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Czech
Gothic
Steven
Jay Schneider (curator of the Czech Gothic series) talks
of the Czech cinemas hisory of produciing classic Horror
and fantasy films.
Czech
Gothic: Classic Horror and Fantasy films
The
Czech cinema has a long and distinguished history of
producing memorable horror and fantasy films, and some
of the best of them will be seen in this series. The
films shown here range from the animated nightmares
of Jan Svankmajer to the Gothic excesses of Juraj Herz,
from the painstaking puppetry of Jirí Barta to the virtuoso
expressionism of Zbynek Brynych. Some are based on famous
literary works, others on fables and legends, and still
others on a modern history scarier than the most frightening
fairy tales. Astonishing visuals are a constant throughout
this series, as is an irrepressible streak of black
humour—a necessity when exposing humankind's most base
and misguided instincts.
Summarising
an important insight of Milan Kundera, East-European-film
scholar Daniel J. Goulding writes that ‘the best of
the Czech films transcended the political particularities
of the moment to express deeper layers of the unique
Czech historical and cultural experience and such dimensions
of human existence as the grotesque, the tragic, the
absurd, death, laughter, conscience, and social responsibility'.
Goulding here refers to the Czech New Wave cinema of
1960–1968, a brief but prolific period of experimentation
and innovation in Czech film production. The New Wave
was halted by the Soviet-led invasion of the country,
which resulted in the repressive backlash known as ‘Normalisation':
two decades of censorship and Socialist Realism aesthetic
imperatives, which dictated that art serves only to
glorify Communist political and social ideals.
Kundera's
insight, as eloquently paraphrased by Goulding, is also
a warning against arid political-ideological interpretation
that ignores the philosophical and psychological resonances
in the ‘deeper layers' of Czech cinema from any era.
This
thematically and stylistically diverse series of remarkable
Czech horror and fantasy films includes four rare, creepy
short films, three of them by the Surrealist master
of stop-motion animation, Jan Svankmajer. All three
of Svankmajer 's films bring famous Gothic tales to
life. Castle of Otranto (1977) is adapted from
Horace Walpole's classic Gothic novel of the same name;
The Fall of the House of Usher (1981) and The
Pit, the Pendulum and Hope (1983), are both idiosyncratic
and unforgettable interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe
horror tales. In addition, Jirí Barta, in his rarely-screened
short, The Last Theft (1987), employs a mixture
of live-action and animated filmmaking techniques using
real actors as puppets in a deceptively simple critique
of the ageless vice: material greed. Barta's astonishing
adult version of the classic folktale, The Pied
Piper, also uses animation and live action to deliver
its powerful anti-materialist message, continuing a
Czech tradition of Pied Piper adaptations begun in their
literature.
In
addition to The Pied Piper, this series showcases
seven other features that span three significant periods
in recent Czech history: the relative freedom of the
New Wave years—The Fifth Horseman is Fear (1964),
Who Killed Jessie? (1966), and The Cremator
(1968); the restrictive period of Normalisation that
lasted until 1989—Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
(1970), Morgiana (1971), and The Pied Piper
(1985); the current post-‘Velvet Revolution' era, in
which democratic principles have been restored and film
production privatised—The Damned House of Hajn
(1988) and In the Flames of Royal Love (1990).
But, while the filmmakers in question put their individual,
often astonishingly idiosyncratic talents to use presenting
imaginative, allusive, and occasionally allegorical
treatments of specific real-life concerns, their films
nevertheless succeed in transcending their particular
time and place. The resulting stories and images thereby
shed light on such universal themes as fate, lust, greed,
madness, and all those dimensions of human existence
mentioned by Goulding.
The
Surrealistic animation of Svankmajer, the fantastic-erotic
imagery of Jires, the Expressionistic set design of
Brynych, and the Gothic excess of Herz are just some
of the many treasures to be found lurking in the shadowy
corners of Czech cinema. While the bizarre, unfamiliar,
and often uncanny visions present in these films may
at first seem to have little in common apart from a
focus on irrational mindsets and the undesirable consequences
of desperate actions, watching them in the larger context
of this series reveals a surprising unity. Not only
does an injection of black humour often make itself
felt in these transgressive tales of moral, physical,
and psychological violation, but also the episodes of
horror themselves are typically handled with a surprising
degree of subtlety and inventiveness.
While
watching these movies, you may not always be sure whether
to laugh, gawk, or shudder—perhaps all three—but one
thing will be abundantly clear: despite changing times,
governments, and circumstances of production, the tradition
of Czech horror and fantasy cinema is like nothing you've
seen before.
Steven
Jay Schneider
Steven
Jay Schneider is a doctoral candidate in philosophy
at Harvard University, and in cinema studies at New
York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He is the
editor of Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across
the Globe (FAB Press), Horror Film and Psycho-analysis:
Freud's Worst Nightmares (Cambridge UP), and Underground
USA: Filmmaking Beyond the Hollywood Canon (Wallflower
Press). His latest book is 1001 Movies You Must See
Before You Die (ABC Books).
All
of the films in this series are from the National Film
Archive in Prague. The series was curated by Steven
Jay Schneider. Thanks go to the Slovak Film Institute,
the Prague Film Academy, Zlín Film School, Vladimir
Opela, and Irena Kovárová.
View
the full Czech Gothic programme
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