Topic Archive Culture
Josef Lada – landscape painter and Švejk illustrator
As one art critic once said, the paintings of Josef Lada accompany Czechs
from cradle to grave. He is as well known for his illustrations of fairy
tales and children’s readers as he is for his landscapes, which each
Christmas are printed thousands of times over on the front of the
nation’s Christmas cards. Lada was also the artist who gave the grinning,
rotund Good Soldier Švejk his form.
More
Citizen Havel premieres at Berlin Film Festival
Citizen Havel – a fly-on-the-wall documentary following former head of
state Václav Havel through two presidential terms - has been a big success
amongst Czech cinemagoers since its release two weeks ago. But how will
foreign audiences react to the film? Last night, Citizen Havel was
premiered to an international audience at the Berlin Film Festival. Czech
journalist Tereza Brdečková was there, she described the atmosphere at
the event:
More
Lenka Vochocová: checking out people’s prejudices
Lenka Vochocová is twenty-eight, but looks more like eighteen. She may not
look like it, but she has already managed to establish and successfully run
an NGO called Inventura which helps people with learning disabilities. She
has also organized a film festival screening animated films made by some of
the people her NGO has helped. I met Lenka Vochocová at her office in
Prague’s Smíchov district, to ask her more about her activities:
More
Lamis Khalilová: Dumplings with an Arabic sauce
Lamis Khalilová is half Czech and half Palestinian. She is the head of the
Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at the Metropolitan University in Prague
and is a member of the board of directors of Amnesty International for the
Czech Republic. The battle for human rights is something that she cares
about passionately and she has taken a particular interest in the complex
problems faced by women in many parts of the Middle East. Lamis Khalilová
also writes poetry and took part in the Poetry Festival that was held in
the Czech Republic last November. We have heard a few languages in this
programme over the years, including Romany, Slovak, Romanian and Latvian,
but
when I met Lamis at her office, she began by reciting a poem in a language
that we have not yet featured in Czech Books. More
Seventy-five years of film at Barrandov studios
Last week Prague’s Barrandov studios celebrated 75 years of movie-making.
On January 25, 1933, filming started on the thriller ‘Vrazda v Ostrovni
ulici’ (Murder on Ostrovni street), a film which dazzled Czech critics
and cinemagoers at the time with its state of the art sound effects. Over
the years, the studios have played home to the famous Czech new-wave films
of the 1960s, and in more recent years Hollywood blockbusters like James
Bond and The Chronicles of Narnia. Earlier this week I paid Barrandov a
visit to wish it a happy birthday and talk to Mr Vladimír Kuba, the
studios’ CEO:
More
Seventh and final Harry Potter launched in Czech
After months of anticipation, and several unauthorized versions finding
their way onto the internet, the Czech translation of the seventh and
final
Harry Potter book has been released. On Wednesday night, hundreds queued
for a copy of Harry Potter a Relikvie Smrti – the Czech version of Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The official launch was held at
Kanzelsberger bookshop, and organized by Klára Honzíková, to whom I
spoke earlier today. She said she was happy with attendance at the launch: More
Citizen Havel lifts curtain on playwright-turned-president’s decade in office
Citizen Havel, a new fly-on-the-wall documentary about the former Czech
president, premiered on Wednesday night in Prague. The film draws on 45
hours of unique behind-the-scenes footage of Václav Havel shot over a
period of 13 years. The result is a film that lifts the curtain on the
Havel presidency, in a way that no other politician has been captured on
screen before.
More
Tomáš Baldýnský – film critic AND chair of state film support body
Tomáš Baldýnský is one of the Czech Republic’s leading film critics
and is known for not pulling any punches in his reviews. He is also the
unpaid chairman of the government body which supports Czech film-making,
though his term in the post ends soon. When we met the other day we
discussed how he manages to reconcile those two activities. But that was
after I put it to Tomáš Baldýnský that given the fact most movies
aren’t particularly good, it must be hard to maintain his enthusiasm for
reviewing.
More
“Magic Eights” film festival looks back at 1918, 1938, 1948, 1968…
There’s a rather unusual film festival underway at Prague’s Ořechovka
cinema at the moment. Called “The Magic Eights”, it examines the
strange significance of the number "8" in modern Czech history.
The festival features around a dozen films either made in or about the
crucial moments in this country’s recent past, most of which occurred in
a year ending in "8".
More
Karel Gott
In this edition of Music Profile we take a brief look back at the long
career of the undisputed king of Czech pop music, Karel Gott. The
multi-million selling singer released his first single, a jazzy duet, in
1962. Just twelve months later Gott was voted Czechoslovakia's best singer;
by the end of the decade he had become an international star.
More
+1
+10
