:55,552
He was very nice.
3600
05:48:55,843 --> 05:48:59,343
He does not like to move,
because he has bad knees.
3601
05:48:59,427 --> 05:49:05,843
But otherwise, he was in a good mood.
We watched the Oscar awards together.
3602
05:49:06,052 --> 05:49:07,635
However, this playboy
3603
05:49:07,635 --> 05:49:13,343
this handsome man who used to seduce girls
with the speed of an assembly line
3604
05:49:13,802 --> 05:49:17,885
when he came and I sat down,
his first question was
3605
05:49:18,677 --> 05:49:20,677
"How many pills are you taking?"
3606
05:49:23,427 --> 05:49:26,843
I realised we were in the same boat.
3607
05:49:27,552 --> 05:49:29,218
It was a nice meeting.
3608
05:49:32,260 --> 05:49:34,843
I do not like to admit it,
but he is a good filmmaker.
3609
05:50:27,802 --> 05:50:32,218
I mean, I think my favourite sequence
of all time is the scene in the dance
3610
05:50:32,677 --> 05:50:35,677
when the factory girls waiting for these
3611
05:50:35,760 --> 05:50:39,052
what they imagine are
handsome young men
3612
05:50:39,468 --> 05:50:42,552
to step into the ballroom and...
3613
05:50:43,802 --> 05:50:46,802
far from them being
dashing young soldiers
3614
05:50:46,843 --> 05:50:49,843
they are middle-aged,
look like conscripts.
3615
05:50:51,260 --> 05:50:58,593
And the attempts by these older guys
to make friends with the girls
3616
05:51:00,135 --> 05:51:02,885
and the girls,
they're clearly disappointed
3617
05:51:02,927 --> 05:51:05,385
really are not turned on
by them at all.
3618
05:51:05,635 --> 05:51:07,968
And the guy trying to
get his wedding ring off
3619
05:51:07,968 --> 05:51:10,052
under the table and
it rolls under the...
3620
05:51:10,177 --> 05:51:13,427
it's just beautifully thought
through, beautifully done
3621
05:51:13,927 --> 05:51:16,177
with simplicity really.
3622
05:51:16,177 --> 05:51:21,385
Andrzej Wajda, Polish director,
told a story that when he was teaching
3623
05:51:21,968 --> 05:51:24,385
he was shooting a movie in 1968.
3624
05:51:24,510 --> 05:51:27,968
He left his teaching post for two months
and when he came back
3625
05:51:28,093 --> 05:51:30,343
he found that all his students
were making comedies.
3626
05:51:30,968 --> 05:51:35,010
He asked them, "What happened?"
"We saw Forman's Loves of a Blonde."
3627
05:51:35,052 --> 05:51:41,802
We were driving through Prague
with Miloš, going to his apartment
3628
05:51:43,177 --> 05:51:47,968
and there was a... near
the National Theatre
3629
05:51:48,010 --> 05:51:52,218
there is a tram station
and there was...
3630
05:51:53,010 --> 05:51:58,010
it was like 10 o'clock at night,
and there was this single girl
3631
05:51:58,093 --> 05:52:02,677
with the luggage standing,
waiting for the tram.
3632
05:52:05,510 --> 05:52:07,593
And Miloš said, "Let's pick her up."
3633
05:52:07,593 --> 05:52:10,135
I said, "Yeah, sure, why not!"
3634
05:52:10,135 --> 05:52:14,552
And, so we stopped and started
to talk to her and she
3635
05:52:14,593 --> 05:52:18,635
said she was looking for
her boyfriend in Prague
3636
05:52:19,385 --> 05:52:24,510
and couldn't find him, because
he didn't give her his address.
3637
05:52:25,343 --> 05:52:30,010
And Miloš invited her to come
with us and she agreed.
3638
05:52:30,552 --> 05:52:39,427
And then, in his apartment, she began
to tell us about the town she came from.
3639
05:52:39,552 --> 05:52:42,552
In that small town in
the northern Bohemia
3640
05:52:42,635 --> 05:52:45,760
90 per cent of their inhabitants
are women.
3641
05:52:47,052 --> 05:52:52,468
And lot of them young girls working
in the factories... shoe factories
3642
05:52:53,135 --> 05:52:54,885
and they are in panic.
3643
05:52:56,510 --> 05:53:05,135
And this girl met some engineer there,
who came there for just one day.
3644
05:53:05,635 --> 05:53:13,260
And she fell in love with him
because he was looking there and
3645
05:53:13,260 --> 05:53:16,177
they ended up sleeping together
that night.
3646
05:53:16,177 --> 05:53:20,677
And the next day he left and gave her
the address to visit him in Prague
3647
05:53:20,718 --> 05:53:22,052
so she came to Prague
3648
05:53:23,010 --> 05:53:26,218
only to find out that
that address doesn't exist.
3649
05:53:26,260 --> 05:53:30,385
I remember we just looked at each other
and we knew that's a movie.
3650
05:53:31,343 --> 05:53:35,218
God! Isn't that just beautiful?
Can I borrow it?
3651
05:53:35,593 --> 05:53:37,718
- Just for a minute, okay?
- All right.
3652
05:53:37,927 --> 05:53:39,468
God! It's so gorgeous.
3653
05:53:42,510 --> 05:53:44,968
- Is it gold?
- Of course.
3654
05:53:45,135 --> 05:53:46,260
The real thing?
3655
05:53:46,593 --> 05:53:49,385
You think he would give me
anything else?
3656
05:53:49,885 --> 05:53:51,510
Let me have it for a while.
3657
05:53:51,802 --> 05:53:54,593
Did you notice the stone?
It's a real diamond.
3658
05:53:54,885 --> 05:53:56,052
A real one?
3659
05:53:56,260 --> 05:53:58,093
Yes. Look how it sparkles.
3660
05:53:58,385 --> 05:54:00,510
I've never seen a real diamond.
3661
05:54:01,510 --> 05:54:03,468
He told me it was.
3662
05:54:06,093 --> 05:54:08,927
- He's nice, isn't he?
- Really nice.
3663
05:54:10,718 --> 05:54:12,343
Do you have his picture?
3664
05:54:13,593 --> 05:54:18,927
Before every take,
he would explain the situation
3665
05:54:18,968 --> 05:54:24,593
and say, "Use your own words."
3666
05:54:24,802 --> 05:54:29,802
So that's what I did, and I was worried if
it was okay or not, and he'd always say
3667
05:54:29,802 --> 05:54:38,593
"No, it's fine."
So it's all me, my own phrasing
3668
05:54:38,843 --> 05:54:40,968
the way I would say things.
3669
05:54:41,010 --> 05:54:44,343
What was wonderful for me,
experience-wise
3670
05:54:44,843 --> 05:54:48,218
was that I come on the set
and I tell them okay
3671
05:54:48,343 --> 05:54:51,677
"Okay, so now listen,
you are here, you are there
3672
05:54:51,677 --> 05:54:55,010
and you say something
like this and this and this
3673
05:54:55,052 --> 05:54:56,718
and you do something
like this and this and this
3674
05:54:56,718 --> 05:54:59,343
and that we'll end up something
like this and this and this."
3675
05:54:59,718 --> 05:55:03,218
And, you know, they remember
little bit, but not every word...
3676
05:55:03,385 --> 05:55:04,302
"Okay, let's do it!"
3677
05:55:04,802 --> 05:55:07,010
And now they have to do this
3678
05:55:07,260 --> 05:55:12,343
which they just could barely remember
the ideas what they have to touch upon
3679
05:55:12,760 --> 05:55:14,260
in their own words.
3680
05:55:14,718 --> 05:55:20,718
And I tell you, 50 percent times, it was
better than what was written on the page.
3681
05:55:20,718 --> 05:55:26,093
Miloš didn't let
his non-actors read the script
3682
05:55:26,552 --> 05:55:30,593
because he didn't want it
to be directed by their wives.
3683
05:55:30,927 --> 05:55:33,010
They would read it and say
3684
05:55:33,052 --> 05:55:36,760
"Daddy, don't say this.
You would sound stupid."
3685
05:55:40,093 --> 05:55:43,593
That is how he held back the spontaneity.
3686
05:55:43,677 --> 05:55:47,093
He wanted it to be
according to the script.
3687
05:55:47,135 --> 05:55:52,302
That's why he demonstrated every scene
in every film to every actor.
3688
05:55:52,343 --> 05:55:55,802
He always showed them
what he wanted from them.
3689
05:55:55,885 --> 05:55:59,760
So the non-actors just copied
what he had shown them.
3690
05:55:59,843 --> 05:56:04,260
Ondříček used to say that Forman
was the best actor of the New Wave.
3691
05:56:04,302 --> 05:56:09,093
He played all the characters
of his films for the non-actors.
3692
05:56:09,093 --> 05:56:12,802
Miloš's films give an impression
3693
05:56:13,427 --> 05:56:21,510
that lots of things happened
spontaneously on the set.
3694
05:56:22,302 --> 05:56:24,135
And it's not true.
3695
05:56:25,760 --> 05:56:32,968
Miloš tried it and it usually
doesn't work because
3696
05:56:34,468 --> 05:56:37,343
it's difficult to control the rhythm.
3697
05:57:50,302 --> 05:57:55,302
I regret that the Czech New Wave
could not continue.
3698
05:57:56,427 --> 05:58:00,343
I would have never left if I could
have made movies there.
3699
05:58:01,093 --> 05:58:08,510
Because I believe, and I know that
many people would argue with me about it
3700
05:58:10,010 --> 05:58:18,343
that you cannot really make
a film for ages,
3701
05:58:19,218 --> 05:58:24,343
which is not grounded in your culture.
3702
05:59:23,218 --> 05:59:28,968
We were very much influenced
by some Italian films
3703
05:59:29,385 --> 05:59:35,677
the Neorealist films like
Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti.
3704
05:59:36,968 --> 05:59:40,885
And then later the French New Wave
like François Truffaut
3705
05:59:40,927 --> 05:59:44,302
Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais.
3706
05:59:45,510 --> 05:59:50,093
But the nearest influence
came from Prague
3707
05:59:50,552 --> 05:59:55,593
from some people, they finished FAMU
a little bit earlier as we
3708
05:59:55,968 --> 06:00:00,260
like Jiří Menzel,
Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer
3709
06:00:00,302 --> 06:00:04,093
Evald Schorm -
fantastic film directors.
3710
06:00:04,093 --> 06:00:12,343
They did their first feature film and
they were really very influential for us.
3711
06:00:28,177 --> 06:00:29,468
We are twins, you know?
3712
06:00:29,635 --> 06:00:31,510
Yeah, we are twins.
3713
06:00:33,635 --> 06:00:34,968
- Hi!
- Hi!
3714
06:00:35,552 --> 06:00:37,468
- Are you okay?
- Is your work going well?
3715
06:00:37,552 --> 06:00:39,302
Yes. The singers are good.
3716
06:00:39,302 --> 06:00:43,843
I was here for the last half an hour
and they are magnificent.
3717
06:00:44,177 --> 06:00:45,968
- They are good.
- They are very good.
3718
06:00:46,135 --> 06:00:49,593
I won't disturb you because
you are working, and we are waiting...
3719
06:00:49,802 --> 06:00:51,635
This group is amazing.
3720
06:00:51,760 --> 06:00:53,968
The only idiot here is me.
