Will the story of “The Divine Czech” follow the example of Mozart’s Viennese genius?
In 1984, Forman’s Amadeus won eight golden statuettes at the film Oscars, two of which also went to us. Will the film about Josef Mysliveček Il Boemo succeed in America this year?
From 1964 to 1992, the then Czechoslovakia broadcast one film almost every year (with a visit in 1970–1972 and 1977) as a candidate for Oscar in the category of best foreign language film. With the exception of 1982 and 1984, they were Czech films. Since then, the Czech Republic has continued this tradition, and this year the Czech Film and Television Academy sent a narrative historical film about an 18th-century Czech composer to the Oscar competition in the Best Foreign Film category. Il Boemo to Josef Mysliveček. The film by director and screenwriter Petr Václav will be released in Czech cinemas on October 20 this year.
Oscar winner short list 15 foreign films will be published December 21 AND nomination will be announced January 24, 2023. Festive festive The 95th Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards is set to March 12, 2023.
And how did the Czech Republic, by extension the Czechoslovak Republic, fare in the past? Undoubtedly, the three golden statuettes for the films belong to the greatest achievements Shop on the corse, Closely watched trains from the 1960s and Kolya from 1996.
Czechoslovak film directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos Shop on the corse, filmed in 1965 based on the novels of the writer Ladislav Grosman, takes place in Slovakia during the Second World War, when ordinary life changed under the rule of Slovak klerofascists and the Arization of Jewish property took place. The main hero of the film, small businessman Tóno Brtko, living in a small town, receives a decree for the business of the old Jewish woman Rozalie Lautmannová. However, her shop is essentially empty, the old lady survives thanks to contributions from the Jewish community, and Tóno, thanks to his good nature, cannot explain why he actually came to the shop…
The film was awarded as the first Czechoslovak film in 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Polish actress Ida Kamińska was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role a year later (the award eventually went to Elizabeth Taylor for her role as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).
The film also received a special honorable mention at the IFF in Cannes, the New York Film Critics Award, Donatello’s David for the best foreign film of 1966, and the Czechoslovak Film Critics Award in the same year. It also received a digitized version; the world premiere took place at the Karlovy Vary festival in the summer of 2017.
Closely watched trains directed by Jiří Menzel in 1966 based on Bohumil Hrabal’s novel of the same name. The story, which takes place during the period of the protectorate, was based on a real model, which was the explosion of a German ammunition train, a time switch set off by a subgroup of the partisan group Podřipsko from Lysá nad Labem on March 2, 1945, near the Stratov railway station. In the novel, Bohumil Hrabal also used his own experiences, when at the end of the war he held the position of dispatcher at the railway station in Kostomlaty nad Labem.
The film was shot at the railway station Loděnice u Beroun on the secondary railway line Prague – Beroun via Rudna u Prahy. The director of the film, Jiří Menzel, also played a small episodic role as a doctor in the film. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the filming of the film, its creators gathered in Loděnica and a commemorative plaque commemorating the filming was unveiled on the set building.
In 1968 the film won the Award of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. With the support of the České bijaky Foundation, the film was digitally restored and shown at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2014.
Czech feature film Kolya filmed by director Jan Svěrák in 1996 based on a script by his father Zdenek Svěrák. The main hero of the film – the old bachelor Louka, played by Zdeněk Svěrák himself – fakes a marriage with the Russian Naděžda for money. After her emigration to West Germany, however, her little son Kolja will remain on his neck. The boy does not speak Czech and at first there is mutual distrust between them. And it is the mutual rapprochement between the aging man and the little boy that forms the main axis of the narrative.
The film was a success at home and abroad. It was seen by 1,346,669 viewers in the Czech Republic, and won six Czech Lions, including the one for best film. He won awards abroad Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It was shown in 40 countries around the world, where it was seen by approximately three million viewers. In 2019, the Czech film critics named the film the best film of the last 30 years, and so far it is the only Czech film that won the award in the revolutionary times of free cinema.
Of course, he can count on other Czech Oscar successes children’s Oscarwhich was won by a Czech child actor in 1948 Ivan Jandl for the role of Karel Malík in the film Annotated. It was a Swiss-American co-production and the famous Czech singer Jarmila Novotná played alongside the Czech boy.
Another Oscar – for the expedition – was awarded in 1984 by a film architect Karel Cerny and after the movie Amadeus, on which he collaborated with his long-time friend, director Miloš Forman. They also made the films Černý Petr, Hoří, má panenko and Ecce homo Homolka together.
Just like Karel Černý, the artist Theodor Pištěk Jr. He won a prestigious statuette in 1984 for the film Amadeus, for which he created the costumes. He also collaborated with Miloš Forman in the film Lid versus Larry Flynt.
We can also mention awards that cannot be considered “purely Czech”, but we can make certain claims about them. These are primarily two films by the director Miloš Forman. His picture One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest earned this Czech filmmaker five Oscars in all major categories (best film, screenplay, direction, actor, actress). Since it was an American production and team film, the US is just appropriating it.
A similar case was i Amadeus about the musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to whom Forman also invited his Czech colleagues, therefore, as already mentioned, two statues out of eight really traveled to the Czech Republic. Again, it was an American production, so we share another Oscar with the United States.
And for the last time, in 2008, Oscar half-traveled to us behind the switchboard the song Falling Slowly to the movie Once in Irish production. It was written by a Czech woman Markéta Irglová together with now ex-partner Glen Hansard.
We will find out in the spring of next year how successful the Czech production with the film about “The Divine Czech” will be in the United States, and whether the collection of golden statues that we can enjoy in the Czech Republic will multiply.
Photo: Profimedia