88% (2) Closely Watched Trains 92 min, Not Rated, [Comedy, Drama, Romance, War] [Jirí Menzel] [18 Nov 1966]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 6 nominations.
Actors: Josef Somr, Vladimír Valenta, Vlastimil Brodský, Václav Neckár
Writer: Bohumil Hrabal (novel), Bohumil Hrabal (screenplay), Jirí Menzel (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Czech, German Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: A young man follows his father's footsteps and joins the railway company, where he learns the job and has his first affair. Set in the country, during the German occupation.
Rotten Tomatoes: In this film, Vaclav Neckar plays a Czech railroad worker during the Nazi occupation. He undergoes several philosophical changes as he becomes attracted to the Czech underground. Determining at last that his own existence hardly matters in the scheme of things, Neckar volunteers for a suicide mission.
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77% (1) All My Compatriots 120 min, [Comedy, Drama] [Vojtech Jasný] [04 Apr 1985]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Radoslav Brzobohatý, Vladimír Mensík, Vlastimil Brodský, Waldemar Matuska
Writer: Vojtech Jasný
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Czech Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: Stories about seven friends in a small Moravian village following the socialization of Czechoslovakia in 1948, developing gradually into the story of Frantiek, the resister. The film offers some direct political criticism, particularly of the process of collectivizing agriculture. After the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, it was promptly banned.
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76% (1) Larks on a String 94 min, [Comedy, Drama, Romance] [Jirí Menzel] [01 Feb 1990]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 76%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 wins.
Actors: Jitka Zelenohorská, Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlastimil Brodský, Václav Neckár
Writer: Bohumil Hrabal (novel), Jirí Menzel
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Czech Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: Prague in the early 1950's. Bourgeois elements are being re-educated by working in a scrapyard full of the detritus of industrial society. The volunteer workers comprise a professor of literature, a public prosecutor, a dairyman, a saxophonist, a barber, and a young cook. Also working in the yard are a number of female prisoners serving a year for trying to defect... A camera crew arrives with potted plants and other props. An idyllic scene is created; the prisoners star briefly in a pro-North Korean newsreel before going back to work... The volunteers are striking because the scrapyard work quotas have risen without consultation. A union rep arrives to persuade them otherwise... The guard for the female prisoners gets married but the gypsy musicians make a mess at his reception. The cook flirts with one of the pretty prisoners and finally proposes...
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76% (1) The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians 97 min, [Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi] [Oldrich Lipský] [01 Oct 1983]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 76%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 1 nomination.
Actors: Evelyna Steimarová, Michal Docolomanský, Milos Kopecký, Vlastimil Brodský
Writer: Oldrich Lipský (screenplay), Jirí Brdecka, Jules Verne (novel)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Czech Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: In the 1800s, a baron, who is the owner of a castle known as The Devil's Castle and who is also an obsessed opera fan, keeps the body of his favorite diva preserved in a crypt in the castle. In order to keep away potentially nosy visitors, the baron's mad-scientist assistant, invents all sorts of spooky phenomena in order to give the castle a creepy reputation.
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73% (1) Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea 93 min, [Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi, War] [Jindrich Polák] [01 Aug 1977]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, External Reviews
Actors: Jirí Sovák, Petr Kostka, Vladimír Mensík, Vlastimil Brodský
Writer: Josef Nesvadba (story), Milos Macourek (screenplay), Jindrich Polák (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Czech Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: Former Nazi Klaus Abard survives to the 1990s by taking anti-aging pills. He plans to use a time travel trip to return to Germany in 1944 and present Hitler with a hydrogen bomb, so that he can win the war. Unfortunately the pilot, woman-chasing Karel Bures, dies on the morning of the trip and his earnest twin brother Jan impersonates him, without knowing about the plot. The plot goes wrong when they lose the bomb and land near Hitler's bunker in 1941, at a time that the Nazis sense victory. Bures, with two of the plotters, escape capture by the Nazis and make it back to the time machine. Bures programs the machine to return one day before they left, because he figures he can then save his brother and foil the plot.
Rotten Tomatoes: Former Nazi Klaus Abard survives to the 1990s by taking anti-aging pills. He plans to use a time travel trip to return to Germany in 1944 and present Hitler with a hydrogen bomb, so that he can win the war. Unfortunately the pilot, woman-chasing Karel Bures, dies on the morning of the trip and his earnest twin brother Jan impersonates him, without knowing about the plot. The plot goes wrong when they lose the bomb and land near Hitler's bunker in 1941, at a time that the Nazis sense victory. Bures, with two of the plotters, escape capture by the Nazis and make it back to the time machine. Bures programs the machine to return one day before they left, because he figures he can then save his brother and foil the plot.
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72% (1) The End of a Priest 98 min, [Comedy] [Evald Schorm] [10 Jan 1969]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Jan Libícek, Jana Brejchová, Vlastimil Brodský, Zdena Skvorecka
Writer: Evald Schorm, Josef Skvorecký
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Czech Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: A verger, who likes to dress as a priest, is invited, by one of the villagers, to be the pastor at a vacant church. The atheist teacher resents the pastor, and tries to embarrass him in various ways, including being caught with the local girl, Majka.
Rotten Tomatoes: A verger, who likes to dress as a priest, is invited, by one of the villagers, to be the pastor at a vacant church. The atheist teacher resents the pastor, and tries to embarrass him in various ways, including being caught with the local girl, Majka.
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72% (1) Capricious Summer 74 min, Unrated, [Comedy] [Jirí Menzel] [24 Sep 1968]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 72%, External Reviews
Awards: 2 wins.
Actors: Frantisek Rehák, Míla Myslíková, Rudolf Hrusínský, Vlastimil Brodský
Writer: Vladimír Kalina (dramatisation), Jan Libora (dramatisation), Jirí Menzel, Václav Nývlt, Vladislav Vancura (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia IMDb Language: Czech Country: Czechoslovakia
Plot: Middle-aged Antonin and his friends, the major, now retired, and the canon, are in the river, swimming and philosophizing. Then it starts to rain. It just seems to be that sort of summer. Antonin runs the swimming bath with his portly wife Katherine... A man appears with his horse-drawn caravan. He lays a striped pole across the river and walks over. With a handstand and a magic trick, Ernie the Conjuror invites everyone to that evening's performance... Ernie is a tightrope walker of only modest skill, but with a slim and beautiful assistant, Anna. Antonin speaks to her. The two spend the night in the change room by the river, Antonin massaging her feet all night long. Katherine decides to move into the caravan with Ernie. But now the major and even the canon sense Anna's attractiveness...
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