3721
06:00:55,718 --> 06:00:58,802
There is another one
in this room right now.
3722
06:00:59,468 --> 06:01:01,302
Another one. My twin.
3723
06:01:27,135 --> 06:01:32,010
Watching them reminds me
of the shooting, which is nice.
3724
06:01:32,052 --> 06:01:37,635
But on the other hand, when I remember
the film, I idealise it a bit.
3725
06:01:38,635 --> 06:01:43,343
When I see it in reality,
I am slightly upset.
3726
06:01:45,093 --> 06:01:48,093
If you ask me which film I'm
looking forward to seeing
3727
06:01:48,343 --> 06:01:49,885
it is my next film.
3728
06:02:07,510 --> 06:02:10,468
No film will last forever.
3729
06:02:10,802 --> 06:02:13,302
When you're watching it
3730
06:02:13,302 --> 06:02:17,177
with respect, that
it's an old film, a famous film
3731
06:02:17,510 --> 06:02:20,718
it bores you, but you just don't admit it.
3732
06:02:21,718 --> 06:02:23,927
All the Antonionis and the...
3733
06:02:24,260 --> 06:02:27,302
the serious films, the valuable films
3734
06:02:28,927 --> 06:02:31,093
you watch them only with respect.
3735
06:02:32,052 --> 06:02:33,718
But there's no pleasure in watching them.
3736
06:02:34,218 --> 06:02:38,052
Unlike Laurel and Hardy, or Chaplin.
3737
06:02:39,052 --> 06:02:42,135
Or the Italian comedies from the 1950s.
3738
06:02:42,760 --> 06:02:44,427
You can watch them all the time.
3739
06:02:44,968 --> 06:02:47,802
Martin Frič's films.
Some of them. His comedies.
3740
06:02:49,177 --> 06:02:50,677
But the serious things...
3741
06:02:50,885 --> 06:02:51,885
Boring.
3742
06:02:52,593 --> 06:02:53,427
Boring!
3743
06:03:02,968 --> 06:03:06,510
While shooting
Those Wonderful Movie Cranks
3744
06:03:07,635 --> 06:03:12,010
what I enjoyed most was filming in Prague.
3745
06:03:12,552 --> 06:03:16,927
In the old, historical parts of Prague,
which have a charm
3746
06:03:17,468 --> 06:03:22,843
no other city on the entire planet has,
at least for me.
3747
06:03:23,718 --> 06:03:27,302
Even when I'm abroad,
visiting some nice places
3748
06:03:27,677 --> 06:03:31,218
I always look forward
to coming back to Prague because
3749
06:03:31,385 --> 06:03:34,968
Prague's atmosphere is one of a kind.
3750
06:03:35,968 --> 06:03:36,927
And...
3751
06:03:37,635 --> 06:03:40,510
And I'm happy I was born there
3752
06:03:40,968 --> 06:03:42,260
and live there
3753
06:03:42,760 --> 06:03:44,718
and will die there too.
3754
06:04:00,593 --> 06:04:01,885
A wedding!
3755
06:04:04,677 --> 06:04:13,927
I always say that the 20th century
brought two unfortunate events:
3756
06:04:14,302 --> 06:04:18,635
the invention of the atom bomb
and the invention of the sound film.
3757
06:04:20,552 --> 06:04:25,427
So what I enjoyed most during the making
of Those Wonderful Movie Cranks
3758
06:04:25,552 --> 06:04:28,385
was the silent slapsticks.
3759
06:04:33,385 --> 06:04:35,677
I'm even proud of some because...
3760
06:04:35,718 --> 06:04:38,343
for example, when...
3761
06:04:38,552 --> 06:04:40,510
during the duel
3762
06:04:40,843 --> 06:04:43,218
the witnesses shoot each
other instead of the enemies.
3763
06:04:43,385 --> 06:04:46,427
That was my idea. But I'd never
have come up with it had I not
3764
06:04:46,427 --> 06:04:48,927
already seen a lot
of other gags before.
3765
06:05:22,635 --> 06:05:25,635
We had to shoot the old films.
3766
06:05:25,927 --> 06:05:29,010
The real old ones were unusable
3767
06:05:29,052 --> 06:05:31,093
and back then I was tempted
to come up with new ones.
3768
06:05:31,302 --> 06:05:32,677
So...
3769
06:05:33,510 --> 06:05:35,135
We shot it.
3770
06:05:36,302 --> 06:05:38,010
The biggest gag is that...
3771
06:05:38,385 --> 06:05:41,260
some smart critic wrote about
the film that
3772
06:05:41,802 --> 06:05:45,968
the plus side of the film
was that it used little known
3773
06:05:46,760 --> 06:05:48,177
slapstick comedies.
3774
06:05:48,593 --> 06:05:51,177
The idiot did not realise
we'd shot it ourselves.
3775
06:06:32,885 --> 06:06:36,093
I have a bizarre, odd expectation.
3776
06:06:36,093 --> 06:06:41,093
First of all, I'm curious as to what all
has changed over the past 25 years...
3777
06:06:41,677 --> 06:06:43,927
because I'm sure that plenty has changed.
3778
06:06:45,010 --> 06:06:53,260
I can't say anything more exact now.
I'm only trying to convey the feeling I have.
3779
06:06:53,260 --> 06:06:59,552
A curious, strange sense
of anticipation...
3780
06:06:59,593 --> 06:07:04,052
It's been a long enough while.
3781
06:07:17,427 --> 06:07:20,677
Oh, yes. Yes, indeed.
3782
06:07:22,093 --> 06:07:25,718
My house is somewhere here.
Here it is.
3783
06:07:26,135 --> 06:07:28,843
And here is the garage,
the front of which sticks out.
3784
06:07:34,843 --> 06:07:36,635
This is really the same.
3785
06:07:40,927 --> 06:07:45,260
Sometimes, I'm saved
by a sort of an instinct.
3786
06:07:46,093 --> 06:07:52,093
In the case of Little Village
3787
06:07:52,093 --> 06:07:57,802
Zdeněk Svěrák imagined the driver
as the usual driver type:
3788
06:07:57,802 --> 06:08:00,802
well-built, energetic, and so on.
3789
06:08:01,468 --> 06:08:04,135
But my life experience told me
3790
06:08:04,135 --> 06:08:10,218
it would be more thrilling
if things were a bit different
3791
06:08:10,677 --> 06:08:17,135
if the wretch János Bán
is pitted against another wretch
3792
06:08:17,385 --> 06:08:22,927
a person with an inferiority complex,
somebody who is short and fat
3793
06:08:22,927 --> 06:08:26,802
which makes him fight
for his dignity even harder.
3794
06:08:27,885 --> 06:08:31,468
Good morning!
Can you tell me where Mr. Labuda lives?
3795
06:08:32,010 --> 06:08:36,052
Good morning! You are very few.
3796
06:08:36,343 --> 06:08:37,552
Good morning!
3797
06:08:37,802 --> 06:08:39,010
Good morning!
3798
06:08:40,302 --> 06:08:44,843
He offered me the script of
My sweet Little Village.
3799
06:08:45,552 --> 06:08:53,718
When I read it, I was excited.
So we met Menzel, and I told him
3800
06:08:53,718 --> 06:08:58,218
"Jiří, this is something wonderful!"
And this is his character.
3801
06:08:58,218 --> 06:09:04,218
He only said, "Yes, it is nice.
But you know
3802
06:09:04,260 --> 06:09:10,093
we have to make the effort
to shoot it well."
3803
06:09:10,093 --> 06:09:16,093
That was my first realisation that
he has doubts about everything.
3804
06:09:16,093 --> 06:09:22,843
I always say that he catches
each of his films like a disease.
3805
06:09:22,927 --> 06:09:28,343
A disease. He looks sick the entire time,
expecting everything to go wrong.
3806
06:09:29,010 --> 06:09:33,843
He pretends to be this helpless,
poor fellow.
3807
06:09:33,885 --> 06:09:36,510
But in here, it's all working.
3808
06:09:36,510 --> 06:09:42,177
I think the choice is important -
I don't do screen tests.
3809
06:09:42,177 --> 06:09:48,635
Gradually, I started to always choose
actors either because I knew them...
3810
06:09:48,760 --> 06:09:52,010
or, if I didn't know them, then
I had a chat with them...
3811
06:09:52,968 --> 06:09:55,385
just like that...about different things,
like what they do
3812
06:09:55,427 --> 06:09:57,552
about their parents and
that kind of nonsense.
3813
06:09:57,635 --> 06:10:02,677
And from that I could gather...
the trick is...
3814
06:10:02,718 --> 06:10:07,468
if I could enjoy a weekend out
with this person
3815
06:10:07,593 --> 06:10:11,427
if I could tolerate him next to me -
for half a day, a day or a week.
3816
06:10:17,260 --> 06:10:22,010
Let's consider those films...
those approximately eighty films
3817
06:10:22,052 --> 06:10:24,343
which I shot during my lifetime.
3818
06:10:27,968 --> 06:10:31,135
But if I hadn't made anything else
other than this film
3819
06:10:31,968 --> 06:10:37,218
it would've still been worth
coming to this profession.
3820
06:10:47,010 --> 06:10:48,843
This is contemporary.
3821
06:10:55,677 --> 06:10:56,885
Good morning!
3822
06:10:56,885 --> 06:11:00,385
Let's start feet together,
arms extended
3823
06:11:00,635 --> 06:11:02,302
and palms up.
3824
06:11:02,635 --> 06:11:06,760
- Raise your arms...
- Washed your feet?
3825
06:11:10,093 --> 06:11:13,718
I can tell.
Makes a difference to the driver.
3826
06:11:16,635 --> 06:11:17,802
What about the ears?
3827
06:11:20,010 --> 06:11:21,927
You always forget something.
3828
06:11:22,760 --> 06:11:27,052
Those sails must not be neglected.
3829
06:11:27,718 --> 06:11:29,468
Yesterday's load was cement.
3830
06:11:30,635 --> 06:11:33,593
If it rains,
concrete will set behind your ears.
3831
06:11:34,385 --> 06:11:36,218
They'll have to chisel it off.
3832
06:11:39,510 --> 06:11:45,177
It is difficult to have a character
who is mentally retarded
3833
06:11:45,427 --> 06:11:49,593
but who is not... laughable
3834
06:11:49,593 --> 06:11:55,635
who evokes pity, but who is funny
at the same time.
3835
06:11:55,802 --> 06:12:03,968
And he chose a Hungarian actor
who was absolutely unknown here
3836
06:12:04,510 --> 06:12:08,468
and the fact that he did not understand
Czech became his advantage.
3837
06:12:08,593 --> 06:12:10,843
He did not have to act like
he could not understand.
3838
06:12:11,093 --> 06:12:14,052
He actually didn't understand
what was being said.
3839
06:12:19,593 --> 06:12:24,052
Menzel doesn't psychologise...
3840
06:12:25,135 --> 06:12:31,927
and he hates psychology in an actor,
he's almost allergic to it.
3841
06:12:32,010 --> 06:12:36,968
I was taken aback by that,
because I'm a theatre actor.
3842
06:12:37,010 --> 06:12:44,010
It's essential for me to psychologise
my characters, from A to Z.
3843
06:12:45,593 --> 06:12:49,010
When Menzel wanted me
to forget about it and
3844
06:12:49,052 --> 06:12:52,093
leave it all up to
him as the director
3845
06:12:53,052 --> 06:12:57,302
I sometimes wasn't sure
what to do with it.
