The utterly unique career of Věra Chytilová, and the story of Czech cinema in general, finds itself at a crossroads with 1970’s Fruit of Paradise, now released on DVD by Second Run Films. It feels like the product of a golden age; as noted in Peter Hames’s hugely informative booklet, […]
Second Run DVD
Pictures of the Old World (1972) Sorrowful, Funny and Bawdy portrait of a people (Review)
When Czechoslovakia divided into two nations in 1993, cinema fans could be forgiven for thinking the new Czech Republic had hoarded the family silver. So many of the former nation’s finest directors – Věra Chytilová, Miloš Forman, Jiří Menzel, Jan Švankmajer – were Czech, so there’s a thrill of discovery […]
Kinetta (2005) Yorgos Lanthimos before he started weirding the world out (Review)
The Promised Land (1974): Fierce Polish Classic about as Anti-Capitalist as they come (Review)
Sofia’s Last Ambulance (2012): the perfect antidote to evening TV (Review)
A Jester’s Tale (1964) Karel Zeman’s Astonishing Anti-Historical War Epic (Review)
Everybody invested to a certain degree in cinema has their favourite actors and directors; the fascinating part of which is discovering who influenced them. This is doubly true when you discover the people who influenced such a staunch surrealist and outsider, Terry Gilliam, the very same influence that can also […]