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The Czech movie called “Kraska v nesnazich” (”Beauty in trouble”) is definitely NOT in trouble. Starting June 13th it will be shown in a number of movie theaters all over US, starting in New York (Angelika in Greenwich Village) and the Landmark Theatre in Washington. Depending on the success (or no success) the story will receive there it will travel to other places in the United States. The reason why is this movie already so close to the American viewers’ hearts is because of two reasons: 1/ the movie did great at the 2 prominent US Film Festivals - one in Denver (CO) and the other one in Santa Barbara (CA) and 2/ the American public is already in love with Ana Gaislerova from the former role in yet another great Czech movie Zelary. (more…)

The opening night of ex-president Vaclav Havel’s new play Odchazeni (Leaving) turned out to be a great success. It is a story of a prominent politician who is ending his term in the office and all of the drama that goes with it. In this particular play was Havel inspired by such masterpieces as Cechov’s Cherry Orchard or Shakespeare’s King Lear. The play preparations went very smooth until the lead actress, Dagmar Havlova (Havel’s current wife), quit due to health reasons. (more…)

The Czech literature is in trouble. Especially the current novels. The writer Jiri Kratochvil made a very good observation when he wrote “after a long, long time the Czech literature is not only free but also turns its back on any kind of ideology, mission and service to the nation”. When the Czech magazine Tyden had its “The Best Book of the Century” contest in 1998 the only current novel that had placed in the first 50 places was Sestra (Sister) by Jachym Topol - it won the 26th place. Lidove Noviny announced their “Book of the Year” list in 1991 with following 5 novels placed among the winners:

• Nesmrtelnost (Immortality) by Milan Kundera (more…)
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  Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is going to be famous. The biggest known forgery painter Daniele Donde is planing to build a museum of False Art there. Similar museums are currently located only in Moscow ans Switzerland. Donde  himself is an interesting case: he never studied art, his falsification skills were learned from people that used used to sell his father fake art - without his father’s knowledge. Donde explains:”I gave those crooks a choice, either I was going to call the police on them or they will teach me how to paint like they do.”  (more…)

A famous Czech puppets, Spejbl and Hurvinek, are celebrating their 82nd birthday this year! Hurvinek and his happy-go-lucky dad Spejbl appeared on stage for the first time in Pilsen in 1920. During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia both puppets were forbidden to perform and got locked away in some secret Nazi safe. After the war was over Spejbl and Hurvinek moved to Prague where they continue to entertain yet another generation of Hurvinek-hungy children. (more…)

My life-long project is finally completed! Here is a pretty cool list of famous Czechs and Slovaks (full-blooded or partial) living abroad. Some of those names were quite the surprise! Did you know for example that there are currently 5 Czech Victoria Secret models? Most of these people live in America but that is where my Google search ended up leading me. What I am trying to say is that this list is far from including ALL of the celebrities but it is the best one out there. So enjoy it! And let me know if you can think of any other additions….MOVIES

1. George Voskovec (actor)
2. Lucky Vanous (actor)
3. Jon Voight (his grandfather, Mr. Voytka, came to the US from Kosice) (more…)
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Today passed away yet another very famous Czech actor, Radovan Lukavsky. At the age of 88 Radovan died of serious heart complications. He was born in 1919 in Prague. His mother has led him to Christianity since Radovan’s early childhood, which led him to desire to become a pastor. His theology studies, however, were abruptly stopped when the Nazi occupation began. Radovan’s theological mind then had to be satisfied by the permitted studies of philosophy and acting instead. As a fresh graduate Radovan’s first acting job was at the Vinohrady Theatre. (more…)

The Milwaukee Art Museum is hosting an art exhibition called the “Modernity in Central Europe, 1918 - 1948“, devoted solely to photography of central Europe between the World Wars. Among the presented artists are also couple of Czech photographers, such as Karel Teige, Jaromir Funke and Josef Saudek. As the National Gallery of Art explains, ” In the aftermath of World War I, the face of central Europe had changed profoundly: empires had collapsed and fledgling nation-states had taken their place. (more…)

The winner of the Czech music awards the “Album of the Year for 2007″ in women’s category as well as the all-time winner became Aneta Langerova with her new album Dotyk. Born in 1986 (youngster!) Aneta showed her multi-talented personality from early childhood. Not only was she good at tennis, acting, and instrument playing (piano and guitar) she was also a great singer. Aneta got discovered via the TV show “Czech is looking for a superstar” where she sang the Alanis Morissette song “Thank You” and won 79% of votes.

1. The top male singer of 2007 became Daniel Landa (don’t care much about him at all) who:

• sold the most records

• was played most frequently on the radio that year

• sold most tracks via the Internet

(more…)

Did you like the movie “I, Robot” or “A.I.” (Artificial intelligence)? These movies are a pure rip-off of one of Karel Capek’s novels called the R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In this masterpiece Capek introduces the now frequently used international word “robot” - the non-human intelligent being. The word itself was invented by Karel’s dear brother Josef and it is derived from a Czech verb “robotovat” which is an archaic word for “working”. Capek is one of the great - if not the greatest - writers of the inter-war Czechoslovakia. Beside being an author of numerous fabulous books what was he like? Don’t be misled by his meek look. He had quite an adventurous life: he was expelled from high school, later married an actress and becomes a good friend of the president (T.G. Masaryk). (more…)