3846
06:12:57,385 --> 06:13:01,843
He creates psychology
using image composition.
3847
06:13:01,927 --> 06:13:05,552
He creates psychology,
instead of with the actor, using editing.
3848
06:13:05,552 --> 06:13:14,468
He creates it using
special compositions of details
3849
06:13:14,468 --> 06:13:17,510
that he offers to
create certain atmosphere.
3850
06:13:17,885 --> 06:13:23,052
He doesn't like it when it's the actors
who create the atmosphere.
3851
06:13:23,177 --> 06:13:26,260
We got to the point when I said
3852
06:13:26,385 --> 06:13:31,968
"Jirka, let's be careful
not to fall in between two stools."
3853
06:13:33,635 --> 06:13:38,135
"Because you see the world this way and
I see it that way..."
3854
06:13:38,552 --> 06:13:40,718
"We might be in
danger of falling in between."
3855
06:13:40,927 --> 06:13:43,968
And he said, "Martin, you know what?"
3856
06:13:43,968 --> 06:13:48,927
"We'll push the stools together,
and sit on them comfortably."
3857
06:14:08,385 --> 06:14:10,968
Here time has stood still.
3858
06:14:13,552 --> 06:14:15,260
And here was the pigeonry.
3859
06:14:18,468 --> 06:14:23,510
And every morning, while others had
breakfast in the pub
3860
06:14:24,052 --> 06:14:27,552
I had to come here and do my job
with the pigeons.
3861
06:14:27,843 --> 06:14:32,427
After a week, somebody put a few grains
of wheat on my shoulder.
3862
06:14:32,427 --> 06:14:38,302
I kneeled, and as by then the pigeons
were used to me
3863
06:14:39,093 --> 06:14:47,010
the pigeon sat here and from then onwards
every day, whenever...
3864
06:14:47,010 --> 06:14:48,302
and they shot it -
3865
06:14:48,302 --> 06:14:52,718
I have it in a shot that
the pigeon sits on my shoulder.
3866
06:15:05,302 --> 06:15:08,802
It managed to deal with the characters
with so much humanity
3867
06:15:08,843 --> 06:15:09,843
from such a human side
3868
06:15:10,343 --> 06:15:20,342
with so much love... It is so trivial,
because it is human... It is human.
3869
06:15:34,260 --> 06:15:38,968
Excuse me!
Good morning! Good morning!
3870
06:15:38,968 --> 06:15:40,427
Yes, yes.
3871
06:15:40,968 --> 06:15:42,510
A little bit older...
3872
06:15:43,343 --> 06:15:46,302
like was Otík before
3873
06:15:46,885 --> 06:15:48,718
twenty five years ago.
3874
06:15:52,302 --> 06:15:52,968
And...
3875
06:15:53,260 --> 06:15:54,718
You haven't aged at all.
3876
06:16:15,510 --> 06:16:23,677
He taught us the basic rules of comedy
3877
06:16:24,177 --> 06:16:30,885
so that the comedy has exact timing,
that it works.
3878
06:16:31,843 --> 06:16:33,260
You time me.
3879
06:16:45,802 --> 06:16:46,510
Now!
3880
06:16:56,635 --> 06:16:59,718
Jesus! Vašek. Don't be a fool!
3881
06:17:01,552 --> 06:17:04,052
Don't, Pepik's here!
3882
06:17:28,093 --> 06:17:31,052
- Thirty three!
- Too bad!
3883
06:17:31,843 --> 06:17:32,510
Once more!
3884
06:17:39,677 --> 06:17:42,093
- How long can he stay underwater?
- About 30 seconds.
3885
06:17:42,218 --> 06:17:45,468
- Please, go away!
- We have plenty of time.
3886
06:17:49,385 --> 06:17:50,802
Just a carp.
3887
06:17:56,260 --> 06:18:01,260
That was nice.
3888
06:18:01,260 --> 06:18:06,968
It's a situation I experienced
myself during a walk...
3889
06:18:07,593 --> 06:18:12,093
One lady was measuring
her husband's time
3890
06:18:12,093 --> 06:18:18,427
and when he dived under water,
she invited me for coffee.
3891
06:18:18,468 --> 06:18:19,593
That's Svěrák!
3892
06:18:20,302 --> 06:18:24,093
Svěrák wrote it... Beautifully!
3893
06:18:25,052 --> 06:18:30,635
Of course, with Libuška and Honza Hartl,
it was happening on its own...
3894
06:18:32,010 --> 06:18:35,218
He showed us the slapstick
comedy Tom and Jerry
3895
06:18:35,260 --> 06:18:38,010
and that's how we learnt gags.
3896
06:18:38,052 --> 06:18:40,135
That's how he used to torture us.
3897
06:18:40,135 --> 06:18:46,468
Their humour is different
than Hrabal's.
3898
06:18:46,760 --> 06:18:49,385
Definitely. And it's closer to me.
3899
06:18:50,677 --> 06:18:56,135
It's humour that always touches you
3900
06:18:56,927 --> 06:18:59,552
you always think of something
you wouldn't.
3901
06:19:00,427 --> 06:19:04,468
That's the essence of Svěrák's humour.
3902
06:19:05,677 --> 06:19:07,177
I'm not lucky
3903
06:19:07,635 --> 06:19:11,593
because Svěrák is possibly
the best scriptwriter here
3904
06:19:12,510 --> 06:19:16,468
but he has a son who does film.
3905
06:19:18,010 --> 06:19:21,218
He is the director, and he,
as a father, writes only for him.
3906
06:19:24,010 --> 06:19:26,635
He should've put his son to the
post office, not film.
3907
06:19:26,635 --> 06:19:31,927
I was comparing my work with his
when I was doing my first script...
3908
06:19:32,468 --> 06:19:35,635
technical script, you know,
how many shots to do.
3909
06:19:36,260 --> 06:19:38,260
I was thinking,
"Oh, isn't it too much?"
3910
06:19:38,260 --> 06:19:43,885
I ended up with 1150 shots
in the technical script.
3911
06:19:44,135 --> 06:19:49,677
So I took My Sweet Little Village
from Jiří Menzel, and I counted the shots.
3912
06:19:49,927 --> 06:19:54,552
And he had 125 shots.
And I had 1100...
3913
06:19:56,385 --> 06:19:58,510
What should I do?
3914
06:19:59,010 --> 06:20:04,010
And then I took some American film, it was
Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
3915
06:20:04,260 --> 06:20:07,302
and I counted the shots...
each shot a mark, you know
3916
06:20:07,552 --> 06:20:09,343
and he had 1000-something as well.
3917
06:20:09,343 --> 06:20:13,635
So I said, "Okay, so I'm going closer
to the American storytelling
3918
06:20:13,635 --> 06:20:17,885
and Menzel is the classical storytelling."
3919
06:20:18,093 --> 06:20:20,552
Because he comes from
the theatre background
3920
06:20:20,593 --> 06:20:22,468
or he loves the theatre very much
3921
06:20:22,635 --> 06:20:23,718
and he loves actors.
3922
06:20:24,093 --> 06:20:28,718
So he's setting the scenes
for just few shots.
3923
06:20:29,552 --> 06:20:31,343
Varicose veins.
3924
06:20:32,218 --> 06:20:33,927
Look at mine!
3925
06:20:34,718 --> 06:20:37,760
- Do you wear elastic stockings?
- I have to.
3926
06:20:38,052 --> 06:20:40,260
- Do you take Anavenol?
- I do.
3927
06:20:40,468 --> 06:20:43,468
That's it then.
So, go on.
3928
06:20:46,552 --> 06:20:48,052
I'm serving beer...
3929
06:20:49,843 --> 06:20:52,218
someone asks for the bill...
3930
06:20:53,218 --> 06:20:55,760
I turn my head, and it won't go back.
3931
06:20:55,927 --> 06:20:58,177
Can you turn the whole body,
like this?
3932
06:21:00,302 --> 06:21:03,677
- Sure.
- Turn the whole body then.
3933
06:21:06,885 --> 06:21:16,343
He rehearses a lot.
I prefer to capture the spontaneity.
3934
06:21:16,468 --> 06:21:21,843
So I don't repeat shots too much.
I try to shoot every shot
3935
06:21:22,010 --> 06:21:28,468
every take, from a different angle,
so that I have really rich material.
3936
06:21:29,552 --> 06:21:36,760
I think that he works with
a more fixed script.
3937
06:21:36,968 --> 06:21:42,302
I have the script only so that
I don't forget what the story is...
3938
06:21:42,552 --> 06:21:46,385
but I actually almost never look at it.
3939
06:22:21,802 --> 06:22:24,510
What gave you the idea that
3940
06:22:24,552 --> 06:22:27,343
the seventh step would give it
the right temperature?
3941
06:22:27,677 --> 06:22:30,552
Long-term trials.
It's warm on the sixth
3942
06:22:30,885 --> 06:22:32,343
too cold on the eighth.
3943
06:22:32,552 --> 06:22:34,635
How beautiful the people are!
3944
06:22:35,218 --> 06:22:45,217
What kind of love he has concerning
the people portrayed by him...
3945
06:22:48,052 --> 06:22:53,343
what kind of warm feeling
is coming from the screen.
3946
06:22:53,802 --> 06:22:59,552
And if you're laughing about
the stupidity of his characters
3947
06:22:59,552 --> 06:23:03,510
you are laughing not about the people,
you are laughing about yourself
3948
06:23:03,510 --> 06:23:08,635
because you know that the people are doing
exactly what you are doing.
3949
06:23:08,843 --> 06:23:15,927
So he is, I think, one of
the most lovable film director
3950
06:23:15,927 --> 06:23:21,510
whose stories are giving
you new power for the life.
3951
06:23:21,510 --> 06:23:27,302
It's atrocious. It isn't
a Hrabal adaptation anymore
3952
06:23:27,302 --> 06:23:30,593
it's that good boy Svěrák.
3953
06:23:32,385 --> 06:23:34,343
It's kitsch.
3954
06:23:35,552 --> 06:23:37,635
The old Menzel wasn't kitsch yet.
3955
06:23:38,593 --> 06:23:40,468
But this is kitsch.
3956
06:23:43,177 --> 06:23:48,760
Because the most important thing
in the film is sex.
3957
06:23:48,843 --> 06:23:53,760
I think Hrabal
is deeper than me.
3958
06:23:53,843 --> 06:23:59,885
He captures reality
in a more plastic way.
3959
06:24:00,218 --> 06:24:04,843
It's true that I like
nice and polite people
3960
06:24:04,927 --> 06:24:10,343
and so does Menzel, so our films
are a celebration of people like that.
3961
06:24:10,385 --> 06:24:13,260
Even so, I regard it as a film
3962
06:24:13,802 --> 06:24:17,218
which was escapist,
deliberately non-controversial
3963
06:24:17,635 --> 06:24:18,802
even idyllic...
3964
06:24:18,802 --> 06:24:23,760
Once I heard critic Jan Rejžek
criticise Mr. Menzel
3965
06:24:23,802 --> 06:24:31,093
for sugarcoating village life,
which was nothing like that in reality.
3966
06:24:31,260 --> 06:24:37,802
I told him, "Look, if I were the director
and Radek John wrote the screenplay
3967
06:24:37,843 --> 06:24:41,885
it'd be about the manure in the village."
