Václav Marhoul

A dramaturg is present during the writing of the screenplay, but does not write the film. A dramaturg is present on set, but does not direct the film. A dramaturg sits in on the editing process, but does not edit the film. A dramaturg is also involved in many other activities throughout a film’s production, yet performs none of them directly. In this sense, the dramaturg is invisible. The same could be said of the life of the distinguished Czechoslovak dramaturg Jan Gogola, who influenced countless stories throughout his career—including this documentary itself. His portrait is, in fact, being dramaturgically shaped in real time as the film unfolds.

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This impressionistic film captures the uniqueness of life and creativity. An experimental feature comprising 40 distinct acting roles, each captured on its own 16 mm film roll, offering a kaleidoscopic mosaic of human traits that fluidly crosses comedy, drama, and documentary styles. Rather than following a conventional narrative, it presents standalone character portraits that collectively inspire creative artists to define and communicate their vision clearly.

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Documentary about Barrandov studios.

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A behind-the-scenes look at the eleven-year process it took to make The Painted Bird. The narratives of director Václav Marhoul and actor Petr Kotlár weave their way through the various stages of the film's creation, offering their subjective views from the beginning to the last flap of a year-and-a-half long shoot.

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Conversations with filmmakers, actors and screenwriters.

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A tragicomedy full of slapstick and vignettes, and even an unexpected shootout. A family of villagers moves up in the world - to the county seat. Dad works as a butcher at a meatpacking plant, mom is a checker at a supermarket. The daughter is at odds with her homeroom teacher, while the son - a vegetarian, anarchist, and avid pothead - is apprenticing as a butcher to please his father. The kid's in hot water with both his forewoman and the police. But dad isn't much of an example, letting himself be tempted by the charms of a lovely young butcher. However much mom tries - visiting the beauty parlor, her psychologist, or even the confessional - her husband shows his interest by moving out. Mom plots revenge. And somehow an imp gets mixed up in it all

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On the night it happened, Aleš Berka was celebrating his 50th birthday. A successful, mature man at the peak of his powers. Congratulations, gifts, a happy mistress, a healthy son. The fact that one of the guests had an accident at an intersection on his way home from the party was just a minor blemish on an otherwise perfect evening. The local underworld boss, Radek Máša, immediately called Aleš and asked him to cover up the accident, as always. The district police chief, Aleš Berka, promised to do so, as always. But in the morning, he learned that Marta, the girl who was driving the car, was lying in agony in the hospital and that she was the love of his son Ríša. Ríša believes unconditionally that his father, the district police chief, will do everything in his power to find and punish the culprit of the traffic accident who fled the scene...

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Vladimír Michálek chose an unconventional adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel for his feature debut. Artistically reminiscent of the classic films of Karel Zeman, the director reinterpreted this dark story of a man vainly seeking a place in a rigidly ordered society by changing the desperate conclusion into a happy end. The film provided Czech comedian Jirí Lábus with a new kind of role: that of the despotic uncle of a main hero Karel Rossman (Martin Dejdar).

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The distinctive artist, typographer, and writer Josef Váchal is known to the public primarily for his Blood Novel. The surrealistic exuberance of this defense of 19th-century pulp fiction caught the attention of Jaroslav Brabec and his colleagues, who found a corresponding image of 20th-century "trash." The authors' interest focuses primarily on the silent film era, with a journey through the history of cinema continuing through the advent of sound film to the present day (auteur cinema of the 1960s, modern horror), formally employing techniques such as tinted film. The versatile parody intertwines a colorful plot with the story of the author (Váchal/Paseky), who comments on and creates his book, and is further split in the plot into the characters of Fragonard and the Master. As with Váchal, reality increasingly enters the fiction, so that the only "happy ending" turns out to be the artist's finished work.

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