Jiří Menzel

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel (2018)

An epic exploration of the Czechoslovak New Wave cinema of the 1960s and 70s, structured around a series of conversations with one of its most acclaimed exponents - Closely Observed Trains director Jiří Menzel. ...

The Interpreter (2018)

80-year-old Ali Ungar comes across a book by a former SS officer describing his wartime activities in Slovakia. He realises his parents were executed by him. He sets out to take revenge but finds instead his 70-year-old son, Georg, a retired teacher. Georg ...

More Than Words (2018)

TV miniseries "More than words explores the possibilities and ways of behavior in non-verbal communication, primarily movements, gestures and ways of expression, but also the causes and roots of their origin. The series also explores the most interesting c ...

To Make a Comedy Is No Fun (2016)

Documentary feature about Czech director Jiří Menzel, featuring Menzel himself as well as Miloš Forman, Emir Kusturica, István Szabó and others. ...

The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street (2016)

The film tells the life story of its director, Jan Nemec, one of the most known and important filmmakers of Czech New Wave. ...

Bohumil Hrabal „Takže se stalo, že...“ (2014)

Milan Čorba (2014)

Signál (2012)

Two young technicians, Filos and Kája, come to a small village that is a bit cut off from the rest of the world in order to find the best place to install a new station for the reception of a cell phone signal. Their arrival understandably arouses a feeli ...

The Presence of Arnošt Lustig (2012)

"A man is immortal as long as he lives in the memory of others," said well-known Czech writer Arnošt Lustig with a wry smile. In December 2006 when her father turned 80, filmmaker Eva Lustigová began to see just how closely his words applied to himself p ...

Jiří Menzel: 7 Questions (2011)

An idiosyncratic reflection on the film Larks on a String and its history, shot by it's director Jiri Menzel. ...

Operation Dunaj (2009)

Operation Danube was the cover name for the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The fleet of Polish tanks which arrive to liberate their neighbor, ostensibly threatened by a counter-revolution, includes the old tank nicknamed L ...

Setkání v Praze, s vraždou (2009)

After many years, Anka Lomnická, a former countess and emigrant, arrives in Prague. By chance, she finds herself seated next to two characters from a crime story that gradually unfolds around Bubeník, a former guard of political prisoners. With her spont ...

Teddy Bear (2007)

Jirka, Roman, and Ivan have been friends since school. Today they are about 35 and, although they went into different fields, their friendship has lasted. Each of the three friends hides a secret, and their lives change radically when the secrets come out. ...

Zimní víla (2006)

Kateřina works at an inn run by her evil stepmother. One day, she meets a young man she doesn't know in the forest. He is Prince Jan, and he is surprised when he sees his fairy from the forest at the inn. He sees how the innkeeper treats the girl and prom ...

Pocta V+W (2005)

Jiří Suchý recalls two of the most prominent artistic and creative figures in Czechoslovak culture of the last century: Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich. ...

The Sunken Cemetery (2002)

Ivan, in his early forties, returns, after many years of absence to his native town - a typical Middle - European small town in Northern of Croatia. His roaming through Europe left him in a rather distraught state and he is now in search for his identity a ...

Útek do Budína (2002)

The love story of students Jana and Tomáš begins in Prague just after the establishment of the First Republic. Their impulsive "escape to Buda" marks not only the liberation of the dissatisfied Jana from her monotonous life with her mentally unstable mot ...

Als Großvater Rita Hayworth liebte (2001)

The story of a family that is forced to flee the ČSSR in 1969 and seeks a new home in Germany. ...

All My Loved Ones (1999)

Told from the perspective of man reflecting on his childhood in Prague in the early years of World War II and the eventual destruction of his family as the Nazis rise to power. The storyline focuses heavily on Jewish-Czech Silberstein family members. Drama ...

Franciska vasárnapjai (1996)

Vengeance Is Mine (1995)

A celebrated theatre director's perfect life unravels when his wife's secret lover exposes the hollowness beneath his success, leading to a calm divorce and his isolation in a luxurious but empty villa with his nearly grown daughter. His attempts to fill t ...