3968
06:24:42,343 --> 06:24:47,093
But in this case,
the authors wanted to show something else.
3969
06:24:48,010 --> 06:24:49,302
I have no problem with it.
3970
06:24:49,302 --> 06:24:52,427
That's what Turgenev does
in Russian literature.
3971
06:24:52,760 --> 06:24:54,427
But Dostoyevsky doesn't.
3972
06:24:54,927 --> 06:24:59,760
So, if you see the difference
between Dostoyevsky and Turgenev
3973
06:24:59,968 --> 06:25:08,135
you will see the difference - I'll be
vulgar now - between me and Menzel.
3974
06:25:08,218 --> 06:25:14,802
You see, there are different Menzels.
There is Menzel in connection with Hrabal
3975
06:25:15,343 --> 06:25:18,677
that is Closely Watched Trains
and Larks on a string
3976
06:25:18,802 --> 06:25:21,802
and Menzel in connection with Svěrák.
3977
06:25:22,218 --> 06:25:27,968
And the one connected with Svěrák
is a little sweeter. Too sweet!
3978
06:25:28,177 --> 06:25:34,135
They both seemed to be doing it
as a sort of a side job.
3979
06:25:34,135 --> 06:25:36,718
"Okay, Zdeněk wrote something,
so I'll try to film it."
3980
06:25:38,010 --> 06:25:40,385
But they had no idea
they were making a film
3981
06:25:40,385 --> 06:25:43,510
that'd get an Oscar nomination,
get sold to the whole world
3982
06:25:43,510 --> 06:25:45,510
and 4 million people
would come to see it
3983
06:25:45,510 --> 06:25:48,427
in a country of 15 million citizens.
3984
06:25:48,427 --> 06:25:54,677
The fact is that the moment
they were announcing the winners
3985
06:25:54,677 --> 06:25:58,760
my heart was beating
and I was thinking
3986
06:25:58,760 --> 06:26:04,552
"Maybe after all..
it would be nice to have two Oscars."
3987
06:26:04,760 --> 06:26:06,718
It makes you this crazy and vain.
3988
06:26:06,718 --> 06:26:09,552
But actually...
3989
06:26:10,385 --> 06:26:16,260
I don't know what film won that year,
but I don't care.
3990
06:26:16,260 --> 06:26:20,343
I think I've had enough fame.
3991
06:27:06,010 --> 06:27:10,635
When they came to the gate with the star,
both of them jumped
3992
06:27:11,052 --> 06:27:14,593
and that closed the film beautifully.
3993
06:27:15,218 --> 06:27:17,343
Sometimes, I have moments
when I am a genius
3994
06:27:17,343 --> 06:27:19,302
but sadly not so often!
3995
06:27:54,593 --> 06:27:59,135
We have a custom that when someone
dies and he has a funeral
3996
06:27:59,135 --> 06:28:04,885
his favourite music compositions
are played.
3997
06:28:05,135 --> 06:28:08,468
For reasons I have just mentioned
3998
06:28:08,468 --> 06:28:13,927
I'd like to get an edited version
of the lines from this film
3999
06:28:14,135 --> 06:28:16,843
and play them at the funeral.
4000
06:28:17,093 --> 06:28:23,885
Everyone would remember the scenes
just like you and they would smile.
4001
06:28:24,135 --> 06:28:27,218
I think that'd be a beautiful departure
from the world.
4002
06:28:27,677 --> 06:28:33,468
Beneath him
the beautiful, distant places lie
4003
06:28:34,343 --> 06:28:38,635
around which mountains darkly rise
4004
06:28:38,635 --> 06:28:41,718
a wreath of forests embracing them.
4005
06:28:43,760 --> 06:28:48,677
Amidst the flower-spattered ground,
the bright lake sleeps in slumber sound.
4006
06:28:48,968 --> 06:28:57,343
When it was the worst in the 70s,
Jiří Menzel said a beautiful thing.
4007
06:28:58,260 --> 06:29:08,259
He said, "That we are suffering,
that's God's punishment... punishment for
4008
06:29:09,260 --> 06:29:18,093
having experienced the best period
of Czech cinema, and in that time
4009
06:29:18,135 --> 06:29:20,718
we made our own movies."
4010
06:29:20,760 --> 06:29:26,843
We are a generation that experienced
not only the turn of a century
4011
06:29:26,885 --> 06:29:28,718
but of a millennium.
4012
06:29:28,843 --> 06:29:33,135
We experienced socialism,
the Second World War
4013
06:29:33,177 --> 06:29:37,760
contra-revolution, the fall of socialism.
4014
06:29:37,760 --> 06:29:44,802
The only thing was that when I made
Capricious Summer in 1967
4015
06:29:45,343 --> 06:29:50,635
the next year the "capricious summer" 1968
came with the arrival of the Russians.
4016
06:29:51,302 --> 06:29:58,052
And when in 1988
I made End of Old Times
4017
06:29:58,302 --> 06:30:01,677
one year later the "end of old times" came.
4018
06:30:03,135 --> 06:30:05,927
Now I say I won't do Vančura anymore.
4019
06:30:05,927 --> 06:30:14,177
If I made Fields of Plough, Fields of War,
there would be war in Europe!
4020
06:30:19,718 --> 06:30:24,135
The Berlin Wall was a global problem.
4021
06:30:24,218 --> 06:30:29,052
It almost led to a world war.
4022
06:30:29,135 --> 06:30:36,885
It's not possible that we can't manage
to pull down this wall of ours which
4023
06:30:36,927 --> 06:30:39,802
consists of our current representatives.
4024
06:30:45,677 --> 06:30:47,968
Resign, Resign!
4025
06:30:48,677 --> 06:30:53,385
Actors were the ones who started
the Revolution in Slovakia
4026
06:30:53,385 --> 06:30:57,093
and I was one of the first
who came out on the square
4027
06:30:57,093 --> 06:31:00,510
and spoke in front of people
and read out the resolution.
4028
06:31:00,510 --> 06:31:04,468
We did not know yet what would happen.
There were snipers on the rooftops
4029
06:31:04,468 --> 06:31:07,677
and we didn't know if they
were going to shoot us.
4030
06:31:07,760 --> 06:31:12,427
At the end of the 1980s, it was clear that
the situation in the whole Eastern bloc
4031
06:31:12,593 --> 06:31:17,593
with political repression and constant
pressure was not sustainable
4032
06:31:17,760 --> 06:31:22,260
and that society would have to undergo
some type of transformation
4033
06:31:22,385 --> 06:31:25,468
in a more democratic direction...
4034
06:31:25,510 --> 06:31:29,593
It wasn't sustainable
economically, socially.
4035
06:31:29,718 --> 06:31:35,135
The young generation was revolting
more and more, which culminated
4036
06:31:35,218 --> 06:31:39,927
in the events of the year 1989.
4037
06:31:39,968 --> 06:31:44,385
Students' problems can't be resolved
without sorting out
4038
06:31:44,468 --> 06:31:48,427
the accumulated social
and political problems.
4039
06:31:48,510 --> 06:31:58,343
These events are a logical consequence
of the social and political crisis.
4040
06:32:00,427 --> 06:32:05,385
I'd like to express my hope
that no one will manage to separate
4041
06:32:05,427 --> 06:32:12,052
the students from the workers and
the intelligentsia. We are one nation!
4042
06:32:13,760 --> 06:32:20,760
Mr. Reagan, with star Wars, let's say,
he killed the communism, you know
4043
06:32:20,760 --> 06:32:24,802
that only this fiction, Star Wars,
and also the space system
4044
06:32:24,802 --> 06:32:28,302
which was never really possible to do it
4045
06:32:28,302 --> 06:32:32,177
the Russians were scared to death,
they cannot follow it
4046
06:32:32,177 --> 06:32:35,010
and basically they gave up,
you know, at Gorbachev.
4047
06:32:35,052 --> 06:32:38,885
That means, they killed Communism
on their own.
4048
06:32:38,968 --> 06:32:44,302
The Soviet Union as a system,
the Soviet system crashed
4049
06:32:44,385 --> 06:32:49,260
because it was unsustainable
from the very beginning.
4050
06:32:49,260 --> 06:32:55,135
It ignored all human rights
and economic laws.
4051
06:32:55,135 --> 06:32:59,135
And finally, it stifled
any freedom of expression
4052
06:32:59,260 --> 06:33:02,677
and society without freedom
is just helpless.
4053
06:33:02,677 --> 06:33:06,885
In the end,
Americans were so ahead of Russians
4054
06:33:07,135 --> 06:33:10,135
that Russians couldn't compete anymore.
4055
06:33:10,260 --> 06:33:12,968
To save the Soviet Union
that was going bankrupt
4056
06:33:13,010 --> 06:33:15,677
Gorbachev had to do something
4057
06:33:15,760 --> 06:33:18,135
and he did something quite radical.
4058
06:33:18,927 --> 06:33:23,593
Together with him, dozens, hundreds,
and subsequently thousands of people
4059
06:33:24,052 --> 06:33:28,427
started to feel a direct responsibility
for the fate of their country.
4060
06:33:29,218 --> 06:33:31,468
They were asking for a dialogue...
4061
06:33:32,427 --> 06:33:36,093
and they got
an unmistakably violent answer.
4062
06:33:48,427 --> 06:33:54,677
The moment when
the Velvet Revolution took place
4063
06:33:55,218 --> 06:33:57,718
it was a moment when we were...
4064
06:34:01,385 --> 06:34:04,760
We were in a state of euphoria, because
4065
06:34:04,927 --> 06:34:07,552
for us, it wasn't completely unexpected.
4066
06:34:07,802 --> 06:34:13,302
For some two years before,
we felt that it was coming.
4067
06:34:13,302 --> 06:34:16,302
And the fact that we were
located in the city centre
4068
06:34:16,302 --> 06:34:19,302
that the demonstrations
were passing by these windows
4069
06:34:19,302 --> 06:34:22,552
and we were in those demonstrations,
it was great.
4070
06:34:22,552 --> 06:34:24,593
Plus the artistic colleges
4071
06:34:24,968 --> 06:34:30,552
because not only schools
but also theatres went on strike
4072
06:34:31,218 --> 06:34:33,760
so we went to talk at the theatres
4073
06:34:33,760 --> 06:34:35,718
and to theatre workers.
4074
06:34:36,052 --> 06:34:40,593
And we had editing rooms
and such things at our disposal
4075
06:34:40,593 --> 06:34:44,177
so all kinds of film footage
and eyewitness accounts
4076
06:34:44,177 --> 06:34:46,760
were copied here
or at the FAMU studio
4077
06:34:46,760 --> 06:34:47,677
and then it was distributed.
4078
06:34:47,677 --> 06:34:50,010
So we were very actively involved.
4079
06:34:50,052 --> 06:34:56,010
November 17 was the day of demonstrations
in Prague, which were connected with
4080
06:34:57,010 --> 06:35:00,885
the alleged death of a student
and the whole country was
4081
06:35:00,927 --> 06:35:03,093
within a few days, on its feet.
4082
06:35:24,343 --> 06:35:29,635
Suddenly, students with blood on them
started coming to my apartment
4083
06:35:30,093 --> 06:35:34,927
to see my son,
who was also a student then.
4084
06:35:35,218 --> 06:35:37,843
I understood something horrible
was happening.
4085
06:35:37,843 --> 06:35:41,135
Then the news that somebody
was killed got around.
