Topic Archive Culture
Two leftfield classical music festivals get underway in Prague
In this week's Arts, we look at two slightly offbeat classical music
festivals: the wonderfully eclectic Strings of Autumn event, which is
celebrating its tenth aniversary, and Prague's International Chamber Music
Festival, which promotes an often-neglected side of classical music.
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Joyce Pritchard: visit to ancestral Czech villages in Romania "the trip of a lifetime"
In today's special programme we meet Joyce Pritchard, an American woman who
recently went back to her roots, when she visited the isolated Czech
villages in Romania from which her great-grandparents emigrated a century
ago. She and 14 other Americans of Czech-Romanian descent met long-lost
relatives and experienced old Czech customs in a region somewhat left
behind by the modern world. It was, says Joyce Pritchard, the trip of a
lifetime.
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Roman Polanski's "Oliver Twist" premieres in Prague
One of the world's most famous film directors, Roman Polanski, was in
Prague this weekend to attend the premiere of his latest movie Oliver
Twist, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel of life on the
streets of Victorian London. Oliver Twist is the latest major movie to be
filmed in Prague, mostly at the city's Barrandov studios. So is it any
good? Theo Schwinke, editorial director of Monitor CE, publishers of the
Prague Daily Monitor, was at the premiere.
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Something Like Happiness clinches Best Film award at San Sebastian
"Something Like Happiness", a new film by Czech director Bohdan
Slama, won its first major success on the international stage at the
weekend, clinching the Best Film award at the prestigious San Sebastian
film festival. To add to the film's success, Ana Geislerova won Best
Actress for her portrayal of a woman suffering from severe mental problems
in the film, about ordinary people trying to survive the trials and
tribulations of life. Tomas Baldynsky is a film critic for the magazine
Reflex.
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Daria In and Out - the life of a Czech prima ballerina presented both on and off-stage
Prima ballerina Daria Klimentova is undoubtedly one of the most popular
Czech dancers ever, with an impressive career in the Prague National
Theatre Ballet, the Cape Ballet Company in Cape Town, the Scottish Ballet
in Glasgow, and since 1996 the English National Ballet. On Tuesday, an
exhibition of 60 photographs opened to the public in the foyer of the
Albert Hall that depicts her career both on and off stage.
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No Eurovision for the Czech Republic?!
Many of you are probably familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest, an
annual contest in which European countries compete for the best pop song.
It has been taking place since 1956, and hundreds of millions of people
all around the world now tune into it each year. But those hundreds of
millions do not include the Czechs.
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Salvage of Cultural Heritage project continues
The "Salvage of Cultural Heritage" is a project whose main
objective is to seek and preserve significant works by our famous
predecessors which are important for our time as well as for future
generations. The project includes some of the original scores by great
Czech composers from the 19th century, but also the renovation of other
cultural sites, such as Charles Bridge in Prague, the Baroque theatre in
Cesky Krumlov or the house where Gustav Mahler was born at Kaliste near
Humpolec.
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