Too Loud A Solitude (1995)

An elderly paper-crusher branded a fool in Prague secretly stashes condemned books, preserving their contents and extrapolating from them eccentric scenarios of wit. ...

How to Deserve a Princess (1995)

A fairy tale of three brothers who try to save a princess kidnapped by an evil wizard. ...

Joint Venture (1995)

Prague 1994, hotbed of international profiteers. Here you can still find buyers for discarded everyday objects, here you can still buy cheap houses - provided you can find a Czech straw man. Joint venture, a rogue comedy in which everyone believes they are ...

Everything I Like (1993)

A film about the uncertainties faced by a man in post-Communist Slovakia, his relationship with a teenage son and English teacher girlfriend who's soon to return home to England. ...

The Little Apocalypse (1993)

An unknown Polish writer can't publish his novels, so his ex-wife decides to help him and get some of the profit for herself. She finally finds a publisher, but there's a strange single condition that could cost the writer his life. ...

Dr. Hrabal (1993)

A film impression about Bohumil Hrabal - an encounter with the man and his literary work. The film was shot in places well known and close to the writer: in Prague and small Czech towns. In addition to Hrabal, it features director Jirzi Menzel, who talks a ...

The Elementary School (1991)

The time is 1945-46. 10 year old Eda and his friend Tonda live in a small village outside Prague. In school, their class is so wild and indisciplined that their teacher quits and is replaced by the militant Igor Hnidzo. He is very strict – but also very ...

The Gentle Barbarian (1990)

A commemorative and essayistic meditative piece on the Prague quarter Libeň during the 1950s. ...

Martha and I (1990)

Emil (Vaclav Chalupa as a teen, Ondrej Vetchy as an adult) has been naughty, and his family is at a loss about what to do with him. He's been dallying with the family maid. They decide to ship him off to spend time with his uncle Ernst Michel Piccoli), who ...

Strange Creatures (1990)

A parable for the end of totalitarianism. Three protagonists - a high official, a secretary, and a border guard - representative of three generations (1948, 1968, 1988) are forced to confront their ideals and places in society through the events of one st ...

Larks on a String (1990)

In post-WWII Communist Czechoslovakia, several characters considered bourgeois are sentenced to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation. Among them is a young man who pines for a female convict. ...

Run, He Is Coming! (1987)

A comedy about happiness, Indian magic and adultery. One day Mr and Mrs Sysel happen to solve the problem of lacking enough room in their tiny flat. They break through the wall into their neighbour's comfortable flat, from which they borrow not only additi ...

Dámská jízda (1987)

Albert (1985)

Story of an extraordinary musician, violinist, who was famous, but his alcoholism led him to poverty. Now he is playing time from time to rich people. Then Albert meets count Delesov, who tries to change Albert's life. Two different characters, two ways of ...

Fandy ó Fandy (1983)

Little kids, little worries, big kids, big worries, sighs many a parent often. This is no different for the mother of eighteen-year-old Frantisek, who has just graduated from high school without much glory and is about to start his first job. Fandy is stil ...

Hearty Greetings from the Globe (1983)

​Two aliens stir up trouble on Earth in order to study humans. Misunderstandings ensue. ...

Švédská zápalka (1983)

The aging police commissioner, who has a twenty-five-year-old fiancée, Olga, is disturbed at his sixtieth birthday party by the news from the administrator Psekov that his master, the cornet Klyausov, has been murdered. A commission, headed by an investig ...

Passing Fancy (1983)

The main character of the story which takes place in the twenties in Budapest is the poet Dr. Rácz György, who returns after ten years of absence. In a café he meets his former friend Lajos, who has just broken up with his lover, Márta, because of the ...

Ferat Vampire (1982)

A doctor is shocked when his beloved colleague Mima signs a contract with foreign car manufacturer Ferat, in order to work for them as a rally-driver. A scientist convinces him that human blood is being used as fuel for Mima's ever winning car, but does th ...

