Topic Archive Culture
Author Jaroslav Rudiš discusses Alois Nebel – graphic novel and film focussing on the fog of history and troubled European past
In this week’s Arts, I speak to Jaroslav Rudiš, the author of an
influential graphic novel (trilogy, actually) that delves into the fog of
history and troubled Central European past. The story of Alois Nebel – a
slightly mad railwayman working in a remote border region – it has been
made into a new film that premiered last week in the Czech Republic after
being featured in festivals in Venice and Toronto. More
New documentary depicts actor Jiří Voskovec’s life in US
A new documentary that will premiere in Czech cinemas next week depicts the
lesser known part of the life of the Czech-born actor Jiří (or George)
Voskovec. In his homeland, he is best known as the co-founder and co-star
of Prague’s pre-war avant-garde theatre troupe, the Liberated Theatre.
Having spent the war in exile in New York, Jiří Voskovec again moved to
the US after the 1948 communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. The new film,
entitled My Father George Voskovec, follows his daughter Gigi retracing her
father’s life, from the difficult beginnings through his career on
Broadway and in Hollywood, to his passing away in 1981, at the age of 76.
Jan Richter saw the documentary and spoke to its director, Libuše
Rudinská. More
Czech theatrical legend Jiří Suchý turns 80
The popular Czech actor, singer, songwriter, playwright, painter,
screenwriter and director Jiří Suchý turned 80 on Saturday. In top form,
the living legend of Czech theatre received standing ovations at a special
concert he held to celebrate his birthday at Prague’s Semafor theatre. More
Singer and songwriter James Harries
In this edition of our Sunday Music Show we talk to singer, songwriter and
guitarist James Harries, a Manchester native who has lived and worked in
the Czech Republic for the last 13 years. His sixth and latest album,
Growing Pains, is only one of the many interesting projects he is involved
in. More
Tax breaks threaten Czech film industry
Radio Prague is introducing Screen Czech - a monthly show devoted to film
and TV production here in the Czech Republic. Over the next few months
Peter Smith will be bringing you news about the industry and interviews
with the people most closely involved, both Czech and foreigners coming
here to work. There will also be a run down of all the latest Czech movie
news coming up. The first edition of Screen Czech deals with a
controversial issue that threatens to derail foreign investment in the
movie and TV industry here in the Czech Republic. Tax. More
Edith Pargeter: an English novelist in Prague
This week would have been the 98th birthday of Edith Pargeter, an English
writer who translated many of the Czech classics. You may well have come
across her under the penname Ellis Peters that she adopted for much of her
fiction. Under this alias she created two of the most famous fictional
detectives in twentieth century crime writing, Sergeant George Felse, and
the medieval monastic sleuth Brother Cadfael. In Czech Books this week,
David Vaughan explores Edith Pargeter’s special relationship to
Czechoslovakia. More
Photographer Jiří Jírů on life behind the Iron Curtain, exile and ‘Photostroika’
Jiří Jírů developed a love for photography from his uncle, the
avant-garde Czech photographer Václav Jírů, before studying the
discipline in Brussels and working for US publications such as Time and
Newsweek. In the course of his career, Jiří Jírů has snapped celebrities
ranging from the Bee Gees to Queen Elizabeth II, and spent almost a decade
working as President Václav Havel’s official photographer. Jírů divides
his time between Prague and Brussels, which is where he found himself on
August 21, 1968: More
A tale of two brothers, and the building of a nation
For the occasion of September 28, I’m here at a place that some people
actually call the real centre of the Czech Republic. Not the geographic
centre to be sure, but certainly the focal point for much of the Czech
Republic’s rocky modern-day history. It’s a statue of a man on a horse
(which people call ‘the horse’ when they arrange one of the hundreds of
meetings that take place here each day). But it’s of course the man on
the horse that has overseen everything over the last hundred years from the
declaration of Czechoslovak independence to the various political
demonstrations that gravitate here today. Above me is of course Saint
Václav, or Wenceslas, from which the surrounding square takes its name,
and his likeness has adorned this place for at least three hundred years,
in different incarnations. Legend has it that when worse comes to worst for
the Czech lands he will come un-petrified, and ride away to quash their
enemies – a disconcerting prophesy when one considers the parades of
Nazis and Communists that the statue saw come and go. But even in that,
there is a good point to be made: this symbol of Czech statehood is
indomitable; the legacy of St. Václav rides on through the ages, now for
about the 1,076th year. More
Egon Erwin Kisch – the Raging Reporter
One of Prague’s best known German-language authors was Egon Erwin Kisch,
who was born in the Czech capital 125 years ago this Thursday. His
excellent style and original choice of stories, together with his dramatic
life, earned him a reputation of the ‘Raging Reporter’ that is still
very much alive today. More
Christopher Harwood – professor of Czech at Columbia University
Christopher Harwood is a lecturer in Czech at Columbia University in New
York. When I met him at his office on Columbia’s Upper West Side campus,
we discussed Czech literature, the difficulties of learning Czech, and how
Professor Harwood himself had become good enough at the language to teach
it at one of the world’s leading universities. More
+1
+10
+100
