With his monumental ‘film fresco’ Ferenc Kósa erected a monument to the peasant revolt led by György Dózsa (16th century). Although under the Marxist interpretation of history of the period the revolt was frequently simplified down to an early example of ‘class struggle’, in the screenplay of Ferenc Kósa and Sándor Csoóri the depiction of historical events bears the universally valid formulation of questions about revolution and violence, while the figure of Dózsa – thanks also to the characterization of Ferenc Bessenyei – takes on a more lifelike and human aspect.
Tag: CZECHOSLOVAKIA
The Copper Tower is a story of adventure and romance evolving around three male fiends and a woman, set against the background of the magnificent High Tatras mountains in Northern Slovakia . The three friends work at a mountain hostel during the summer season. Their careless and sometimes rough bachelor life changes with the arrival of a pretty, young student. Clearcut relations become entangled and lead up to a tragic ending.
This film is a playful depiction of the festivities around the performance If All Trains of the World by Alex Mlynárčik on June 12, 1971. Still photography, live action, interviews, old etchings and archive footage of old train journeys are skilfully blended to create a sympathetic and humorous portrait of the romance of an old steam train and the joy of artists and the general public in participating in this children’s game for adults. Once again, the avant-garde is imaginatively used to eulogise over traditional values and the past. Deň radosti is important not just for the considerable pleasure it brings; it is the first of a series of films in which artists use film to document happenings.
A leading director of the Czech film renaissance provides a philosophical meditation on life and death, set amidst complex hospital apparatus and the sadness, hope, or resignation of the patients. Existentialist rather than optimist, the approach is one of humanistic atheism, accepting death as part of life. Interviews with doctors and nurses explore their outlook; all speak of death as a fact, without either sentimentality or religiosity. The studied objectivity of the film only imperfectly hides an intense emotionality.
Robert is delighted when his father returns from Africa with a baby chimpanzee which he names Tereza. When Tereza is kidnapped, Robert, his brother and friends, search the city and foil the kidnappers.
——UPGRADED——
Jakub, a dreamer and budding magician, juggles between parcels and services rendered to the villagers. His eyes cross that of the beautiful gypsy Jolanka. Together, they will try to live a first and big love, despite the pressure of their respective communities.
A view of man’s perpetual struggle for self-destruction, in which we glimpse a world where rockets are part of everyone’s lives. In the end the red button is accidentally pressed by a careless caretaker, expressing the fear in all our minds.