Babička se zbláznila (1982)

Bulldogs and Cherries (1981)

The dreaded Italian mafioso, Marian Labuda, will also be convinced. Mafioso Carmello was guilty of the principles of his organization when he tried to fool the boss and earned a death sentence. The convict runs away from the killer through Vienna to Prague ...

Heart Tremors (1981)

The general practitioner Balla and his wife abandoning her higher education begin their common life in the small mountain village in the hope of quick enrichment and return to the capital. Despite Éva and Emma, the two school mistresses longing for love a ...

Povídka Malostranská (1981)

A young man studying law finds a place to stay with a young conductor, thinking that he will find an idyllic Lesser Town atmosphere here and will be able to prepare for his exams in peace. The house is inhabited by distinctive characters. The owner, who so ...

Hra na telo (1980)

Koportos (1980)

A Roma laborer living in a shantytown strives to organize a traditional, dignified funeral for his wife following her sudden death. He travels to the city to secure the necessary funds and arrangements, navigating various bureaucratic and social obstacles ...

Blue Planet (1980)

A young engineer, Štěpán Pavlík, dreams of becoming a cosmonaut. ...

Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1979)

Returning home to Prague, the magician Pasparte, an owner of a circus caravan, meets his dying colleague who entrusts his beautiful daughter Aloisie to his care. In Prague they all take up their lodgings at the house At Blue Fish in which they intend to ar ...

Minden szerdán (1979)

Stephen, living in a troubled family, breaks into a grocery store and wreaks vandalism. He is sent to a reform school. Later he works in a cleaning brigade and accidentally meets József Draskóczi, who denounced him. Draskóczi lives in an unloving, troub ...

The Apple Game (1978)

Sarcastic comedy about the Czechoslovakia of the seventies. A young gynaecologist can't figure out whether to get serious with a young nurse or to stay casual with his married lover. Things get complicated when both women don't want to play his game anymor ...

30 Maidens and Pythagoras (1977)

A musical starring Jiří Menzel (whose part is sung by Achilles Michailidis) as a math and physics teacher employing innovative teaching methods. ...

Sechse kommen durch die Welt (1972)

The King of Malabunt has won another war, after decorating himself and his three wooden marshals, he dismisses his army with a low wages. One of his soldiers protest this and is thrown into jail, but he swears to someday return and take all the wealth of t ...

Straw Hat (1972)

Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which ...

Nevěsta (1970)

The female employees of the poultry-processing factory find relief from their monotonous work in chatting about weddings and marriages. The very young Zdena (Marta Vancurová), too, dreams about a white veil and an entourage of bridesmaids. On her return h ...

The Cremator (1969)

In 1930s Prague, a Czech cremator who firmly believes cremation relieves one from earthly suffering is drawn inexorably to Nazism. ...

Crime in the Night Club (1968)

The theft of a pearl necklace and subsequent murder took place at the Tartaros cabaret. All this could compromise the minister, who is an admirer of the singer Clara. The real culprits must be found as soon as possible... ...

Capricious Summer (1968)

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 m ...

Dita Saxová (1968)

​In 1947 Prague, Holocaust survivor Dita lives in a hostel for orphans, acting as a protective mentor to a younger girl while failing to fix her own shattered life. Unable to form lasting bonds or find a place in a society that has moved on, she drifts t ...

Windstorm (1967)

A worker steals bits and pieces of building materials from work to construct a new home for himself and his girlfriend. When he discovers that she's having an affair with his boss, he devises one elaborate plot after another to murder the rival, each time ...

Hotel for Strangers (1967)

A gifted poet checks into a Gothic hotel in hopes of meeting the woman with whom he has long been enamored. He is surrounded by a variety of offbeat characters like the hefty homosexual cook, shadowy clerks, snooty waiters, and valets prone to violence. He ...

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1967)

Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly ...

Daisies (1966)

Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them. ...

