CZECH AND SLOVAK

sTORIES / april 2016

we are celebrating 50th anniversary of daisies

07/04/2016 DAISIES

17/04/2016 Life drawing lesson

20/04/2016 THE hospitality 1

21/04/2016 cosy dens

05/05/2016 identity card

5oth aniversary and cele-bration at Deptford Cinema

Daisies (Czech: Sedmikrásky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak comedy-drama film written and directed by Věra Chy-tilová. Generally regarded as a milestone of the Nová Vlna movement, it was made with the support of a state-sponsored film studio and follows two teenage girls (played by Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová), both named Marie, who engage in strange pranks.

Innovatively filmed, and released two years before the Prague Spring, the film was labeled as “depicting the wanton” by the Czech authorities and banned. Director Chytilová was forbidden to work in her homeland until 1975. The film received the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.

Plot:The opening sequence is that of a spinning flywheel with shots of airplanes strafing the ground. The shots of the airplanes are from US Navy footage shot in the Pacific Theatre during World War II.

The first scene shows the two main characters sitting in bathing suits. Their conversation is robotic and from that point on they decide to be bad. The next scene shows Marie I and Marie II dancing in front of a tree. The tree has many fruits and resembles the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Once Marie I eats from the tree, they both fall and appear in their apartment. There is significant action here, with Marie I looking through the window at a parade and Marie II eating. The next few scenes are all similar. They show the two girls on a date with an older man, a ‘sugar daddy’. Marie II eats voraciously and Marie I eventually starts acting like her, eating a lot of food.

The girls eventually go to a nightclub with 1920s-style dancers and cause a ruckus. Marie II also goes to the apartment of a man who is a butterfly collector. In this scene, there are a lot of butterflies shown as still frames. At the end, she says that she wants to eat. Later on, they go to a factory. There are still frames of locks, and the building looks run down. They look for “nourishment” and stumble upon a feast presumably set out for communist leaders. They eat the food, make a mess and destroy the room. It then cuts to them being dunked in water like witches. They decide to go back and make everything right again, and at the end a giant chandelier crushes them.

Stills from the film

First time in Deptford cinema

/DeptfordCinema@DeptfordCinema

Exhibition + Live Music + Live Visuals

"People usually try to sound to more impressive when they are talking about their jobs. I do not care anymore. OK, so I have a Masters and I am waiting tables. That is my only paid job at the moment. I need to make money to live and pay the rent. I need to stop being ashamed of that. My job doesn't define, me. It is such a prevalent stereotype that only stupid people are waitresses. Yes, many people who work in hospitality work in this industry because they have no other choice but it is also unfair to those who have chosen a career in hospitality. "

DEPTFORD CINEMA / 20 TH APRIL/8PM

(pelisky) is a 1999 czech film by jan hrebejk based on the novel “flaming feces” by petr sa-bach.

Pelisky (Cosy Dens, 1999) is set in the Prague suburbs over two close periods of time, Christ-mas 1967 and the days leading up to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia on 21 August 1968. Sebek is a high-rank-ing military commander who is fiercely loyal to the Communist regime, whilst Kraus, his neigh-bour, is a veteran of the resis-tance and a true Czech patriot. Being a Czech film, one might suppose that the patriot comes out glowingly, whilst the Party man is lampooned. In this film, however, both are made to look equally ridiculous.

Plot: Pelíšky is a bittersweet coming-of-age story set in the months from Christmas 1967 leading up to the ill-fated 1968 Prague Spring.

Teenager Michal Šebek (Mi-chael Beran) has a crush on his upstairs neighbor, Jindřiška Krausová (Kristýna Nováková). Michal’s family is headed by a stubborn army officer who is a firm supporter of the commu-nist system and who believes that communist technology will eventually triumph over west-ern imperialist capitalism, while Jindřiška’s father is an ardent foe of the Communists and a war hero, who has been im-prisoned several times because of his outspoken opposition to the regime; he believes that “the Bolsheviks have a year at most, maybe two”. In con-trast, the younger generation couldn’t care less for politics. Instead, Michal sports a Beat-les mop-top while Elien (Ondřej Brousek), the local hipster

whose parents live in the USA, runs a local film group special-ising in Hollywood and pre-war French films, while Jindřiška becomes Elien’s girlfriend. After a wedding that unites the fami-lies, the film ends with the news breaking of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact.

