The Wonderful Years That Sucked

The Wonderful Years That Sucked 1997

6.00

Capturing the dark humor of Czech author Michal Viewegh's chronicle of life after the Velvet Revolution, this black comedy chronicles three decades in the life of a small Czech family. While the original novel centered on the protagonist Kvido from his conception through his adulthood, first time director Petr Nikolaev and screenwriter Jan Novak changed the focus to his parents Milena, an extremely self-effacing lawyer who acts on stage in her spare time, and Ales, a rather aimless government worker who tends to drift wherever the wind takes him. The lives of Ales and Milena change dramatically following the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968.

1997

Nexus 2.431

Nexus 2.431 1994

2.80

This international co-production, shot at Barrandov Studios with international cast including Czech actors is an attempt to create a sci-fi fantasy in the tradition of Star Wars and Star Trek. Sometime in the distant future, several earthlings turn up on a strange planet ruled over by a despotic ruler with magic powers. A young earth-man initiates a successful uprising.

1994

Ještě větší blbec, než jsme doufali

Ještě větší blbec, než jsme doufali 1994

3.80

Vít Dolejší, popularly known as Vitoušek, monitors the groundwater in the underground of the National Theatre, and when he gets fired because the theatre will go to the nuns, he has no choice but to inherit the Richmond Hotel in Karlovy Vary from his American grandfather and the five million dollars tied up in its rapid reconstruction. At that moment, however, he finds himself caught in the web of intrigues of a wealthy ex-broker called Boss, the hotel manager and former Aesthete Křiváček, and the cunning lawyer Wagner. However, not only big money is at stake, but also the charm of the notorious gambler Alice, with whom Vitoušek falls in love and then shows everyone that he is not such a fool as everyone thought.

1994

Tell Me Something About Yourself - Martin

Tell Me Something About Yourself - Martin 1994

1

"The whole film talks about the time when I was first locked up, from sixteen till now, I’m 22 now, and during that whole time I was out maybe five months, and I’ve really had it by now. It’s also about why I’d given my life to Jesus Christ and then failed that Jesus in me because I was tempted by earthly pleasures; and it’s also about how every time I’m ready to start a new life, I get locked up again because it’s always too late. It’s just too late. That’s the greatest shame and that’s what it’s about..."

1994

Helimadoe

Helimadoe 1993

7.00

A lyrical story from the beginning of 20th century, with the atmosphere of a small-town environment, distinctive characters, and a subtle analysis of human nature. It takes place in a small town in southern Bohemia, where a perceptive adolescent boy experiences his first emotional enchantment and a deep crisis. Helimadoe are also the initial letters of the names of the five distinctive daughters of Hanzelín, a rough country doctor who not only treats a seriously ill boy, but also helps him overcome his painful emotional turmoil with his wisdom.

1993

Children Without Love

Children Without Love 1963

1

In 1963 a documentary film, Children Without Love [Dětí bez lásky], was smuggled out of Communist Czechoslovakia to the Venice Biennale film festival – and was screened in cinemas at home, surreptitiously tagged onto the end of a Miloš Forman film. It showed emotionally distressed young children looked after for long hours in state crèches, many from the first weeks of infancy. A collaboration between filmmaker Kurt Goldberger, child psychiatrists, a crèche headmistress and a reformist journalist, the film eventually led to a change in the law, with the Communist Party committing to extend paid maternity leave for women, reversing the state’s ideological prioritising of collective child-rearing and full female employment.

1963

Byl jednou jeden polda II – major Maisner opět zasahuje!

Byl jednou jeden polda II – major Maisner opět zasahuje! 1997

3.90

It all begins at Prague Airport, where American agents have brought Major Maisner, who has been expelled from the United States, in handcuffs. He returns to his place of work, the Central Police Academy, despite having been demoted to lieutenant for his "performance" and his position as academy commander having been taken over by the newly promoted Captain Hrubec. Maisner meets his former students, who now teach at the school. They all welcome him enthusiastically and receive gifts from him. While psychologist Kudláková, who is attracted to commanding types, has lost interest in the demoted Maisner and is now passionately in love with Hrubec, Boženka Vinklářová, who has broken up with the gypsy Štefan and now teaches dactyloscopy at the school, focuses her attention on him. Maisner recounts how he jumped off a skyscraper in America to defend himself against Simona Ptáčková's advances.

1997

Rychlé pohyby očí

Rychlé pohyby očí 1998

1

A film about fatal love, bad dreams, normal madness and unnecessary death.

1998

Stone Bridge

Stone Bridge 1996

4.00

A bitter comedic-drama centering around Tomas, a former promising young director who must cope with a commerce driven world he no longer wants to participate in.

1996

Traps

Traps 1998

4.90

After two troubled but powerful men rape a young hitchhiker who happens to be a vet, she drugs them and removes their testicles.

1998

Teeny-Tiny and the Witch Woman

Teeny-Tiny and the Witch Woman 1980

6.30

A deliciously scary story about a boy who outsmarts an old witch-woman before she can have him and his brothers for dinner.

1980

Fimfarum 2

Fimfarum 2 2006

7.40

The sequel to the successful film Fimfárum by Jan Werich. Four brand new stories “for clever children and clever adults” from the popular book written by Jan Werich. Břetislav Pojar introduces the story of little Tom Thumb full of twists and adventure. Aurel Klimt brings to life three brothers, The Hunchbacks of Damascus, re-creating the atmosphere of the Middle East and variety of the oriental storytelling. Vlasta Pospíšilová’s Three Sisters and One Ring shows a rural Decameron-like manual on how to enchant one’s loved ones with a mere ring and Jan Balej lets his characters Marek and Kouba re-live an ancient fairy-tale about greed, devils and natural phenomena in his The Sea, Uncle, Why is it Salty?

2006

On Grandma

On Grandma 2000

1

Many important things can happen in ninety-three years of human history. As in the seemingly ordinary story of Grandma Marta, one of our most successful contemporary short film authors combines archival materials, animation, and documentary.

2000

Akáty bílé

Akáty bílé 1997

1

Two itinerant performers in a timeless, unnamed land rescue an abandoned infant. As they care for the child, they clash with the realm’s all-powerful, primitive militia. This tragicomedy follows their bond, the absurdity of authority, and the longing for belonging against a surreal, beastly backdrop.

1997

Prague Stories

Prague Stories 1999

5.00

A four-story omnibus depicting different Czech slices-of-life from the titular city.

1999

The Chamber Stork

The Chamber Stork 1994

7.00

The second part of the Kafka trilogy. In the evening, the fluffy bookmaker arrives at his home, in the elevator engine room, and finds an immense, humming egg on his table.

1994

Bohemia Docta or the Labyrinth of the World and the Lust-House of the Heart (A Divine Comedy)

Bohemia Docta or the Labyrinth of the World and the Lust-House of the Heart (A Divine Comedy) 2000

1

A labyrinthine portrait of Czech culture on the brink of a new millennium. Egon Bondy prophesies a capitalist inferno, Jim Čert admits to collaborating with the secret police, Jaroslav Foglar can’t find a bottle-opener, and Ivan Diviš makes observations about his own funeral. This is the Czech Republic in the late 90s, as detailed in Karel Vachek’s documentary.

2000

Shakespeare 2000

Shakespeare 2000 1988

3.00

A satiric film travesty of Shakespeare's dramas set in the year 2000. The protagonists are to convince the audience that human passions such as love, hatred, jealousy, etc. remain unchanged even 500 years later (paralleling the up-to-date quality of Shakespeare's dramas).

1988

Fany

Fany 1995

7.20

Oligophrenic Fany (Bohdalová) lives with her aunt who suddenly manages to travel abroad. Fany has to move to her sister (Jirásková). Two very different women, one mentally disabled and the second one intelligent doctor has to live together and learn from each other about tolerance, loneliness, life and why call dogs "Mister".

1995

Thanks for Every New Morning

Thanks for Every New Morning 1994

8.00

This film is about life of a family, which lived in Prague since since 1968 to 1980. Father of the family comes from Ukraine and so every year someone from Ukraine to visit this family and to buy something more better than is in Ukraine. As the times go by, the friens of family live in Austria. And now for change the family visit "a better life" in west Europe and they found out how it is to be something second-rate.

1994