Flám (1966)

A comedy about a charismatic man who lacks the confidence of his surroundings. However, he was not completely satisfied with the original script and invited Jiří Mucha to adapt Otto Zelenka's script, which gave the film the final form of a bitter convers ...

Closely Watched Trains (1966)

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher's apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening an ...

An Occasion to Speak (1966)

Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965. ...

Martin Speaking (1966)

The second installment of children's stories investigator Dr. Martin. ...

Volejte Martina (1966)

The series of children's films about Detective Martin, who intervenes in cases involving children, begins with this film. It consists of two short stories: in the first ("Three Bottles"), the young hero, escaping from an orphanage, gets involved in a robbe ...

Searching (1966)

Michal's father and his friends are stigmatized by their war experience and the post-war social deformations in which they took part either directly, or watched them cowardly and in silence. They are trying to repress their feelings of guilt and justify th ...

Nobody Will Laugh (1966)

A successful art historian who has trouble telling people difficult truths, finds himself in an inescapable situation when a small lie quickly gets out of hand. ...

Pearls of the Deep (1966)

A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat ...

Pension pro svobodné pány (1965)

A young man living in a strictly run boarding house secretly brings a girl of loose morals into his room at night, who is nevertheless well-groomed and takes great advantage of her situation. For the heart of the comedy lies in the problem of how to get ri ...

If a Thousand Clarinets (1965)

A military base. An awkward soldier. A statue of Bach. And suddenly all guns in the area change into music instruments. Great mystery is immediately found by TV station. And soon the military base becomes a stage for huge TV show. ...

Courage for Every Day (1965)

A passionate communist worker is discouraged by the changing political climate and the failure of his peers to live up to his ideals. ...

Hory hory (1964)

A Place in the Crowd (1964)

A film in five episodes, all based on an attempt to show the life of young people today, their feelings and relationships, their behaviour in public and private life. ...

Defendant (1964)

Managers at the construction of a big hydro plant are accused of having embezzled money. ...

Dobrá rada je nad zlato (1964)

Ceiling (1962)

The young Marta has made a break in her medical education to fully invest in her career as a model. We follow her for a day in her life, almost completely without hearing her voice. It is seldom that Marta gets the space to speak, instead she is mostly sub ...

Brouk v hlavě (2020)

A recording of the final performance of the famous production of G. Feydeau's comedy, directed by Jiří Menzel, which was successfully performed by the Vinohrady Theater for twenty years. The fame of Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear was established at the Vino ...

The Don Juans (2013)

An opera troupe in a small town decides to perform Mozart's Don Giovanni. The view behind the scenes uncovers the world of opera without the glitter. A tale of love and disappointment, about music and passionate love-making and about people that live their ...

Jiří Menzel: 7 Questions (2011)

An idiosyncratic reflection on the film Larks on a String and its history, shot by it's director Jiri Menzel. ...

Operation Dunaj (2009)

Operation Danube was the cover name for the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The fleet of Polish tanks which arrive to liberate their neighbor, ostensibly threatened by a counter-revolution, includes the old tank nicknamed L ...

I Served the King of England (2007)

Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the inter-war period. Jan Dítě, a young and clever waiter who wants to become a millionaire, comes to the conclusion that to achieve his ambitious goal he must be diligent, listen and observe as much as he can, be always di ...

Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002)

Collection of short films the summaries of which include; a foreign man moving to Italy, getting married and having a child; a four split scene short involving plot-less images of old people with television sets for heads, a beautiful woman having sex, and ...

One Moment (2002)

Poetic, affectionate, lyrical, and elegy for actor Rudolf Hrusinsky composed of a wordless montage of slowed film footage spanning Hrusinsky's entire career that embodies the human experience: toil, rest, education, romantic love, rejection, desire, aging, ...

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (1994)

Set in a small Ukrainian village during the outbreak of war with Germany in 1941 Private Chonkin, not overly endowed with intelligence, is left to guard a downed military aircraft. The authorities appear to have forgotten about him so this leaves him free ...