4086
06:35:41,135 --> 06:35:46,302
The shameless show of arbitrary power
sparked off nationwide resistance.
4087
06:36:23,260 --> 06:36:29,968
I'd say that only a few people believed
the regime would collapse so quickly.
4088
06:36:30,427 --> 06:36:35,677
It took everybody by
surprise, and I'd say
4089
06:36:35,718 --> 06:36:41,260
back then, few people would be happy
4090
06:36:41,260 --> 06:36:45,635
with the idea that we'd
reinstate capitalism.
4091
06:36:45,635 --> 06:36:49,302
It wasn't a revolution for capitalism
4092
06:36:49,302 --> 06:36:58,927
it was a revolution for freedom...
of movement, thought and information.
4093
06:36:58,927 --> 06:37:06,010
And in my opinion, not many people
in 1989 knew it would bring capitalism
4094
06:37:06,010 --> 06:37:16,009
if not only a few. For me, as a student
at the time, it was freedom.
4095
06:37:18,635 --> 06:37:21,010
Suddenly, the Rolling Stones
were in Prague.
4096
06:37:21,052 --> 06:37:23,468
Three years before,
a friend told me in a pub
4097
06:37:23,468 --> 06:37:27,052
"I tell you, Václav Havel
will be president."
4098
06:37:27,093 --> 06:37:29,927
It was absurd. It was unimaginable.
4099
06:37:30,218 --> 06:37:33,760
And now, here's is Josef Kemr!
4100
06:37:37,385 --> 06:37:43,302
Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!
4101
06:37:43,635 --> 06:37:46,552
The feeling was absolute joy.
4102
06:37:46,968 --> 06:37:51,177
I never would have imagined I could
live to see such a thing happen.
4103
06:37:51,510 --> 06:37:53,968
None of us dared even hope
anything like that would happen.
4104
06:38:22,177 --> 06:38:32,176
Let peace remain in this country
4105
06:38:34,593 --> 06:38:39,510
Hatred, envy, spite, fear and strife
4106
06:38:39,802 --> 06:38:42,760
Let it all end
4107
06:38:55,427 --> 06:39:01,552
And my life took a 180 degree turn,
in the right direction.
4108
06:39:02,052 --> 06:39:08,135
Today, I feel I live
in a country just like
4109
06:39:08,177 --> 06:39:14,385
that of those whose freedom
we used to envy.
4110
06:39:22,510 --> 06:39:23,885
They're leaving.
4111
06:39:24,260 --> 06:39:28,052
What you called 'Revolution',
I call a 'coup d'état'.
4112
06:39:28,093 --> 06:39:31,552
Because that's what happened, in fact.
4113
06:39:31,552 --> 06:39:33,593
And...
4114
06:39:33,593 --> 06:39:36,510
that's how I assess it.
4115
06:39:36,510 --> 06:39:38,510
I believe that...
4116
06:39:38,510 --> 06:39:42,010
on one hand, it really helped the society
4117
06:39:42,010 --> 06:39:44,510
because suddenly, it was free;
4118
06:39:45,510 --> 06:39:50,385
on the other hand,
a lot of damage was done.
4119
06:39:50,385 --> 06:39:56,885
Amongst the biggest damage
of the coup was
4120
06:39:56,885 --> 06:40:02,135
the privatisation of cinema
in Slovakia.
4121
06:40:02,177 --> 06:40:12,176
The leadership, which belonged to
the Communist Party, restricted us terribly.
4122
06:40:13,552 --> 06:40:16,260
But we weren't restricted by money.
4123
06:40:16,385 --> 06:40:21,677
I never knew the cost of a film
that I was going to make.
4124
06:40:21,677 --> 06:40:24,927
I think the transition
must have been very difficult
4125
06:40:25,385 --> 06:40:30,677
because they all dreamt
of making films in a free country...
4126
06:40:30,968 --> 06:40:35,010
but then it turned out
there was nothing to make
4127
06:40:35,093 --> 06:40:41,135
that there were no screenplays
for the new audiences...
4128
06:40:41,218 --> 06:40:45,760
If I shot the film
Dragon's Return today
4129
06:40:45,760 --> 06:40:48,260
I wouldn't get a single penny to shoot it.
4130
06:40:49,052 --> 06:40:50,218
And...
4131
06:40:50,218 --> 06:40:54,093
in the regime that I fought against
4132
06:40:54,093 --> 06:40:57,468
I didn't have to worry
about how much it costs.
4133
06:40:57,552 --> 06:40:59,468
If you see today's democracy
4134
06:41:00,010 --> 06:41:06,093
you see that this is changing into a,
kind of, distorted idea about capitalism
4135
06:41:06,093 --> 06:41:08,760
that cannot stand anymore democracy
4136
06:41:08,760 --> 06:41:11,302
because capitalism is imposed as
4137
06:41:11,343 --> 06:41:14,343
the system in which everybody
has to believe.
4138
06:41:14,760 --> 06:41:17,177
There are 3-4 institutions
that are just...
4139
06:41:18,760 --> 06:41:24,093
reigning the world and we are
just in position to be very passive.
4140
06:41:24,718 --> 06:41:30,510
And now, remembering the Soviet times,
without sentiments but with the knowledge
4141
06:41:30,843 --> 06:41:34,010
now I could say that democracy in the West
4142
06:41:34,677 --> 06:41:39,135
existed parallel due to
the existence of Soviet Union.
4143
06:41:39,302 --> 06:41:45,760
After the 1989 November Revolution,
Czech cinema changed totally, absolutely
4144
06:41:45,968 --> 06:41:47,385
more than you could possibly imagine.
4145
06:41:47,385 --> 06:41:52,218
Until then, the Iron Curtain
which divided East from West
4146
06:41:52,802 --> 06:41:57,135
made it possible for cinema to
be a kind of self-financing circuit.
4147
06:41:57,260 --> 06:42:00,718
In fact, whatever cinema earned was
channelled back into the film industry.
4148
06:42:00,885 --> 06:42:04,427
The best and biggest blockbusters
from the West weren't allowed in.
4149
06:42:04,635 --> 06:42:06,885
When E. T. came,
it was bought at a set price
4150
06:42:06,927 --> 06:42:09,468
and whatever it earned over that amount
4151
06:42:09,552 --> 06:42:11,510
wasn't returned to
the producer in America
4152
06:42:11,552 --> 06:42:13,593
but remained in Czech cinema
4153
06:42:13,593 --> 06:42:15,593
and Czech filmmakers
were able to film with that.
4154
06:42:15,760 --> 06:42:19,718
So we lived inside a sort of jar,
living in a kind of glass bell jar
4155
06:42:20,010 --> 06:42:21,468
which wasn't accessible to everyone.
4156
06:42:21,468 --> 06:42:25,968
But then after the Revolution, suddenly
the rules of a free market applied.
4157
06:42:26,218 --> 06:42:29,260
Suddenly, there wasn't the certainty
that Barrandov had the money
4158
06:42:29,260 --> 06:42:30,468
and Barrandov was out of money.
4159
06:42:30,760 --> 06:42:36,510
Menzel, just like other directors
after November 1989
4160
06:42:37,093 --> 06:42:39,885
wanted to catch up on the lost period.
4161
06:42:40,135 --> 06:42:45,177
So they mainly reached
for material which was
4162
06:42:45,427 --> 06:42:48,885
forbidden, in vaults, etc.
4163
06:42:49,052 --> 06:42:51,218
Maybe this is also why
4164
06:42:52,302 --> 06:42:55,385
he filmed Václav Havel's
Beggar's Opera.
4165
06:42:56,593 --> 06:42:59,968
It was, as we know, one of the plays
that was strictly forbidden.
4166
06:43:00,802 --> 06:43:05,260
And when in 1975
4167
06:43:06,010 --> 06:43:10,218
amateur actors tried to introduce it
outside Prague
4168
06:43:10,218 --> 06:43:13,052
the police immediately clamped down, hard.
4169
06:43:13,260 --> 06:43:15,552
So it's as if Menzel wanted to
repay this debt.
4170
06:43:15,593 --> 06:43:16,593
But, unfortunately...
4171
06:43:18,593 --> 06:43:22,177
his adaptation was very hasty
and, like in Hrabal's case
4172
06:43:22,552 --> 06:43:25,593
he didn't manage to find in Havel's text
4173
06:43:26,052 --> 06:43:28,718
the other plans and subtexts.
4174
06:43:29,052 --> 06:43:31,760
It's as if he was really only filming
4175
06:43:31,802 --> 06:43:34,760
a famous historical story,
or a paraphrase of...
4176
06:43:36,177 --> 06:43:37,385
Bertolt Brecht
4177
06:43:37,635 --> 06:43:42,718
and forgot Havel again wanted
to publicly express
4178
06:43:42,802 --> 06:43:47,760
his view of a society controlled
by mafias and gangsters.
4179
06:43:47,760 --> 06:43:53,552
The sets were ready, but we were not
employed at Barrandov any more.
4180
06:43:54,177 --> 06:43:56,718
The new director fired all of us
4181
06:43:56,718 --> 06:43:58,802
and no one knew if we were
going to shoot it or not.
4182
06:43:59,218 --> 06:44:02,218
In the end, it was the last film
which was produced by Barrandov.
4183
06:44:02,302 --> 06:44:06,260
Actually, all of these directors were
employees of Barrandov Studios
4184
06:44:06,260 --> 06:44:08,718
because as I said,
there was a monopoly of
4185
06:44:08,760 --> 06:44:11,468
Barrandov Studios over
the feature production.
4186
06:44:49,218 --> 06:44:50,968
This is the premiere.
4187
06:44:52,427 --> 06:44:53,677
Here is President Havel.
4188
06:44:56,635 --> 06:44:58,302
Jirka Menzel.
4189
06:45:01,635 --> 06:45:03,510
Labuda as Peachum.
4190
06:45:06,760 --> 06:45:09,302
The film delegation.
4191
06:45:14,510 --> 06:45:21,260
I think that Beggar's Opera,
The Chocolate Cop and Chonkin
4192
06:45:21,260 --> 06:45:24,010
are things which Menzel
shouldn't have even tried.
4193
06:45:24,052 --> 06:45:28,427
There was nothing wrong with
the Chonkin film in my view.
4194
06:45:28,760 --> 06:45:30,385
It's a perfectly good script
4195
06:45:30,718 --> 06:45:34,760
it was faithful to the novel which
is considered a satirical classic
4196
06:45:35,927 --> 06:45:37,010
film was well made...
4197
06:45:37,260 --> 06:45:40,302
I think it failed because
it was produced...
4198
06:45:40,343 --> 06:45:42,885
It was a wrong film
at the wrong time.
4199
06:45:43,010 --> 06:45:50,760
We should've left it to the Russians.
We have Russian actors there
4200
06:45:50,843 --> 06:45:56,843
but it should have been written
and directed by Russians, too.
4201
06:45:56,843 --> 06:46:00,343
I hadn't taken into account
the degree to which
4202
06:46:00,468 --> 06:46:04,135
the Czech allergy
for everything Russian
4203
06:46:05,302 --> 06:46:06,510
was so intense.
4204
06:47:06,260 --> 06:47:10,468
One of the reasons he didn't
work after that for a long time
4205
06:47:10,802 --> 06:47:12,927
was because that film failed.
4206
06:47:13,302 --> 06:47:17,468
And it failed for some obvious reasons.
