New wave creator Jaromil Jireš studied at FAMU together with Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová and Jiří Menzel. In the mid-sixties, Jireš became famous for his adaptation of the novel Joke writer and his teacher Milan Kundera. The script for the film was edited by Kundera himself, and his original book and Jireš’s film were highly valued. As a result of the occupation, the first-named did not publish anything and in 1975 he went to lecture in France, where he later stayed and wrote. The second one mentioned continued filming in Czechoslovakia, of course The prank was placed in a so-called safe in the early seventies and was not introduced again until the early nineties.
Revenge over the bed
Primarily a work of love, interpreted as political (at least according to Kundera), it was in both book and film form later criticized as chauvinistic and even misogynistic. According to some opinions, there is too much superiority of men over women in the work, and gentlemen are intolerant towards them. The main character Ludvík is betrayed by his colleague and girlfriend when she hands the communists Ludvík’s postcard in which he mocks communist ideals with a joke. Because of this, Ludvík is expelled from school and sent to forced labor. However, betrayal grows in him, and therefore he wants to seduce the wife of a former colleague who was jointly responsible for his expulsion.
The new presenter, the feminist Jana Bébarová, does not share the criticism: “Unlike the closely watched trains, Žert is not chauvinistic. He is merely a character study of a cynical chauvinist who is very aware of his ego. For him, women are puppets, a tool to achieve selfish goals.” Moderator Marek Slovák agrees with her in both courts. Menzel’s filmography is drooling throughout, as he reduces women to mere objects for his male protagonists. Jireš/Kunder’s act reveals to us the thinking of a sexist thirsting for revengethrough a series of subjectivization procedures (stream of consciousness, off-screen commentary, reminiscence passages).
Typhoon, heart attack and drugs
A joke as a timeless love drama about the meaninglessness of revenge and moral choices had a complicated fate when it began to be created before the occupation, was filmed shortly after it, and subsequently was closed to the public for less than two decades. Anti-war Apocalypse new Hollywood director and screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola had such a problematic origin that a feature-length documentary Heart of Darkness: the Director’s Apocalypse was even made about it. Three times over budget, twice as long shooting compared to the original plans due to typhoon, heart attack, one actor who is fake and the other one not bothering to learn the text, finishing (editing, sound mixing, music) taking as long as the shooting itself…
“When the word Apocalypse is mentioned, paradoxically, I think of Herzog’s Fitzcarrald – a similarly cursed film with hectic (pre)production, in which the Peruvian Indians offered the director to kill Kinski, the actor in the title role, for him,” Jana Bébarová mentions the first association that comes to mind. He makes no secret of his opinion that he prefers Coppola’s coming-of-age films (You’re a Big Boy Now, Lost, Predatory Fish). The two-hundred-and-two-minute version, known as Apocalypse: Redux, was for her years ago about waiting for Godot (Marlon Brando) and not understanding what anyone was seeing on film. A new, three-hour edit, made for the fortieth anniversary of its launch (1979/2019), but appreciates.
Jana Bébarová, the editor-in-chief of the online magazine 25fps and the dramaturg of the Noir Film Festival, is a new addition to the Kulový Blesk program. | Flash: Michal Protivanský/CNC Michal Protivansky/CNC
Blesk.cz brings you a new regular podcast Kulový Blesk, which you can look forward to every Wednesday at five in the morning. The naughty children of Czech film journalism Marek Slovák, Marie Barešová and, recently, Jana Bébarová will analyze the biggest hits and describe current trends. You can also listen to podcasts in your favorite applications. Thank you for every subscription or watch of Ball Lightning.
The apocalypse had like one of the first pictures spatial mix five plus one and she combined the authentic noises of the environment excellently (helicopter, nature, ship, weapon). She perfectly mixed popular music that the soldiers in Vietnam actually listened to (Doors) with experimental synthesizer sound-music surfaces. Unlike Jana, Marek values the two-hundred-minute montage more, thanks to which the theme of colonization and exploitation of others stands out.
Reverse Streets of America
You can also see cult movies on cinema screens Ghost Dog – Road of the Samurai – the king of independent filmmakers Jim Jarmusch. “As a native of Ohio, Jim Jarmusch gravitated to the American backwoods and places where the average tourist wouldn’t visit. It takes us into back alleys where we would hardly look on our own. That’s one of the many things I appreciate about his films. Atmosphere,” emphasizes Jana. And he adds a list of Jarmusch’s numerous sources of inspiration – Japanese samurai feats, European genre junk, American gangsters or the influence of Eastern philosophy. Marek appreciates how this independent cult deals with the meeting and mixing of different cultures and the passing on of traditions through art. Both critics of Ball Lightning agree that Ghost Dog is one of Jarmusch’s most accessible films – and if one should start with his work, it is precisely with this African-American samurai.
All the mentioned films are released in Czech cinemas in the summer, so you can watch them again or watch them for the first time. The joke is presented in the restored version, the Apocalypse in the remastered version (and for the first time in the country in the final three-hour cut), so you will see and hear them in cinemas in a way that has never been possible before. You can learn more about individual images in the podcast: