Get the latest gossip
Essential Czech Movies From the New Wave and Beyond
Czech cinema is often politically challenging — and (very) darkly funny.
The Czech or Czechoslovak New Wave was a period in the 1960s during which a group of filmmakers made movies that were at once humorous and humanistic, artistically engaging and politically challenging, pushing back against the way things were in their socialist Eastern Bloc country. Further viewing: The Firemen’s Ball is not the only film in which Forman used professional and amateur actors: The woman who plays the part of the mother in Loves of a Blonde, his excellent 1965 movie, was someone he met on a streetcar. Jiří Menzel is my favorite Czech New Wave director, and while it was 1966’s Closely Watched Trains that won him the Oscar, it’s Larks on a String that I think represents what makes his work so special.
Or read this on VULTURE
