Jan Hřebejk
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Jan Hřebejk (born June 27, 1967 in Prague) is a Czech film director. He studied with his frequent scriptwriter Petr Jarchovský at secondary school and, from 1987 to 1991, at FAMU, an arts college in Prague for film and television, studying screenplay and dramaturgy.
During his FAMU studies, Hřebejk directed and producted two short films, Co všechno chcete vědět o sexu a bojíte se to prožít ("Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Experience", 1988) and L.P. 1948 – 1989 to a script by his classmate Petr Zelenka. His professional directorial debut was a short film for Czech TV, Nedělejte nic, pokud k tomu nemáte vážný důvod ("You Do Nothing Because You've Got No Good Reason", 1991). His films caught the attention of viewers and critics, and were entered into student film festivals.
Together with Petr Jarchovský, he also wrote during his FAMU studies a comedy screenplay, inspired by his background at a pioneer summer camp, Pějme píseň dohola ("Let's All Sing Around"). This screenplay was filmed as a full-length feature by director Ondřej Trojan and cameraman Asen Šopov in 1990.
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[edit] Filmography
- Dobročinný večírek ("Charity Benefit", 1992)
- Šakalí léta ("Big Beat", 1993)
- Kde padají hvězdy ("Where Stars Fall", 1996)
- Pelíšky ("Cosy Dens", 1999)
- Musíme si pomáhat ("Divided We Fall", 2000)
- Pupendo (2003)
- Horem pádem ("Up and Down, Loop the Loop", 2004)
[edit] Šakalí léta
It was a time of poverty and political darkness. A time when families gathered to watch the first television screens, when kids collected the packages from American cigarettes, and when a whole generation sought escape from a bleak socialist future. When "Baby" arrives in a suburb of Prague one day in the summer of 1959, he brings along more than just his guitar and flashy clothes: he brings a rock'n'roll revolution. A story about the generation gap; a story of breaking rules and breaking rules; but most of all, it's about how music can change a whole generation. Set in Dejvice, a working-class neighborhood of Prague, and centered around the Hotel International, Šakalí léta follows the lives of a gang of kids and teenagers, who, thanks to "Baby", find out there's more to life than the well-ordered system they've been taught to obey.
[edit] Pelíšky
This bittersweet coming-of-age story is set in the months leading up to the ill-fated 1968 Prague Spring. Teenager Michal Sebek (Michael Beran) develops a serious crush on his hip neighbor, Jindriska Kraus (Kristyna Novakova). The problem is that his family is headed by a dull-witted army officer who believes that the latest East German Tupperware will sufficiently shame those American imperialists, while her father is an ardent foe of the Communists saved from prison only because he is a war hero. Much to the parents' dismay, the younger generation couldn't give a fig for politics. Instead, Michal sports a Beatles mop-top and runs a local film group specializing in Hollywood and pre-war French films, while Jindriska starts hanging out with a mysterious hipster. Pelíšky was screened at the 1999 Vancouver Film Festival.
[edit] Musíme si pomáhat
The film opens in 1939, when some Jews are afraid of the Nazis. Horst, who is married to a German woman and collaborates with the Nazis, brings food to a nice childless couple, the invalid Josef and Marie. Josef hates the Nazis. Josef finds David, who has escaped the concentration camp. Josef and Marie hide him in their apartment. Horst makes an unannounced visit, bringing presents as usual. Marie is ambivalent about their secret: on one hand she never misses an opportunity to blame her husband for bringing in the Jew, but on the other hand she is merciful and sympathetic with the poor kid locked in the closet day and night. She suggests that Josef accepts Horst's job offer, so as to get more protection and deflect possible suspicions. Josef accepts, and is considered a collaborator by the neighbors, while Marie spends the days learning French from David, and getting more and more tender towards him, as if she, the childless mother, had finally found her baby to nurse and protect. Horst's visits become more frequent, and one evening a farce takes place. Josef gets the response: he can't have children. Humiliated, Horst takes revenge on Marie by forcing them to provide lodging for a Nazi officer. Marie refuses on the ground that she is pregnant. But now she has to get pregnant, and Josef proposes that David do it. Marie and David have sex. She does get pregnant, and Horst has to apologize to her. The times are changing. As the Germans are beginning to lose, Horst becomes more human. He saves their lives when the Germans search the street house by house. Finally, the Germans are defeated and people dance in the streets. The crowds attack the collaborators. Right then Marie has to give birth. Josef runs outside looking for a doctor to help. But everywhere is chaos.
He finally finds the new commander: his old neighbor Franta. But Franta remembers him as a collaborator and orders his arrest. Josef protests his innocence and invites them to check in person at his house, that he risked his life to protect a Jew. They allow him to pick his doctor. In the jails, Josef does not see his doctor but finds Horst, crouched in a corner. Josef risks his life one more time, this time to save the collaborator who saved his life once: Josef tells the partisans that Horst is a doctor. The partisans escort them to Josef's house, driving through the ruins of the city. In another slapstick-style scene, Horst pretends to be a doctor and helps Marie, who is terrified to see Horst acting as the doctor. Now Josef needs to produce the Jew, but David, scared by the armed men, has run out of the window. The captain of the partisans doesn't believe him and is about to shoot him without a trial, but David finally shows up. Josef can finally prove that he was a hero, not a collaborator. The baby is born. Both David and the neighbor Franta go along with Josef's lie about Horst, and let the partisans believe that he is indeed a doctor, thus saving his life. Days later, Josef walks the baby through the devastated streets of his city, as thousands of people are digging in the ruins (a symbol of hope).
The director manages to create a surreal tale and a philosophical epilogue out of a historical tragedy. The director increases the suspense and the tension by resorting to cinematic tricks such as low-frame shots, fuzzy focus, superimposition of images, expressionistic shading, etc. and comic, slapstick-like scenes accompanied by circus music.
[edit] Pupendo
Pupendo shows the difficulty of life in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s. Artist Baedrich Mara (Bolek Polivka) is unable to find much secure work due to his public antagonism toward the ruling Communist Party. He has a wife and two children. Life begins to change when art historian Alois Fabera (Jiri Pecha) begins working on a piece about Baedrich, leading to a job offer from a Party official. Things are looking up, until the wrong people hear portions of the historian's writing.
