Best Czech movies
In no chronological order...though first five are my favorite
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- DirectorJuraj HerzStarsRudolf HrusínskýVlasta ChramostováJana StehnováSet in Central Europe during World War II, a demented cremator believes cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world.
- DirectorFrantisek VlácilStarsJosef KemrMagda VásáryováNada HejnaA grim portrayal of the shift from Paganism to Christianity in medieval central Europe - as a young virgin promised to God is kidnapped and raped by a marauder who her religious father seeks to kill in return.
- DirectorVojtech JasnýStarsVlastimil BrodskýRadoslav BrzobohatýVladimír MensíkVarious scenes in the life of a tight-knit community in Czechoslovakia exploring the human spirit in the backdrop of the political changes that they experience.
- DirectorOldrich LipskýStarsKarel FialaRudolf DeylMilos KopeckýStraight shooting Lemonade Joe cleans up Stetson City, in this musical parody of early Westerns, after shooting the pants off villain Old Pistol. Joe's endorsement of Kolaloka lemonade as the refresher that assures deadly aim, convinces the Arizona sin-town to abstain from alcohol. But Trigger Whiskey maker Duke Badman's brother the devious gunslinger Hogofogo, comes to save his sibling's saloon from Joe's allies, father and daughter temperance revivalists, the Goodmans. Based on famous Czech parody novel from the 1940s and its various stage adaptations.
- DirectorJirí KrejcíkStarsFrantisek SmolíkJana BrejchováIvan MistríkThe story of High school in Czechia (then Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia) during occupation by Nazi Germany, where three students are arrested by Gestapo.
- DirectorOldrich LipskýStarsMichal DocolomanskýEvelyna SteimarováVlastimil BrodskýIn 1897, in a castle near the town of Werewolfville in the Carpathians, a slightly deranged Professor Orfanik experiments with his new inventions which include, even at this early date, television and a film camera.
- DirectorOldrich LipskýStarsMichal DocolomanskýRudolf HrusínskýMilos KopeckýWhen the famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy - the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a swamp...
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsVáclav BorovickaJuraj HerzIvan KrausCompilation of some of the early shorts of acclaimed Czech animator Jan Svankmajer.
- DirectorJames MarshJan SvankmajerStarsMonika Belo-CabanováOlga VronskáAleksandr LetkoCompilation of animated and other shorts by Jan Svankmajer, a Czech surrealist filmmaker and artist whose work often inspired filmmakers, including Terry Gilliam and the Brothers Quay.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsKristýna KohoutováCamilla PowerA surrealistic revision of Alice in Wonderland.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsPetr CepekJan KrausVladimír KudlaAn ordinary man is lured into a strange puppet theatre by a map and finds himself embroiled in a production of the Faustian legend.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsPetr MeisselGabriela WilhelmováBarbora HrzánováSix people unknowingly form a cycle of masturbation as they each cause others to privately indulge in their fetishes.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsVeronika ZilkováJan HartlJaroslava KretschmerováA childless couple passes off an anthropomorphous tree stump as their baby, but things get out of hand when the monstrosity comes to life and demands to be fed.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsJan TrískaPavel LiskaAnna GeislerováA man takes up residence with a mysterious marquis and is soon persuaded to enter into an asylum for preventative therapy. Things are not what they seem, and the marquis may be even more sinister than what the young man may've predicted.
- DirectorJan SvankmajerStarsVáclav HelsusKlára IssováZuzana KrónerováThe film uses a mix of cut-out animation from photographs and live-action segments, and tells the story of a married man who lives a double life in his dreams, where he is married to another woman.
- DirectorDusan KleinStarsMilan KnazkoAlicja JachiewiczZlata AdamovskáStory about an anti-alcohol treatment center. A diverse company gathered here - the educated and stoker Lexa, the unsuccessful painter Ament, the history professor Zlámal, the parish priest Dorenda, the waiter Ctvrtecka and the actor Smok. They all struggle with the demon of alcohol, they experience their little joys and sorrows in separation. They hate the despotic head nurse Masák and his "experimental" treatment methods. Only Lexa, a brawler and a fighter for not only his own rights, but also those of others, can stand up to him.