A dispute in the film illustrates the tension between the nation-alistic and fervently anti-Com-munist father and Jindřiška, who is more apolitical. Jindřiška dares to suggest that her moth-er’s dumplings are closer to Italian gnocchi than traditional Czech knedliky (translated as “Viennese dumplings” in the English subtitles), sending her father into a rage. The plastic spoon on the poster refers to the gifts, miracles of “socialist science”, that a Šebek uncle keeps sending the family and which always fail to perform as promised, humiliating the Mr. Šebek. Both cases foreshadow how the political hopes of the fathers are destroyed by the coming Soviet invasion.

cosy dens

Still from the film

Identity Card (Občanský Průkaz) is a Czech/Slovak film from 2010. This bittersweet comedy was direct-ed by Ondřej Trojan. Trojan collaborated with Ján Hřebejk on several successful films, such as Pelíšky (Cosy Dens), Pupendo, or Musíme si Pomáhat (Di-vided We Fall). Divided We Fall was nominated for an Oscar for the Best Foreign Film.

Initial release: October 21, 2010(Czech Republic)Director: Ondřej TrojanInitial DVD release: March 30, 2011 (Czech Republic)Music composed by: Petr OstrouchovScreenplay: Petr Šabach, Petr Jarchovský

identity card

05.05.2016 / doors 7.30PM / FILM 8PM#CzSkStories £5.00 / £3.50 con.

The The story follows the lives of four adolescent young men, Peter, Alex, Cinde-rella, and Mita, their friends, loves and parents, as the boys reach the age of fi-fteen and receive their first national identification card. The film follows their progression to eighteen when they try to escape army service by getting a ‘blue book’. The film takes place in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, when not having an ID card would be asking for trouble, and when compulsory military service was for many teenagers the biggest dilemma.

A Film by ondrej trojan

Deptford Cinema is being built by the community for the community, as a 42 seat cinema with a cafe/bar. Cinema is run by volunteers and is under the con-struction run also by volunteers. The programming of the events and films are open to anybody in the community to show the films they want, and thereby become a hub for all things to film in Lewisham. The cost of the cinema ticket today is 5, cinema provide cheaper concession tickets to allow every-body to experience film. All the money goes back to the cinema - for paying rent, electricity, stocking up the bar and so on. The cinema also pays for the film licences if is affordable.

Deptford Cinema is a project built by the community for the community.The Deptford Cinema is the only cinema in Lewish-am. The Deptford Cinema is the project designed to rectify this with a building of a new venue for film on Deptford Broadway.

Photo: Gabriela Zigova, Deptford cinema archive,2015

The Elementary School - The worldwide premiere of digitally remastered Academy Award Nomi-nee for the Best Foreign Fiction Film. A film by Jan ‘Kolya’ Svěrák.

MONDAY 28 MARCH 2016

Celebrating the 80th birthday of his father, Czech actor, screenwriter and much loved Czech cultural icon Zdeněk Svěrák, film director Jan Svěrák and Zdeněk Svěrák’s fans are organising a worldwide birthday celebration with the premiere of digitally remastered, Academy Award Nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film, The Elementary School. Set in the world of short trousers and long homework, this was the first creative collaboration by the father-and-son team which in 1997 was awarded an Oscar for their next collaborative project, Kolya. We hope you enjoyed the celebration by coming to see The Elementary School with us and singing the birthday song written by Jaroslav Uhlíř. Award Nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Photoreport from The Elementary School screening and celebration of Zdenek Sverak 80th birthday at Deptford Cinema. 28/03/2016, photo: Adriana Kytkova, Gabriela Zigova

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeptfordCinema/?fref=tsWebsite: http://www.deptfordcinema.org/Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeptfordCinema#CzSkStories#CzSkSeason

Let us know if you have any questions : deptford@luciekordacova.com adriana@deptfordcinema.org gabriela.zigova@gmail.com