KOLYA /Kolja (1996)

Thursday / 8th June 2006 / 20:00

Czech Republic, Great Britain, France / 1996 / 108 minutes / director: Jan Sverak / screenplay: Zdenek Sverak / cinematography: Vladimir Smutny / editing: Alois Fisarek / music: Ondrej Soukup / cast: Zdenek Sverak (Frantisek Louka), Andrej Chalimon (Kolya), Libuse Safrankova (Klara), Ondrej Vetchy (Broz), Nela Boudova (Brozova) /

It is always problematic to say about a film that it is nice. Nice films have difficult position. They are often accused of emotional blackmail and of overdoing scenes. Kolya proves that even nice films can work with melodramatic stereotypes and clichés without being embarrassing.

Kolya could be seen as a Dickensian story on a boy whose mother had to leave him in a foreign country with a strange man and who tries to find her at any costs. However, it isn´t only about a boy and surely it isn´t about finding someone´s mother. Throughout his long and successful career Zdenek Sverak has developed a unique sense for credible stories and characters. His screenplays are usually bitter comedies and Kolya is just another perfect example - no matter how witty it is, it doesn´t hide sentimental atmosphere and the unpleasant aspect of the times in which the story is set (some scenes can make Czechs cry rather than anything else, especially the one where Louka is interrogated by the police). Although there was a danger that the screenplay could end in making fun of cultural differences between the Soviets and Czechoslovaks and the inability of mutual understanding, both Sveraks were awared of this and decided to avoid the easy way.

Kolya is a deserved success of a work of the father and son duo. Jan Sverak proved that with Elementary School he wasn´t just lucky. Kolya definitely deserved its Oscar. Not only for its sentimental story, but for its sophisticated play with melodramatic stereotypes.

Štefan Titka

The Elementary School / Obecná škola (1991)

Thursday / 25th May 2006 / 20:00

Czech Republic / 1991 / 90 minutes / director: Jan Sverak / screenplay: Zdenek Sverak / cinematography: Frantisek A. Brabec / editor: Alois Fisarek / music: Jiri Svoboda / cast: Jan Triska (Igor Hnizdo), Zdenek Sverak (Soucek), Libuse Safrankova (Souckova), Rudolf Hrusinsky (principal), Vaclav Jakoubek (Eda) /

In the year 1991 director Jan Sverak hit the „big screen“ with this easy-going film which, although described as a children´s movie, is rather targeted at their parents. It was his feature debut and the truth is he was never supposed to make it. The screenplay of his father was originally written for another well-known Czech filmmaker – Vit Olmer. However, Olmer was busy at the time and the script passed to Zdenek Sverak´s son Jan.

Young Eda and his friend Tonda are members of a notorious boy class feared by every teacher. The only thing that concerns their minds is the colour of their teacher´s panties. That´s why after their constant resistance and refusal to listen, she goes mad and has to be replaced. The new teacher is a man of strict morals and teaching methods. His name is Igor Hnizdo, he is always dressed in army clothes and has plenty of war stories to tell, sounding too heroic to be true. The only thing he likes more than his cane are women. This man becomes the children´s hero.

Jan Sverak´s first film was a huge success of the year 1991. He showed his abilities and revealed a promising potential in the young generation of Czech filmmakers. It is always important to have a good screenplay to start with and Jan Sverak could not complain about that. His father offered him a script which was easy to follow and Jan Sverak understood it very well. He kept the poetics of it to the smallest details. The Elementary School is a funny film with plenty of remarkable scenes, dialogues and good acting, at the same time it manages to touch upon the darker side of the „good times“ – times of victory, but also the eve of the Communist coup in 1948.

Štefan Titka

CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS/Ostře sledované vlaky (1966)

Thursday / 11th May 2006 / 20:00

Czechoslovakia / 1966 / 89 minutes / director: Jiri Menzel / screenplay: Bohumil Hrabal, Jiri Menzel / cinematography: Jaromir Sofr / editing: Jirina Lukesova / music: Jiri Sust / cast: Vaclav Neckar (Milos Hrma), Jitka Bendova (Masa), Vladimir Valenta (station head), Libuse Havelkova (his wife), Josef Somr (train dispatcher Hubicka) /

Closely Observed Trains is a study of a specific microcosm, a remote railway station where two battles take place at the same time – that of growing up into manhood (the erotic experience of Milos Hrma) and of national liberation (the national resistance motif).

Menzel and his cameraman Jaromir Sofr visualized the story as a process of double initiation of the young Hrma. Small but precisely chosen details reveal the lives of several characters working in the station. The gently erotic atmosphere is framed by sexual adventures of the experienced dispatcher Hubicka, who becomes Milos´s teacher in professional as well as personal matters. The local sleepy order, represented by the ambitious pidgeon lover and station head, contrasts with the absurd war clamour (the Nazi councellor Zednicek).

Closely Observed Trains are not only an impressionistic study of an initiation process, but a celebration of the medium of film itself. Narrative sequences intertwine with sophisticated editing details from the sleepy station. Menzel also uses the station machinery as a metaphor of the awakening of young desire and passion. The tragedy of a personal failure and a suicide attempt is set in the realistic and sensitive depiction of life in a small Czech town.

Pavel Bednařík