4207
06:47:18,510 --> 06:47:22,593
One, that it was shot in Russian,
used Russian actors
4208
06:47:22,885 --> 06:47:25,510
it wasn't going to be popular
with the Czech audience.
4209
06:47:26,635 --> 06:47:31,760
Two, foreign audiences, because
the Soviet system had collapsed
4210
06:47:32,218 --> 06:47:35,843
somehow the resonance of
the story was lost as well.
4211
06:47:35,927 --> 06:47:43,093
That's why the first movies were so
easy for me. Because I wasn't scared.
4212
06:47:43,718 --> 06:47:47,927
I jumped in headfirst without thinking.
4213
06:47:48,635 --> 06:47:51,593
And then, when
I wasn't allowed to produce
4214
06:47:52,343 --> 06:47:59,635
the next movies, after
I had the mandatory pause
4215
06:48:00,385 --> 06:48:07,510
I had to think very hard.
That's not good.
4216
06:48:08,802 --> 06:48:10,343
I was scared of making a bad movie.
4217
06:48:11,760 --> 06:48:15,968
One starts to speculate a lot
4218
06:48:16,302 --> 06:48:23,635
one thinks about his own experience,
compares, and it's no longer so natural.
4219
06:48:23,718 --> 06:48:28,177
I always say it's the same as making love.
4220
06:48:29,010 --> 06:48:33,552
When you are young and start,
you follow your heart.
4221
06:48:35,135 --> 06:48:40,760
You don't think much and jump
headfirst into love.
4222
06:48:41,218 --> 06:48:45,885
When you get older, you speculate.
It's just not the same.
4223
06:48:58,218 --> 06:49:01,010
When I did
I served the King of England
4224
06:49:01,177 --> 06:49:05,552
after those 12 years,
I was curious myself
4225
06:49:05,593 --> 06:49:10,010
when I came on the first shoot day
4226
06:49:10,052 --> 06:49:12,260
what the shooting would be like.
4227
06:49:15,718 --> 06:49:19,177
I didn't think about it much,
about those 12 years.
4228
06:49:19,177 --> 06:49:23,677
Whenever I did something,
it was because
4229
06:49:23,718 --> 06:49:28,468
someone asked me to do
it, and so I worked.
4230
06:49:28,510 --> 06:49:35,135
No one asked me to do anything and
I didn't want to beg for work somewhere.
4231
06:49:35,135 --> 06:49:37,968
So I did not work for a long time.
4232
06:49:37,968 --> 06:49:44,760
I wasn't very happy about
my two last films
4233
06:49:44,760 --> 06:49:50,677
I mean Chonkin
and Beggar's Opera.
4234
06:49:50,677 --> 06:49:56,093
I think Beggar's Opera didn't turn out well,
and I spoiled the end of Chonkin.
4235
06:49:56,093 --> 06:49:58,635
I was not very self-confident.
4236
06:49:58,635 --> 06:50:02,593
Moreover, I was offered to work
in the theatre, which is more comfortable.
4237
06:50:02,593 --> 06:50:06,343
It is a completed text and
you don't have to suffer with the script.
4238
06:50:06,343 --> 06:50:12,635
So I worked in the theatre,
in Prague and abroad as well
4239
06:50:12,635 --> 06:50:15,427
and it was enough for me.
4240
06:50:15,427 --> 06:50:17,135
I didn't mind that
I wasn't shooting films.
4241
06:50:17,135 --> 06:50:18,427
If I missed something
4242
06:50:18,427 --> 06:50:25,968
it was the fact that the royalties
in theatre are smaller than in film.
4243
06:50:25,968 --> 06:50:34,510
That was the only thing I missed a bit.
But otherwise, I always used to say -
4244
06:50:34,510 --> 06:50:37,843
"When I'm not making films,
I'm not losing anything
4245
06:50:37,843 --> 06:50:40,010
the spectators are losing."
4246
06:50:40,010 --> 06:50:43,052
I am sorry for being so vain.
4247
06:50:47,302 --> 06:50:51,010
"Every actor should feel like in a crib."
4248
06:50:51,468 --> 06:50:54,677
And I think that it's quite
an accurate expression
4249
06:50:54,843 --> 06:50:57,135
of Jirka's relationship to the actors.
4250
06:50:57,510 --> 06:51:00,218
Jirka loves actors.
4251
06:51:00,302 --> 06:51:02,343
He gives you a feeling of freedom
4252
06:51:03,468 --> 06:51:06,843
you feel that you're free to create
4253
06:51:07,010 --> 06:51:10,677
but it's all under his supervision.
4254
06:51:10,677 --> 06:51:14,552
He knows where this freedom of yours
is going to end up
4255
06:51:14,552 --> 06:51:16,885
and it ends up exactly
where he wants.
4256
06:51:17,677 --> 06:51:20,052
One person I met told me
4257
06:51:20,510 --> 06:51:22,343
"Jiří Menzel in this movie
4258
06:51:22,343 --> 06:51:26,510
I think this is the thing of
an old man doing cinema
4259
06:51:26,677 --> 06:51:29,218
so many women, naked, and..."
4260
06:51:29,760 --> 06:51:31,885
It was... What is this guy talking about!
4261
06:51:31,885 --> 06:51:34,843
Because I felt this
love, this part of the story
4262
06:51:34,885 --> 06:51:37,760
and for me, it was so wonderful...
4263
06:51:37,968 --> 06:51:42,052
loving the actors, really, the characters,
and loving also the women
4264
06:51:42,343 --> 06:51:47,385
and to show how he sees them or how
he loves or what he loves about them.
4265
06:51:47,718 --> 06:51:52,510
And I loved the way he did it,
I loved it very much because...
4266
06:51:53,218 --> 06:51:59,718
he has not women that are so beautiful
when you first look at them
4267
06:51:59,718 --> 06:52:01,760
but he takes so much time
4268
06:52:01,802 --> 06:52:06,718
he gives the camera so much time
to observe them and, in such a...
4269
06:52:06,718 --> 06:52:09,510
It was really a special way to see, so...
4270
06:52:10,468 --> 06:52:11,302
Yeah!
4271
06:52:11,385 --> 06:52:14,552
He takes the time to...
that you really...
4272
06:52:14,677 --> 06:52:16,968
When you're watching the people,
the character
4273
06:52:17,010 --> 06:52:18,843
you really can fall in love
with them.
4274
06:52:40,468 --> 06:52:42,968
A director who suddenly has two films
under his belt
4275
06:52:43,010 --> 06:52:45,135
which didn't turn out
to be the best
4276
06:52:45,135 --> 06:52:48,302
who's used to...
scooping up the biggest triumphs
4277
06:52:48,302 --> 06:52:50,593
he suddenly started to
doubt himself and was very
4278
06:52:50,677 --> 06:52:52,885
very careful in selecting
his subsequent material.
4279
06:52:52,968 --> 06:52:55,052
For this reason, even though
he got loads of material
4280
06:52:55,093 --> 06:52:57,927
and I believe that
some of it was good
4281
06:52:58,010 --> 06:53:00,468
he wasn't able to choose.
He felt insecure.
4282
06:53:00,635 --> 06:53:02,885
Suddenly, he began doubting himself.
4283
06:53:02,927 --> 06:53:05,677
And, of course,
for a director, any creator...
4284
06:53:05,718 --> 06:53:08,093
if you stop practising your craft
for a while
4285
06:53:08,135 --> 06:53:10,510
you lose your sense of security
4286
06:53:10,593 --> 06:53:11,968
lose your confidence.
4287
06:53:12,052 --> 06:53:12,802
And to start...
4288
06:53:12,843 --> 06:53:14,802
the longer you leave it,
the harder it gets.
4289
06:53:14,927 --> 06:53:17,218
The fact that he wanted to start with
4290
06:53:17,260 --> 06:53:19,427
I served the King of England is logical.
It's Hrabal.
4291
06:53:19,552 --> 06:53:21,510
And that he wanted to make his comeback
with something different than
4292
06:53:21,552 --> 06:53:23,385
what people expected, is also logical.
4293
06:53:23,468 --> 06:53:25,093
As to whether it
succeeded or not...
4294
06:53:25,135 --> 06:53:27,593
the response from the Czech critics
was relatively unkind.
4295
06:53:27,760 --> 06:53:28,885
Because naturally the book
4296
06:53:28,927 --> 06:53:31,927
I served the King of England
is a national treasure
4297
06:53:31,927 --> 06:53:33,802
it's one of Bohumil Hrabal's best works.
4298
06:53:33,885 --> 06:53:37,802
And when we read the book, all of us,
all of us saw the filmed version in our heads.
4299
06:53:37,968 --> 06:53:40,302
So when Jiří Menzel came
along years later...
4300
06:53:40,343 --> 06:53:42,260
Twenty-thirty years later
with his own version
4301
06:53:42,343 --> 06:53:43,552
we labelled him as bad
4302
06:53:43,593 --> 06:53:47,468
that he didn't film the one
we had in each of our heads.
4303
06:53:48,093 --> 06:53:50,427
But thank God he came back.
4304
06:53:50,677 --> 06:53:55,677
An unusual way of settling disputes
at the Karlovy Vary Festival:
4305
06:53:55,802 --> 06:53:59,927
Director Jiří Menzel attacked
the producer Jiří Sirotek...
4306
06:54:00,052 --> 06:54:06,260
who one year ago sold the rights
to Hrabal's I Served the King of England
4307
06:54:06,385 --> 06:54:12,927
to Nova TV, even though it had been agreed
that Menzel would make the film.
4308
06:54:13,677 --> 06:54:17,135
The script was for me,
the rights were for me
4309
06:54:17,260 --> 06:54:19,843
and he sold them behind my back.
4310
06:54:20,093 --> 06:54:24,218
Here in the Hotel Thermal,
in front of a packed auditorium
4311
06:54:24,343 --> 06:54:28,385
Jiří Menzel attacked Mr. Sirotek
with a stick like this.
4312
06:54:40,218 --> 06:54:43,385
Karel Kachyňa already wanted
to make the novel into a film.
4313
06:54:43,802 --> 06:54:44,718
So did Jiří Menzel.
4314
06:54:44,718 --> 06:54:47,718
Then there was a great confusion
around the rights to the novel.
4315
06:54:48,302 --> 06:54:49,510
The film was put on hold for a while.
4316
06:54:49,510 --> 06:54:52,177
Then other filmmakers got
temporarily involved, including myself.
4317
06:54:53,052 --> 06:54:56,093
I think the novel is un-filmable.
4318
06:54:57,218 --> 06:54:58,427
Menzel made it into a film
4319
06:54:58,427 --> 06:55:03,343
and as a person who'd created four great
films in cooperation with Hrabal
4320
06:55:03,510 --> 06:55:09,885
he made a fifth one which emphasises
a single aspect of the novel.
4321
06:55:11,260 --> 06:55:16,802
But this novel is much more complex than
the Closely Watched Trains novel
4322
06:55:17,135 --> 06:55:24,177
or Mrs. Poldinka, which Hrabal and he made
into the screenplay for Larks on a String.
4323
06:55:25,760 --> 06:55:26,593
And...
