The first films of Vera Chytilova coincided with the emergence in the sixties of the Czechoslovak 'New Wave', of which she became one of the most innovative and radical exponents. Apart from this she is also the first, and still the only, overtly feminist filmmaker in Czechoslovakia. Vera Chytilova originally studied philosophy and architecture, and did various jobs- draftswoman, model, script girl- before obtaining a place at the Prague Film School (FAMU), where she studied directing.
Her graduaton film "Strop" (1961), and her debut film at the Barrandov studios, "Pytel blech" (1962), encountered the displeasure of the authorities, and it took a year of negotiation for these two medium-length films to be released. They were shown together in 1962 under the title "U stropo je pytel blech" / "There's a Bag of Fleas on the Ceiling". In the style of cinema verite, and influenced by American underground cinema, these films offer a personal contemplation of the lot of women and a moralizing, sarcastic tract against hypocrisy. Here, as in most of her later films, Chytilova uses nonactors to achieve the effect of authenticity. Her film "O necem jinem" (1963) is one of the best produced during the 'New Wave'. In it, she remained true to the cinema verite method but introduced a more philosophical note to Czech film by showing the parallelism of success and failure, the relativity of two totally dissimilar 'women's destinies'. As with "Strop" and most of her later films, the subject is looked at from a feminist standpoint and the ending is inconclusive. The director, throughout her work, encourages the viewer to become actively involved in the creation of meaning; and in her search for 'the truth', form fulfills an important role. Chytilova once declared: Beauty is the means and not the end- but if we were to forget that, we might say: if formalism, then beautiful.' This could be said of most of Chytilova's films. On "Sedmikrasky" (1966) and "Ovoce stromu rajskych jime" (1969, Chytilova worked in close cooperation with another leading Czech filmmaker and designer, Ester Krumbachova. These two films, which are also formally innovative, were not appreciated by those in authority. Between 1969 and 1975 Chytilova was unable to work, and despite being invited to numerous women's film festivals, was not allowed to attend. In 1975 she finally wrote a letter to President Husak refuting the accusations against her, explaining her work and attributing her problems to male chauvinism within the industry. Since 1976, Chytilova has completed ten short and feature-length films. Her latest film, "Kopytem sem, kopyem tam", which premiered in 1989, is the first film in Eastern Europe about AIDS.
(Copyright - Zuzana Blueh) |