Helimadoe (1993)

A lyrical story from the beginning of 20th century, with the atmosphere of a small-town environment, distinctive characters, and a subtle analysis of human nature. It takes place in a small town in southern Bohemia, where a perceptive adolescent boy experi ...

The Beggar's Opera (1991)

Unlike any other opera, the so-called Beggar's Opera is not just one composition, but a lineage of adapted compositions, beginning with the original hugely successful 1728 political satire written by Englishman John Gay. Composers and writers have penned v ...

The End of Old Times (1990)

Czechoslovakia 1918. The newly formed National Assembly has made Stoklasa the administrator of the Kratochvile Castle. Although with no aristocratic background, he is a man of fortune and is trying to buy the castle. To impress his neighbors and the local ...

Larks on a String (1990)

In post-WWII Communist Czechoslovakia, several characters considered bourgeois are sentenced to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation. Among them is a young man who pines for a female convict. ...

Audience (1990)

A recording of the legendary production "Audience" from the Prague Drama Club with Josef Abrhám and Pavel Landovský. In 1975, Václav Havel worked as a labourer in the brewery in Trutnov; he could do nothing else. And it was here that he made perhaps his ...

Die Schokoladenschnüffler (1986)

A crime comedy directed by Jirí Menzel, based on a story by Edgar Wallace. ...

My Sweet Little Village (1985)

The movie's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care ...

The Snowdrop Festival (1984)

An episodic film about the inhabitants of Kersko, their hardships and their joys, most prominently hunting. A lyrical and humorous adaptation of writings by Bohumil Hrabal. ...

Tři v tom (1981)

How to marry off two daughters and a maid, especially when the father has no idea that it's high time? Father Ubaldo has worries; his two daughters are constantly complaining about their health. And he would also like to find them husbands. He has no idea ...

Cutting It Short (1981)

Francin, manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come t ...

Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1979)

Returning home to Prague, the magician Pasparte, an owner of a circus caravan, meets his dying colleague who entrusts his beautiful daughter Aloisie to his care. In Prague they all take up their lodgings at the house At Blue Fish in which they intend to ar ...

Secluded, Near Woods (1976)

The Lavicka's, a Czech family from the city, rents a house in the country with the option to buy. However, old Mr Komarek seems reluctant to sell the house as they agreed. ...

Who Looks for Gold? (1974)

When he returns to Prague from a stint in the Army, Lada does not seem to fit in anywhere, and he cannot get the hang of the system of deliberately underperforming on the job. His girlfriend tries to keep him in the city with a variety of stratagems, but h ...

Mandragora (1971)

Crime in the Night Club (1968)

The theft of a pearl necklace and subsequent murder took place at the Tartaros cabaret. All this could compromise the minister, who is an admirer of the singer Clara. The real culprits must be found as soon as possible... ...

Capricious Summer (1968)

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 m ...

Closely Watched Trains (1966)

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher's apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening an ...

Crime at the Girls School (1966)

Three short story omnibus. The main hero and connecting link is Lieutenant Boruvka, created by Lubomír Lipsky. He deals with the murder case between climbers, the death of the dancer in the music theater and the strange disappearance of the mathematics pr ...

Pearls of the Deep (1966)

A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat ...

Something Different (1963)

In her first feature, Věra Chytilová uses a combination of documentary and fiction film techniques to tell two stories in counterpoint. The first follows Olympic champion gymnast Eva Bosáková, who contemplates retirement as she undergoes a gruelling tr ...

Our Dear Mr. Foerster Died (1963)

On a sunny afternoon an old man speaks to a laundress about his love for Provence, then a black flag is unfurled outside the town monument: news has arrived over the radio that the famous composer Foerster, born in the town, has just died. ...

Blocks of Flats (1960)

A student work by Jiří Menzel, filmed during his second year at the FAMU film school. Views of old Prague and its tenement buildings, symbolizing the obsolete past, alternate with shots of construction sites for new prefabricated apartment buildings. In ...