4324
06:55:28,343 --> 06:55:33,593
I think that when Petr Jarchovský
and I were working on the screenplay
4325
06:55:33,593 --> 06:55:37,468
- I must emphasise that at that point,
Menzel didn't want to be involved -
4326
06:55:37,468 --> 06:55:38,718
he had grown bitter about it
4327
06:55:38,718 --> 06:55:40,885
and I made sure to check with him
that he didn't want to make the film.
4328
06:55:41,135 --> 06:55:43,552
Meanwhile, we were trying
to write the screenplay
4329
06:55:43,552 --> 06:55:46,052
and then half a year was spent
trying to get the money for it.
4330
06:55:46,635 --> 06:55:49,427
And whenever I returned
to the screenplay
4331
06:55:49,427 --> 06:55:51,802
I would discover it was all wrong.
4332
06:55:52,218 --> 06:55:54,968
Everything we added was nonsense.
4333
06:55:55,343 --> 06:55:56,552
Everything we took out...
4334
06:55:56,552 --> 06:55:58,510
Because the novel
had turned into a legend.
4335
06:55:59,552 --> 06:56:01,718
When Menzel was shooting
Closely Watched Trains
4336
06:56:01,718 --> 06:56:05,135
Hrabal was a well-known writer,
but he wasn't a living legend yet.
4337
06:56:06,760 --> 06:56:11,760
But with I Served the King of England,
people would ask us in the street
4338
06:56:11,760 --> 06:56:13,510
"Are you going to film
The King of England?"
4339
06:56:13,510 --> 06:56:15,135
"And who did you cast as this character?"
4340
06:56:15,135 --> 06:56:17,593
And you think to yourself,
"Christ, we left that character out!"
4341
06:57:05,635 --> 06:57:12,552
This trauma remains deep inside,
taking different shapes
4342
06:57:12,927 --> 06:57:15,885
and from time to time,
it surfaces again.
4343
06:57:16,552 --> 06:57:21,635
And by a turn of fate, mercifully
4344
06:57:21,635 --> 06:57:27,218
I was able to play
that character in the film.
4345
06:57:27,218 --> 06:57:33,593
But again, I repeat that
all our experience we bore
4346
06:57:33,593 --> 06:57:38,760
was despite the brutality we witnessed
4347
06:57:39,468 --> 06:57:44,802
consciously or subconsciously reflected
in the way we played our characters.
4348
06:57:44,802 --> 06:57:53,218
There were fantastic absurd views
of the world which I still remember.
4349
06:57:53,218 --> 06:58:01,260
I've never thought about it as a real
story of a person living in that time
4350
06:58:01,260 --> 06:58:11,259
but as an imagination of the world itself.
What possibilities does the little man
4351
06:58:11,843 --> 06:58:18,885
have in the big world and what the world
is like. For me, the adaptation
4352
06:58:18,885 --> 06:58:28,884
was disappointing because I don't see
a lot of Hrabal's fantasy in it.
4353
06:58:30,677 --> 06:58:37,927
Unfortunately, again, at every meeting
of Menzel with Hrabal's draft
4354
06:58:38,760 --> 06:58:42,552
only the surface remained,
and not the submersion
4355
06:58:42,885 --> 06:58:45,927
into the soul or the character
of the Czech nation.
4356
06:58:45,927 --> 06:58:49,385
Whatever you do, they want
you to be somebody else.
4357
06:58:49,385 --> 06:58:51,135
And I think this was the case.
4358
06:58:51,468 --> 06:58:56,593
They wanted him to become somebody else.
And why would he change?
4359
06:58:56,927 --> 06:59:01,510
If you know, that in history of cinema,
Hitchcock was doing fifty films
4360
06:59:01,510 --> 06:59:04,968
in which you could recognise Hitchcock
like this, but you could enjoy it.
4361
06:59:05,343 --> 06:59:12,260
And the sign of Jiří Menzel
is recognisable
4362
06:59:12,260 --> 06:59:16,010
the question is that you
expect Jiří Menzel's movie
4363
06:59:16,052 --> 06:59:19,927
not the movie that
is based on the book.
4364
07:00:39,760 --> 07:00:44,468
The film has Menzel's poetics.
It is, kind of, tender.
4365
07:00:44,468 --> 07:00:49,218
I'm not happy that the part is missing
where Jan Dítě lives at Šumava...
4366
07:00:49,218 --> 07:00:52,010
how they shoot his dog and
those kind of stories...
4367
07:00:52,052 --> 07:00:53,593
I think that they are important.
4368
07:00:53,593 --> 07:00:56,510
That's where Hrabal tried
to insert his philosophy...
4369
07:00:56,510 --> 07:01:05,093
that Tao Te Ching,
to be at the bottom and look upwards.
4370
07:01:05,135 --> 07:01:07,760
The absence of Hrabal was important,
you know.
4371
07:01:07,760 --> 07:01:11,677
I felt that there were
certain things in the film
4372
07:01:12,052 --> 07:01:15,343
which would not have
been presented that way
4373
07:01:15,427 --> 07:01:18,593
if Hrabal had himself been involved.
4374
07:01:18,593 --> 07:01:23,802
Suddenly, he was not there and I had
to deal with it on my own, without him.
4375
07:01:24,135 --> 07:01:31,052
It was very hard work, precisely
because all the time
4376
07:01:31,427 --> 07:01:35,593
I tried to remember how he'd react
to the changes I made.
4377
07:01:35,843 --> 07:01:39,010
On top of that, the book is very rich.
4378
07:01:39,052 --> 07:01:45,927
I had to leave out many things
in order to fit it into two hours.
4379
07:01:46,302 --> 07:01:48,177
I had to rewrite it and shorten it
4380
07:01:48,177 --> 07:01:51,760
and devise the "braid"
as we used to do with
4381
07:01:51,802 --> 07:01:55,635
Mr. Hrabal to create a distinct story.
4382
07:01:55,635 --> 07:01:58,010
It was a job for a murderer.
4383
07:01:58,093 --> 07:02:01,968
If I were to criticise
anything about Jiří Menzel
4384
07:02:03,135 --> 07:02:04,427
it's that
4385
07:02:05,218 --> 07:02:07,093
he's an amazing director
4386
07:02:07,302 --> 07:02:09,677
but far from an amazing screenwriter.
4387
07:02:09,885 --> 07:02:13,260
In fact, for the script
you always need someone else.
4388
07:02:13,343 --> 07:02:15,927
He's able to elevate the material
that's been written
4389
07:02:16,093 --> 07:02:17,760
which is a rare gift.
4390
07:02:17,843 --> 07:02:19,927
But he's not exactly
the one to write...
4391
07:02:19,968 --> 07:02:22,427
who's able to write material
and then direct it.
4392
07:02:25,218 --> 07:02:31,218
When I meet him up there one day,
I'll ask him if I made it well or not.
4393
07:03:04,427 --> 07:03:11,968
He imagined this character 'Jan Díte'
to have something from Charlie Chaplin.
4394
07:03:12,635 --> 07:03:16,052
And I was promoted to front waiter
4395
07:03:16,552 --> 07:03:20,385
under the tutelage of
the maître d', Mr. Skřivánek.
4396
07:03:49,260 --> 07:03:52,718
The people who wanted to criticise
the film would say
4397
07:03:52,885 --> 07:03:57,218
"He cast it wrong. The main character
was really disgusting."
4398
07:03:57,593 --> 07:03:58,385
And I would tell them
4399
07:03:58,385 --> 07:04:00,135
"The protagonist is disgusting
even in the book."
4400
07:04:00,135 --> 07:04:02,510
"The book is based on the fact
that the protagonist is an asshole
4401
07:04:02,510 --> 07:04:05,052
who betrays his friend
4402
07:04:05,093 --> 07:04:07,510
robs people,
collaborates with the Nazis."
4403
07:04:07,510 --> 07:04:08,968
He's a real crook.
4404
07:04:09,218 --> 07:04:13,468
He's a Czech crook who
tells beautiful stories
4405
07:04:13,468 --> 07:04:16,885
in the poetic language
of Bohumil Hrabal.
4406
07:04:18,260 --> 07:04:21,093
Menzel is repulsed by the idea
of creating a disgusting character.
4407
07:04:21,427 --> 07:04:24,177
And the audience doesn't want to
identify with a character like that.
4408
07:04:24,177 --> 07:04:27,093
But the novel contains
this essential paradox.
4409
07:04:27,260 --> 07:04:29,093
You can't completely avoid it
4410
07:04:29,093 --> 07:04:32,302
because the protagonist
acts like a Nazi collaborator
4411
07:04:32,468 --> 07:04:36,010
his actions are spineless.
4412
07:04:37,468 --> 07:04:39,052
But at the same time
4413
07:04:39,843 --> 07:04:43,552
- similarly to Švejk, with whom
you also don't know whether
4414
07:04:43,552 --> 07:04:45,260
he's a hero or a villain or what -
4415
07:04:46,927 --> 07:04:54,260
he speaks the language
of the most poetic novelist...
4416
07:04:54,510 --> 07:04:55,760
Bohumil Hrabal.
4417
07:04:55,760 --> 07:04:57,927
So it's a conundrum.
4418
07:04:57,927 --> 07:05:02,302
That's the problem with all movies
I did based on Hrabal's work.
4419
07:05:02,385 --> 07:05:06,843
He is way richer than I will ever be.
4420
07:05:07,635 --> 07:05:12,302
He perceives the world
as a synergism
4421
07:05:12,760 --> 07:05:18,718
or a sisterly relationship of
sorrow and joy
4422
07:05:18,885 --> 07:05:22,968
bad things and joyful things
4423
07:05:23,260 --> 07:05:26,135
like they just belong together in life.
4424
07:05:26,635 --> 07:05:33,635
I don't have... the strength.
I'm spoiled by life, unlike him.
4425
07:05:34,093 --> 07:05:39,385
So I rather want to see
the better side of the world.
4426
07:05:39,677 --> 07:05:47,260
I base this on the fact that
everyone has sorrows, every viewer.
4427
07:05:47,843 --> 07:05:56,802
But the good thing is to enliven
his will to live, his desire for life
4428
07:05:56,885 --> 07:06:00,093
or if he finds out that life
isn't that tragic.
4429
07:06:00,635 --> 07:06:05,177
Hrabal is a genius in combining
this together. I am not.
4430
07:06:05,260 --> 07:06:11,593
I realise that's my big handicap
in Hrabal's movies
4431
07:06:11,885 --> 07:06:15,635
that I can't achieve what he can.
4432
07:06:15,718 --> 07:06:19,343
That's why I refuse to make
movies based on Hrabal's work.
4433
07:06:19,760 --> 07:06:28,093
I want someone else to do it,
someone who understands the other side
4434
07:06:28,427 --> 07:06:31,385
the drastic side of his works.
4435
07:06:31,468 --> 07:06:33,718
As far as I'm concerned, Jiří Menzel...
4436
07:06:33,885 --> 07:06:39,135
made great films and
I really like Bohumil Hrabal's books.
4437
07:06:39,135 --> 07:06:42,093
And the truth is,
Menzel was the best at it.
4438
07:06:42,093 --> 07:06:48,177
When somebody else tried to make
a Hrabal film, there was no Hrabal in it.
4439
07:06:48,218 --> 07:06:51,093
The film wasn't received so well
in the Czech Republic
4440
07:06:51,885 --> 07:06:53,760
even though it was well received outside.
4441
07:06:53,760 --> 07:06:57,385
And... he wrote that it is
so wonderfully made
4442
07:06:57,385 --> 07:06:59,385
and that it is such a moving metaphor
4443
07:06:59,385 --> 07:07:02,635
of everything we experienced
in Czechoslovakia.
