Czechmatediary

What Czech movies do Americans love? My blogging buddy Sue, who is an American married to a Czech guy, wrote a list of her “Top 8″ (click here ) in her blog. I agree with most of her choices except when it comes to “Little Otik” - that’s a little too much for me. Which movie on the list is your favorite?

CZ: Jake ceske filmy si zamilovali Americane? Ma blogova kamardka Sue (Americanka vdana za Cecha) sepsala list svych nejoblibenejsich “Czech-made” filmu, tak tady to je (kliknete zde). Souhlasim s vesinou, krome Maleho Otika, to je na me opravdu trosku moc….Ktery film je podle vas ta nejvetsi bomba?

The 170-million dollar action movie, GI JOE, is gong to be filmed in the Barrandov film studios (Prague). The story takes place in Europe, where the special secret unit known as G.I.J.O.E. is trying to stop bunch of gun-smugglers (what a bore!!). The movie stars the former fashion model Channing Tatum as well as the British actress Sienna Miller. GI JOE is still on a waiting list though, since Barrandov is now being used for filming yet another American movie, the Salamon Kane. (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…)

If you knew that something terrible were to happen to the Czech Republic and a radio broadcast was telling you that you had 24 hours to get out, what Czech “treasure” would you pack in your bag, knowing that you could never come back?? What things do you think would retain the Czech heritage for the future generations as well as keep you from becoming terribly homesick?

This is how my list would look like:

• Food

- Remember, we only have ONE luggage to pack, so we can’t fill it all with food (you can see I had to get rid of lot of my stuff…..)

3 tatranky (waffles dipped in chocolate)

2 fidorky (round waffles dipped in chocolate)

1 lentilky (similar to M&M’s)

2 polomacene susenky (shortbread cookies; one side dipped in chocolate)

2 burty (type of sausage)

• Books

Polacek: Bylo nas pet ( “It used to be five of us“)

Nemcova:Babicka (”Grandma“;Czech classic written in 19th century)

Vylety pana Broucka (”Trips of mr. Borucek“;another 19th century classics)

Capek: Valka s mloky (War with the Newts (European Classics)

Ctyrlistek - can’t leave Fifinka behind! (Czech cartoon magazine for kids) (more…)

On Christmas Eve the most popular movie in the Czech Republic became Shrek! 1,8 million of Czechs (45% TV viewers) decided to betray the all-time Christmas classics such as Popelka or Mrazik (a super-popular Russian winter fairytale) and watched Shrek…I can’t believe it! I guess the times in the Czech Republic are really changing…

• 2nd place: “Would you like to dance” (Richard Gere movie)
• 3rd place: “Popelka” (more…)
  If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!

In order to celebrate the spirit of Christmas my post of today is a very famous animated movie (YouTube) called the Christmas dream. Its author is a world-known Czech animator and film maker Karel Zeman (1910 - 1989). Most of you know of him via the all-time favorite Czech movies such as Vynalez Zkazy (Fabulous world of Jules Verne) or Cesta do Praveku (Journey to Prehistory). Christmas Dream was finished in 1946 and won the award for the Best Animation at the festival in Canes. Although the movie was done more than 60 years ago I just couldn’t believe how sophisticated its animations were! See for yourself… (more…)

Ingenious Czech-American Jan Tomas Forman (his formal name) was born in Caslavi on Febuary 18th, 1932.Both of his parents (Jewish father and protestant mother) died in Auschwitz concentration camp when he was just a little boy. What was the reason? His father belonged to the Czech Resistance group and his mother was dealing with an illegal grocery trade. The rest of his childhood/adulthood spent Forman living with his distant relatives as well as at the dorms of Podebrady’s public school. There he also met young Vaclav Havel (1st president of the Czech Republic) and Masin brothers ( who later started an armed anti-Communist resistance). After finishing high school he tried to get into the the University of Acting (DAMU) in Prague but without success. His second choice was the University of Film (FAMU), also located in Prague, and this time was Forman accepted. He graduated in 1968. His first major movie became the black-humored comedy “Cerny Petr” (Black Peter; 1963), which was followed by another debut “Loves of a Blond” (Lasky jedne plavovlasky; 1965). In 1967 he finished the “Fireman’s ball” (Hori, ma panenko; 1967), which was quickly forbidden by the government because it was “making fun of the common man”. When the Soviet tanks rumbled into Prague in 1968 Milos was in Paris working on his first American movie “Taking off”. The Czech studio for which he worked fired him, claiming that he had left the country illegally. Those circumstances led him to leave Europe and come to America where people already loved him for his unique film-making skills. Compared to the recently deceased Jan Benes (see my recent post on him), Forman’s first job in the United States was quite a breeze: he accepted a position as a professor of film at the Columbia University.

The first movie that made him famous in the New World was adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1974) which won him five Oscars. Few years later Forman created “Amadeus“, another piece of art, which won him eight Oscars!

(more…)