Director Petr Zelenka will participate in a Q&A following a screening of his new film, THE KARAMAZOVS
THE IRONIC CURTAIN: CZECH CINEMA SINCE THE VELVET REVOLUTION
Walter Reade Theater
65th Street between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Tickets: $11; series pass $45 for any five films
212-875-5600
http://www.filmlinc.com
Friday, October 23
through
Thursday, October 29 Upon the twentieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, more than a dozen films made in the Czech Republic since 1989, along with some seminal Czech classics, will be featured in this intriguing series, including works by Jan Švankmajer, Miloš Forman, Jan Němec, Vĕra Chytilová, Jan Svěrák, Alice Nellis, and Jan Hřebejk; several screenings will be introduced by members of the Czech cinema community and participants in specific films
Hanu Brejchovou stars in Miloš Forman's seminal Czech New Wave film
LOVES OF A BLONDE (LÁSKY JEDNÉ PLAVOVLÁSKY) (Miloš Forman, 1965)
Wednesday, October 28, 8:40 pm
Released a few years before the Summer of Love and Prague Spring, Miloš Forman’s LOVES OF A BLONDE is a very funny romantic black comedy that also has a lot to say about women’s burgeoning sexual freedom. The delightful Hanu Brejchovou stars as Andula, a young factory worker whose sexual liberation is ahead of its time in an old-fashioned small town. When a trainload of military reservists arrives, most of the single women do their best to attract the uniformed men at a big party, but Andula is more interested in pianist Milda (Vladimíra Pucholta). In a scene for the ages, three men try to pick up Andula and her two friends, with hysterical results. Later, when Andula visits Milda in Prague, she meets the piano player’s parents (Milada Jezková and Josef Sebánek), who are a droll riot. A Czech New Wave classic that evokes Godard and Truffaut, LOVES OF A BLONDE, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, caused a sensation when it played the New York Film Festival and introduced Forman (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, AMADEUS) to the world. Notably, assistant director and cowriter Ivan Passer, who also worked with Forman on THE FIREMEN’S BALL, defected to America following Prague Spring and went on to make such films as BORN TO WIN and CUTTER’S WAY.