4444
07:07:03,052 --> 07:07:06,093
And if we are lucky, we are going
to experience once again.
4445
07:07:06,468 --> 07:07:09,427
I find it hard to believe
that you are also Czech.
4446
07:07:11,218 --> 07:07:14,385
I don't know if that's
a compliment per se
4447
07:07:14,385 --> 07:07:16,427
but from Miloš it's nice.
4448
07:07:18,760 --> 07:07:20,302
Cheers!
4449
07:07:29,260 --> 07:07:32,802
The beer is good here.
This is where I'll be coming.
4450
07:07:58,093 --> 07:07:59,468
The past is past.
4451
07:07:59,468 --> 07:08:04,718
As they say, "Lumberjacks
have come to our woods"...
4452
07:08:05,510 --> 07:08:10,760
and all that's left is the memories.
4453
07:08:11,010 --> 07:08:18,343
The fact that no film comparable to
Closely Watched Trains or Daisies
4454
07:08:18,760 --> 07:08:23,427
was ever made after 1990,
I believe isn't a matter of financing.
4455
07:08:23,718 --> 07:08:25,343
It's a matter of...
4456
07:08:26,968 --> 07:08:29,010
I don't know how long
Ancient Greece lasted
4457
07:08:29,052 --> 07:08:32,010
but all the famous plays we know
were written within a fifty-year period
4458
07:08:32,510 --> 07:08:33,677
maybe even less than that.
4459
07:08:33,677 --> 07:08:36,468
All the ancient Greek plays that are
still staged today
4460
07:08:36,802 --> 07:08:38,552
were created in Pericles' times.
4461
07:08:38,552 --> 07:08:42,093
But the empire lasted how long?
Hundreds of years.
4462
07:08:52,552 --> 07:08:55,843
Considering my age, you have to say that
4463
07:08:55,843 --> 07:08:58,552
it's the end of my work.
4464
07:08:58,760 --> 07:08:59,968
Bye-bye!
4465
07:09:03,260 --> 07:09:04,510
Bye-bye!
4466
07:09:06,343 --> 07:09:08,302
Bye-bye life!
4467
07:09:10,135 --> 07:09:18,677
The truth is when I was a young filmmaker,
Jakubisko and I were saying
4468
07:09:18,677 --> 07:09:27,052
"It would be so great if at least
one of my films stayed relevant
4469
07:09:27,260 --> 07:09:31,010
for a long time, if it passed
the test of time."
4470
07:09:31,468 --> 07:09:35,218
So, I hope I managed to do that
with some of my films, yes.
4471
07:09:35,468 --> 07:09:45,467
...35, 36, 37, 38, 39,
40, 41, 42, 43...
4472
07:10:05,135 --> 07:10:07,635
Halt! Halt!
4473
07:11:15,635 --> 07:11:16,843
Julie...
4474
07:11:18,427 --> 07:11:20,218
Now I know what love means.
4475
07:11:22,552 --> 07:11:24,885
I wish this moment would last forever.
4476
07:11:27,802 --> 07:11:29,552
Don't be so mean to me!
4477
07:11:34,468 --> 07:11:36,718
Life without you is miserable.
4478
07:11:40,968 --> 07:11:45,677
No elements can hurt us!
4479
07:11:45,968 --> 07:11:48,552
We are lilies of the field!
4480
07:11:55,552 --> 07:12:03,968
Gunpowder Test No. 1...
No. 2... No. 3!
4481
07:12:07,718 --> 07:12:12,218
So I tell you gentlemen, when one day
you see a chapel amongst the wild thyme
4482
07:12:12,343 --> 07:12:15,760
for God's sake, remember
that the road leading here
4483
07:12:15,927 --> 07:12:19,843
is one on which everything
we no longer believe in, departs from us.
4484
07:12:20,510 --> 07:12:21,927
That girl
4485
07:12:22,177 --> 07:12:25,177
that drowned girl, looked like Marketa.
4486
07:12:57,218 --> 07:12:58,302
Strike up the band!
4487
07:13:01,010 --> 07:13:04,260
Continue, please. Continue!
4488
07:13:07,260 --> 07:13:10,343
Go on, go on up there!
4489
07:13:13,135 --> 07:13:14,302
Music! What's wrong?
4490
07:13:14,468 --> 07:13:15,468
We're supposed to play alone?
4491
07:13:15,635 --> 07:13:16,760
Of course.
4492
07:13:24,177 --> 07:13:25,218
I'm going over there!
4493
07:13:31,677 --> 07:13:33,218
Bartošová, I see you!
4494
07:14:02,802 --> 07:14:03,802
That's all?
4495
07:14:06,677 --> 07:14:08,302
Another question?
4496
07:14:13,343 --> 07:14:22,802
The time spent with Menzel
is a... how to put it...
4497
07:14:22,843 --> 07:14:28,760
a pleasant walk
4498
07:14:28,802 --> 07:14:34,843
that expresses and reminds you
of the moments offered to you by life.
4499
07:14:38,718 --> 07:14:40,343
That's funny!
4500
07:14:41,010 --> 07:14:43,885
I've definitely seen all his films.
4501
07:14:43,885 --> 07:14:53,884
Once, it was at Barrandov, I assisted Vávra
and he was used to walking around
4502
07:14:55,802 --> 07:15:01,677
and I, as his assistant, had to
walk behind him in case
4503
07:15:01,718 --> 07:15:08,927
he had some idea or something.
He was walking in that long hall
4504
07:15:08,968 --> 07:15:13,927
it was quiet, and suddenly he stopped,
stepped in front of me and told me
4505
07:15:13,968 --> 07:15:19,552
"Anyway, Menzel is the best one
out of you." Well. And it was sudden
4506
07:15:19,593 --> 07:15:25,218
it came out of nowhere.
4507
07:15:25,218 --> 07:15:29,093
I think that Menzel is like a drug,
he is like marijuana.
4508
07:15:29,093 --> 07:15:34,385
He gives you a sweet, cheerful feeling.
4509
07:15:34,385 --> 07:15:36,510
There aren't many such
filmmakers in the world.
4510
07:15:36,510 --> 07:15:40,343
I don't know what you're going to cut out
and I didn't talk about him very nicely
4511
07:15:40,343 --> 07:15:44,177
but I think that he really is one of the
most significant Czech directors.
4512
07:15:44,177 --> 07:15:45,885
The only thing I am sorry about is that
4513
07:15:45,885 --> 07:15:49,010
he wasn't able to develop his talent fully
because of the time.
4514
07:15:49,052 --> 07:15:51,510
He is an ironic God.
4515
07:15:51,510 --> 07:15:53,968
There's a great sense of human frailty
4516
07:15:55,843 --> 07:16:01,135
and the warmth towards people,
which I respond to.
4517
07:16:02,968 --> 07:16:06,677
And there's an enjoyment of people.
4518
07:16:07,218 --> 07:16:08,593
And I think that's the...
4519
07:16:09,427 --> 07:16:13,552
a real enjoyment of people's
idiosyncrasies, of their failings
4520
07:16:13,593 --> 07:16:17,218
their shortcomings, their strengths.
4521
07:16:17,885 --> 07:16:21,010
It's the humanism that I like.
4522
07:16:23,218 --> 07:16:27,677
And in those early ones
particularly, there's...
4523
07:16:28,052 --> 07:16:33,260
just the sense of finding the
right camera position, the right frame
4524
07:16:33,760 --> 07:16:38,427
the right movement,
the right rhythm, the right editing...
4525
07:16:38,802 --> 07:16:41,885
that just allows you to
share the experience and
4526
07:16:41,927 --> 07:16:44,802
understand the people
in front of the camera.
4527
07:17:27,843 --> 07:17:30,468
I've always let people talk me into it.
4528
07:17:30,885 --> 07:17:32,177
And the problem is that now
4529
07:17:32,177 --> 07:17:34,552
there's nobody trying to
talk me into anything.
4530
07:17:34,552 --> 07:17:36,260
Nobody wants me to make any films.
4531
07:17:36,593 --> 07:17:38,635
I'm probably too old for everybody.
4532
07:17:38,635 --> 07:17:41,093
I try to see myself
with the same eyes that
4533
07:17:41,093 --> 07:17:44,635
I used to look at my older colleagues with
when I was young.
4534
07:17:44,635 --> 07:17:49,052
So, I understand
I may not be one of them anymore.
4535
07:17:49,760 --> 07:17:53,885
It's not that I want to make another
film to preserve my status as a director.
4536
07:17:53,885 --> 07:17:54,843
Definitely not.
4537
07:17:55,218 --> 07:17:58,427
But I'm a bit ashamed
that my wife works
4538
07:17:58,427 --> 07:18:00,302
and I'm just slacking off.
4539
07:18:00,302 --> 07:18:05,843
So, maybe I could make another film.
4540
07:18:42,760 --> 07:18:45,135
I was particularly proud...
4541
07:18:45,343 --> 07:18:48,385
that Josef Somr was in the film...
4542
07:18:49,302 --> 07:18:54,635
though he looked a bit better
and was livelier back then.
4543
07:18:57,552 --> 07:18:59,843
I'm still alive, you know.
4544
07:19:02,510 --> 07:19:05,843
Which is why I want to
invite you all...
4545
07:19:05,968 --> 07:19:11,010
to the 60th or the 70th anniversary
of our filming in Loděnice.
4546
07:19:34,968 --> 07:19:37,802
Actually, my father
4547
07:19:38,260 --> 07:19:40,968
was also a train conductor.
4548
07:19:41,593 --> 07:19:45,635
And when he saw the film,
he said something like this...
4549
07:19:46,135 --> 07:19:48,218
"What you are showing in the film,
that a..."
4550
07:19:48,302 --> 07:19:49,468
"that a..."
4551
07:19:49,885 --> 07:19:52,135
"that a girl would come at night..."
4552
07:19:52,427 --> 07:19:56,218
"to the station and
you did such things with her there..."
4553
07:19:56,468 --> 07:19:59,218
"That is simply out of the question."
4554
07:19:59,302 --> 07:20:03,218
When I told this to Mr. Hrabal
4555
07:20:03,760 --> 07:20:05,927
he laughed at me and said
4556
07:20:06,010 --> 07:20:08,760
"Much worse things
were going on there..."
4557
07:20:09,260 --> 07:20:10,968
"Or more beautiful things..."
4558
07:20:44,302 --> 07:20:47,593
Nothing survives a few years
or even a season...
4559
07:20:47,635 --> 07:20:49,802
and this applies also to art.
4560
07:20:50,468 --> 07:20:53,552
At every moment, there is
something new which they
4561
07:20:53,593 --> 07:20:56,510
write about for half a year
then forget about...
4562
07:20:56,552 --> 07:20:59,843
And the films are also being made
in a hurried fashion.
4563
07:21:00,593 --> 07:21:04,593
They appear in the cinema for two weeks
and then the curtains close on them.
4564
07:21:04,802 --> 07:21:08,093
Unfortunately it's like that...
and that applies
4565
07:21:08,135 --> 07:21:11,343
also to books, to everything,
to visual arts...
4566
07:21:11,427 --> 07:21:15,635
There's always a new wave,
always something new...
4567
07:21:15,677 --> 07:21:18,718
and everything is only short term...