Preceding Generations - (By Mira & Antonin J. Liehm - 1977) - Movies - http://maxpages.com/czechcinema/2_Preceding

One thing that was caracteristic of the exceptional upsurge in Czechoslovak film between 1963 and 1969 was the fact that although the youngest generation dominated the scene, the 'Czechoslovak Film Miracle' was not only their affair. It was as if what three generations had striven to achieve- the prewar generation, the postwar generation, and the 'second' generation of 1956- was suddenly coming to pass in this period. Film-makers of all generations were finally, for the first time, finding it possible to make films the way they wanted, the way they felt they should be made, and to arrive at some measure of self-realization.
Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos pushed directly into contemporary problems with "The Defendant" ("Obzalovany" - 1964). A classical 'trial film', and social-conscience picture, but on a timely theme: three men stand before a court of law, accused of economic crimes. It gradually becomes apprent, however, that it is the nonsensical state economic system that stands accused, accused of punishing people who display personal initiative, take risks, and achieve success in spite of the system. In the film's conclusion, the hero refuses the compromise offered by the court, preferring to return to prison, because that is the only way that he can even hope to see the true culprits finally brought to trial. It was the film audience that became the true judge, and in its open end, the film turns to the viewers as a court of last resort. Following this film, their most political, Kodar and Klos finally won international acclaim. On the surface, their "The Shop on Main Street" ("Obchod Na Korze" - 1965) appeared to be a story of the persecution of Jews in the fascist Slovak state during World War Two. But in fact Kadar and Klos used this plot as a vehicle to express a more universal moral credo- their hatred of indifference and opportunism and of all oppression. Once again they reminded their audiences: 'You all share responsibility, no one can escape from himself.'
It was a leading representative of the generation of 1956, Vojtech Jasny, who declared in 1963 that Czechoslovak film-makers are aware of this responsibility, that they don't intend to keep silent any longer, and that from then on, they would call things by their right names. "Cassandra Cat" ("Az Prijde Kocour" - 1963) was a modern fairy tale, one of the political morality films that became so typical in those years. Stylized to the extreme, almost a kind of film ballet, it was the story of a magic cat whose gaze made everyone show his true colors: it not only opened a Pandora's box of taboo subject matter, it also broke the lock on the chest that for so many years had confined visual fantasy. Following "Desire", it was another pioneering feat, and it was no accident that Jasny was to conclude this era of film-making- after the unsuccessful international coproduction of "Pipes" ("Dymky" - 1966)- with one of the most significant films of 1968, "All My Countrymen" (Vsichni Dobri Rodaci").
The dominant 'young wave' succeeded, by means of its elan and its example, in inspiring many of the older film-makers who seemed already to have thrown in the towel. Such, for example was the case of Otakar Vavra, teacher of many of the young people at the film academy, who in the mid-sixties emerged with two of his very best films, "Golden Rennet" (Zlata Reneta" - 1965), a portrait of intellectual cowardice in the early fifties, and "Romance for Trumpet" (Romance Pro Kridlovku" - 1966), about the drama of growing up in the Southern Bohemian countryside that Vavra had used as a setting in several earlier films. It was no coincidence that the author of the story on which each of these films was based was Frantisek Hrubin, the same poet who years earlier had reminded Czech writers of the metaphor of the swan frozen in the ice.
Jiri Weiss and Jiri Krejcik were other members of the previous generations to catch their second breath in this period. In his fairy-tale spectacular, "The Golden Fern" ("Zlate Kapradi" - 1963), Weiss confirmed his somewhat cool mastery of film material. "Ninety in the Shade" ("Tricet Jedna Ve Stinu" - 1966), a psychological mystery aimed at the hypocrisy and immorality of society, made in coproduction with Great Britain, suffered as a result of the misalliance of Czech material and the ambitions of an international coproduction. "Murder Czech Style" ("Vrazda Po Nasem" - 1967) took its place in the bitter moralizing context of the sixties. Through the story of a wool-gathering office worker, Weiss attempted to show Czech indecisiveness, pettiness, and opportunism in a mixture of the imaginary and the real. Krejcik was also successful in this area in "Wedding Under Supervision" ("Svatba Jako Remen - 1967), which tied in with the tradition of black and grotesque humor that strongly colored his prewar student days. One of his very best films, it was something of a screwball comedy, exposing the dullness of both the old and the new petty bourgeoisie and the representatives of law and order. Later the same year, he made a comedy based on a farce by Sean O'Casey "Boarding House for Bachelors" ("Penzion Pro Svobodne Pany" - 1967), noteworthy above all for the acting.
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