- DirectorOldrich LipskýStarsVladimír MensíkJaroslava ObermaierováJosef AbrhámA dark comedy about a murder and its consequences presented in a backwards manner, where death is actually a rebirth. The film starts with an "execution" of the main protagonist and goes back to explore his previous actions and motivations.
- DirectorIrena PavláskováStarsIvana ChýlkováKarel RodenJitka AsterováDana is young medical student with no self esteem, she can't deal with life, people and even not with herself. After her boyfriend leaves her, she changes to selfish woman, manipulating people and making them to serve her. She plays with her husband, neighbour and friends - for her own good and for fun.
- DirectorFrantisek VlácilStarsPetr CepekJan KacerVera GalatíkováOndrej, a young boy who loves bees and bats, is introduced to his new mother, a woman much younger than his father. He brings her a basketful of flowers which she starts to throw in the air and then gives out a shriek, as she discovers several bats in the bottom of the bowl. In a rage, Ondrej's father picks the boy up and hurls him against the wall. As the boy lays on the ground paralyzed the father promises the Holy Virgin to dedicate the boy to her if she spares his life. Ondrej survives and is raised in a strict Knightly Order, where he is mentored by a devout monk, Armin. But one day, an extraordinary event makes him doubt the Order and remember where he came from.
- DirectorJaromil JiresStarsMartin DejdarJana HlavácováMilos KopeckýA story about love, dancing and survival, set in the late 40s. Jan Mayer, a young dance-master, arrives in a sanatorium for lung diseases with a serious diagnosis - tuberculosis. But he does not give in to his illness and starts fighting it actively with his optimism and his dancing. Gradually he wins over other patients, who had been accepting their fate passively under strict institutional discipline. But his sickness soon breaks out in full its force.
- DirectorJirí MenzelStarsRudolf HrusínskýJaromír HanzlíkJosef SomrThis movie is based on texts of Bohumil Hrabal, world-known Czech prosaic. It's a story (in a form of a mosaic of short episodes and pictures) about the sadness and happiness of inhabitants of Kersko (Kersko is a small woody area full of cottages and roods). These people are both simple and sensitive, they have their own pleasures (e.g. Leli is a collector of cheap, but inutile things) and the greatest delight of all of them is a hunting. Crude poetics of amateur hunting is screened by dreamy pictures of this area. Menzel mixes sentimental lyricism and rough (but not vulgar!) humor and the outcome is the never-ending landscape of continuous life in the proximate nearness of nature. The performances of actors are brilliant. Both Rudolf Hrusinsky as a Franz and Jaromír Hanzlik as a Leli have nonrecurring charm bottomed on a pain and inebriation. Only the music is not perfect: Jiri Sust usually assembled his film music from his older works and in this movie there is many quotations.
- DirectorJirí MenzelStarsRudolf HrusínskýVlastimil BrodskýVáclav NeckárSet in the late 1940s, the film concerns the treatment of suspect "bourgeois elements", a professor, a saxophonist, and a milkman, who are put to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation.
- DirectorJirí MenzelStarsMagda VásáryováJirí SchmitzerJaromír HanzlíkAn evocation of the childhood memories of Bohumil Hrabal in his provincial town of Nymburk, dominated by the local brewery.
- DirectorJán KadárElmar KlosStarsIda KaminskaJozef KronerFrantisek ZvaríkA carpenter in the Fascist Slovak State is appointed "Aryan controller" of a Jewish widow's store.
- DirectorVera ChytilováStarsBolek PolívkaChantal PoullainJirí KodetOriginally a theater play starring Bolek Polivka (Czech) and his wife Chantal Poullain-Polivkova (French), the movie is a satirical look at foreign occupation - a medieval Czech jester entertains a German king and his French wife, or a modern Czech villager helps a Bavarian hunter and his French wife find wild boar in Bohemia - the story switches back and forth between the two plots and time-periods. Listen as the jester corrects the queen's Czech, proclaiming "Neumí Çe-e-e-sky": she can't speak Czech. Polívka uses traditional pantomime techniques as part of the jester's repertoire.