Otakar Vavra was the great survivor of Czech cinema. Not only did he live to be 100, but in a career which ran from the 1930s to the Velvet Revolution, and which was mostly spent under dictatorship (Nazi then Communist) he managed to keep working, averaging almost a film a year. This has been held against him, and he's been accused of being a mediocrity and a conformist, careful not to offend those in power. "Witchhammer" is a really powerful film which shows that not only was he a fine director, but he was willing, at least with this film, to criticise the Party to which he belonged. I suspect it was conceived during the Prague Spring, but it wasn't released until 1970, long after the Soviet tanks rolled in.
It's hardly surprising this film was soon suppressed and didn't re-emerge until 1989, the year Communism fell and Vavra's career ended (well, he was 79.) The parallels between the treatment of witches in the 17th century and the show trials staged by Stalin in the USSR and then by the Czech Communists under Gottwald in the early 1950s were clear. Ridiculous confessions made by victims who couldn't stand the torture any more (with devout Communists admitting to being agents of the West and devout Catholics admitting to being servants of Satan), the climate of fear, the escalating madness: it's all there. Starting with an old hag who's stolen a communion wafer, the greedy and power-hungry witchfinder Bobling tortures and burns his way through many others. People with property were particular targets, as he could seize their property. I rather hoped he'd go for the countess who'd started the process, as she was almost certainly the richest local citizen.
Everything about this film is first-rate: the actors (none of whom I'd seen before), the black and white photography, the sense of period. I've seen three of Vavra's early films: "Virginity" (1937) and two made during WW2, "Girl in Blue" and "Turbine." They're all well worth seeing but it probably didn't help Vavra's reputation that all three starred Lida Baarova, who was Goebbels' mistress. Nor did the fact that he signed a declaration supporting the Soviet invasion. Still, what really matters about any artist is their work, and apart from being a top director and scriptwriter for decades Vavra also taught for years at FAMU, Prague's film school, and taught many who went on to create the Czech New Wave, including Forman, Menzel, Passer, Nemec and Chytilova.
Two recommendations: Costa-Gavras' "L'Aveu" with Yves Montand deals with the Czech show trials, and I'm surprised that while other reviewers have mentioned films which deal with witchcraft, such as "Witchfinder General' and "The Devils" no-one has mentioned Carl Dreyer's "Day of Wrath", which is better than either of them.
It's hardly surprising this film was soon suppressed and didn't re-emerge until 1989, the year Communism fell and Vavra's career ended (well, he was 79.) The parallels between the treatment of witches in the 17th century and the show trials staged by Stalin in the USSR and then by the Czech Communists under Gottwald in the early 1950s were clear. Ridiculous confessions made by victims who couldn't stand the torture any more (with devout Communists admitting to being agents of the West and devout Catholics admitting to being servants of Satan), the climate of fear, the escalating madness: it's all there. Starting with an old hag who's stolen a communion wafer, the greedy and power-hungry witchfinder Bobling tortures and burns his way through many others. People with property were particular targets, as he could seize their property. I rather hoped he'd go for the countess who'd started the process, as she was almost certainly the richest local citizen.
Everything about this film is first-rate: the actors (none of whom I'd seen before), the black and white photography, the sense of period. I've seen three of Vavra's early films: "Virginity" (1937) and two made during WW2, "Girl in Blue" and "Turbine." They're all well worth seeing but it probably didn't help Vavra's reputation that all three starred Lida Baarova, who was Goebbels' mistress. Nor did the fact that he signed a declaration supporting the Soviet invasion. Still, what really matters about any artist is their work, and apart from being a top director and scriptwriter for decades Vavra also taught for years at FAMU, Prague's film school, and taught many who went on to create the Czech New Wave, including Forman, Menzel, Passer, Nemec and Chytilova.
Two recommendations: Costa-Gavras' "L'Aveu" with Yves Montand deals with the Czech show trials, and I'm surprised that while other reviewers have mentioned films which deal with witchcraft, such as "Witchfinder General' and "The Devils" no-one has mentioned Carl Dreyer's "Day of Wrath", which is better than either of them.