Czechoslovak New Wave

In the sixties the Prague film school and a political thaw produced a generation that filmed ordinary life with gentle humour and growing insolence. Forman put amateurs in front of the camera to observe a factory ball, Menzel told of a young railway clerk obsessed with his first time during the occupation, Chytilová let loose two girls who wreck everything on principle. The Soviet invasion of 1968 stopped the movement dead: the films were banned, the film-makers left or fell silent.

works 5

• CinemaDiamonds of the NightDémanty nociJan Němec · 1964Two young men who have escaped from a transport to the camps, hunted down in the forest.Cinema
• CinemaIntimate LightingIntimní osvětleníIvan Passer · 1965Two musician friends meet again in the provinces, between rehearsals and family meals.Cinema
• CinemaDaisiesSedmikráskyVěra Chytilová · 1966Two young girls decide to be as spoiled as the world, in a farce in colour.Cinema
• CinemaClosely Watched TrainsOstře sledované vlakyJiří Menzel · 1966Under the occupation, an apprentice railwayman more preoccupied with love than with resistance.Cinema
• CinemaThe Firemen's BallHoří, má panenkoMiloš Forman · 1967A firemen's ball that goes wrong, in a small provincial town.Cinema