Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Fuckoffguysgoodday (1992)

fuck_off_guysSunday November 13th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Fuckoffguysgoodday (1992).
(Dědictví aneb Kurvahošigutntág). Directed by Věra Chytilová, 120 minutes, In Czech with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

After the so-called velvet revolution, when Czechoslovakia made a transition from Communism to American-style capitalism, many of the rebellious filmmakers who had caused a stir under the old regime became softies and lost all of their critical edge. But two directors didn’t… Věra Chytilová (Daisies) and the animator Jan Švankmajer.

This was Věra Chytilová’s first film after the revolution and its a sharp critique of the blossoming of consumer capitalism. In this film the wild actor Bolek Polívka portrays a young Moravian villager who suddenly becomes a millionaire overnight from a mysterious inheritance. He’s brilliant in the role. In this black comedy we watch as he is transformed from a lazy countryside simpleton into an outright asshole because of his newly acquired wealth and power.

Fuckoffguysgoodday was received with a storm and has remained one of the most popular Czech comedies of all time. It was able to dig deep down and touch the poetic Czech soul, and many people still recite lines from it 20 years later. A fantastic dark comedy, with a biting message that is more important today than ever. It has basically never been shown in the west, so this is yet another extraordinarily rare screening!

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Panel Story (1980)

Sunday April 13th 2014, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Panel Story (Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliste). Directed by Věra Chytilová, 1980, 96 minutes, in Czech with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

The bold films of Czechoslovakian director Věra Chytilová (Dasies) are still totally deleted from film history at this moment. Women are generally marginalized, if not downright ignored, from the official film history books. Like the female directors Lina Wertmüller, Liliana Cavani and Agnes Varda, Chytilová’s career shows an incredible wealth- her films are visionary and uncompromising. This one is a black comedy that was banned for many years. […Lees verder]

Movie night: All My Compatriots (1969)

Sunday December 29th 2013, Movie night,  All My Compatriots directed by Vojtěch Jasný, 1968, Czechoslovakia, 114 minutes, with English subtitles. Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00

Director: Vojtěch Jasný. Starring: Radoslav Brzobohatý, Věra Galatíková, Vlastimil Brodský, Eva Blažková, Waldemar Matuška, Marie Málková, Vladimír Menšík. Language: Czech with English subtitles. Duration: 114 min.

All My Good Countrymen, also known as All My Compatriots, is a film written and directed by Czech filmmaker Vojtech Jasný (who at 87, was recently honored with the President’s Award at the 2013 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival). The film premiered in competition at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival where it received the award for Best Director, and a Special Mention from the Luchino Visconti led jury. […Lees verder]

Movie night: The Firemen’s Ball (1967)

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Sunday August 25th, Movie night: The Firemen’s Ball (Miloš Forman, 1967, 71 minutes, In Czech with English subtitles). Original title: Horí, má panenko. Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00.

The film follows a pattern common enough in Eastern Europe, where small human stories seem to be a slice of life, but might actually be subtle parables about the restrictive Soviet system. Screenplays had to be approved by censors, but many a change took place between approval and premiere, and in the case of “The Firemen’s Ball” that was almost fatal. The movie was co-financed by the Italian producer Carlo Ponti, but after Czech authorities withdrew their approval, Ponti pulled out, and only the intervention of French director Francois Truffaut saved the film and found it international distribution. […Lees verder]

Movie night: Daisies (1966)

Sunday June 2th 2013, Movie night: Daisies (Věra Chytilová, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 74 min.) Czech with English subtitles. Door open at 8pm, film begin at 9pm.

Daisies (Czech: Sedmikrásky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film written and directed by Věra Chytilová considered a milestone of the Nová Vlna movement. Made with the support of the state-sponsored film studio, it follows two teenage girls, both named Marie, played by Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová, who engage in strange pranks.

Innovatively filmed, and released two years before the Prague Spring, the film was labeled as “depicting the wanton” by the Czech authorities and banned. Director Chytilová was forbidden to work in her homeland until 1975. The film received the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association. […Lees verder]

Movie night: Closely Watched Trains (1966)

Sunday May 12th 2013, Movie night: Closely Watched Trains (“Ostre sledované vlaky”, Jiří Menzel, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 93 min.), in Czech with English subtitles. Door open at 20pm, film begins at 21:00.

An apprentice train dispatcher at a village station seeks his first sexual encounter and becomes despondent when he is unable to perform. In the same time he success in antifascist resistance. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Closely Watched Trains “as expert and moving in its way as was Jan Kadar’s and Elmar Klos’s The Shop on Main Street or Milos Forman’s Loves of a Blonde”, two other recent films from Czechoslovakia. […Lees verder]

Czech film night with Pavel Juráček and Jan Němec

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Sunday April 14th 2013, Czech film night with a double bill, Joseph Kilian (“Postava k podpírání” original tile, from Pavel Juráček, 1965, 38 min.) and A Report on the Party and the Guests (“O slavnosti a hostech” original title, from Jan Němec, 1966, 70 min.). English subtitles. Door open at 20pm, films begin at 21:00.

Joseph Kilian (“Postava k podpírání” original tile, from Pavel Juráček, 1965, 38 min.)
A year after Franz Kafka’s work had been translated from German into his native Czech, this experimental feature was full of Kafka’s tone and style. The story is about Harold, an isolated figure in an overwhelming world of totalitarian bureaucracy. Harold tries to find the elusive Joseph Kilian, an old acquaintance, in Prague. When Harold stumbles across a state-run cat-lending store, he impulsively rents a feline for the day. Later, he attempts to return the cat and finds that the store no longer exists. Now with a furry companion, Harold continues his search for Kilian. Written and directed by Pavel Juracek, this 40 minute film effectively aims its allegorical shots at personality cults and the absurdities of a totalitarian regime. […Lees verder]

Movie night: The Joke (1969)

Sunday March 31st 2013, Movie night: The Joke (“Zert”, Jaromil Jireš, Czechoslovakia, 1969, 89′). In Czech. Door open at 20pm, film begins at 21:00

The Joke, adapted from the debut novel of the same name by the famed Czech writer Milan Kundera, and directed by Jaromil Jireš, was one of the most politically charged movies to have come out of the Czech New Wave movement. That, combined with its subversive humour and sharp commentary on the then-totalitarian regime, ensured that it was promptly banned by the powers that by. […Lees verder]