Released on Blu-ray this week by the exemplary Second Run label, The Party and the Guests is a 1966 Czechoslovakian film from Jan Němec that holds the distinction of being one of a handful of films to be ‘banned forever’ in its native land by communist authorities who, in the […]
Czech New Wave
…And the Fifth Horseman is Fear (1964) A brutal portrait of fear under an occupying regime (Review)
Fear pries at the beautifully illustrated characters within this Zbyněk Brynych feature. …And the Fifth Horseman is Fear contemplates the agony and unilateral terror present in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. There is no respite for the glum halls, the dark and brooding cinematography makes sure of that. This 1960s Brynych piece contemplates the impact […]
Beauty and the Beast (1978) A Grim Fairytale (Review)
The film opens in a mist-shrouded, decaying forest. A band of grimy-looking travellers on horseback, pulling covered wagons are traversing this ominous terrain, accompanied only by the forbidding sounds of the wild. One in their number, a female, anxiously announces that danger will befall them if they continue – but […]
Before Tonight is Over (1965) “Someone Will Die” (Review)
Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea(1977) A fantastic, vicious attack on the modern age of serious science fiction (Review)
Opening with a blend of orchestral beauty and vague pangs of Kool & The Gang, Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea, from director Jindřich Polák, shows off its frivolous, light-hearted antics immediately. Pairing this high quality, era-defining funk with reversed and repetitive footage of soulless vermin Adolf Hitler, the […]
Morgiana – Cinema Eclectica Podcast 276
Our last Director’s Lottery* sees us tackle one of Graham’s beloved Czechoslovak New Wave directors – Juraj Herz, the thrilling maniac behind The Cremator. We chose his 1972 Gothic fantasy Morgiana, which is less viciously political than his best-known film but equally mad, and equally replete with fish-eye lenses. In […]
Tenderness: The Past is a Foreign Country in Martin Šulík’s (1991) Debut (Review)
Released in 1991, Tenderness (or Neha as it is known in its native Slovak) is director Martin Šulík’s debut full-length feature, one which proved to be a groundbreaking production for post-Communist Slovakia. The film tells the story of Simon, a solitary young student played by Géza Benkõ, and commences with […]
Czechmate – In Search of Jiri Menzel (2018) a love letter to Czech New Wave (Review)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders – A brain teasing Euro oddity (Review)
A Blonde in Love: atypically typical Czech brilliance (Review)
While watching Second Run’s latest, A Blonde in Love, the thought entered my head. The internet is littered with clickbait articles such as the best films ever made, “the best films you’ve never seen” and “the best directors ever”. It would be something if these lists furthered people’s understanding of […]