Otakar Vávra
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Otakar Vávra (February 28, 1911 in Hradec Králové, Austria-Hungary, now the Czech Republic) is a Czech film director, script writer and pedagogue.
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[edit] Movies
Vávra attended the Universities in Brno and Prague, where he studied architecture. During 1929-30, still a student, he participated in couple of documentaries and wrote movie scripts. In the 1931 Otakar Vávra produced an experimental film Světlo proniká tmou (Light Penetrating Darkness). The first movie he directed was Filosofská historie in 1937.
His first feature film was Cech panen Kutnohorských (The Virgins' Club), starring Zorka Janů, sister of the legendary movie actress Lída Baarová. Zorka Janů also played in Vávra's 1940's movies Rubens' Caper and Patient of Dr. Hegel. Lída Baarová starred in Vávra's 1937-1941 films Virginity, Masked Paramour, Girl in the Blue, and Turbine.
After 1945 Vávra filmed Krakatit (The Explosive), a movie with strong anti-war message. After communist takeover of power in 1948 Vávra had adapted to the new situation and produced films praising the new regime and epic historical frescoes supporting the official interpretation of the past. Later period, when political regime got more liberal, was the most fruitful: movies The Golden Apple, Romance for Cornet, Malleus Maleficarum and Comedian belong to his best. After communist party lost its power in 1989 state subsidies for film industry were dropped and Vávra's plans for historical epic Evropa tančila valčík (Europe was dancing the Waltz) were scaled down.
[edit] The pedagogue
In the 1950's, Otakar Vávra, together with a group of other Czech movie directors, helped to establish the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Filmová Akademia muzických umění, FAMU), where he taught for over five decades (after 1963 as a professor). Among his students were Miloš Forman (Taking Off, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Hair, Amadeus, Valmont, Goya's Ghosts) and other movie directors of the 1960's "Czech New Wave" of art films.
[edit] Looking back
Otakar Vávra's life-long work as a movie director, ever since the time he brought his first reel of the Agfa film with him back from Germany in 1930's, through the years of the Bohemia-Moravia protectorate of the 1940's to the end of socialist Czechoslovakia in the 1990's was indellibly marked by the tradition of the middle-European cinematography (cf., Sakkara, 1980). This tradition expired in Germany and Austria at the end of the World War II in 1945 and in the Czech Republic after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Around that time Otakar Vávra begins to write his autobiography Podivný život režiséra (Strange Life of a Movie Director) concluded with "... and now I wait for THE END. My end." We might as well delete the period and add " and the end of an era."
Many call Otakar Vávra the Father of Czech Cinematography (Otec českého filmu). In 2001 he was awarded by prize Czech Lion (Český lev) for his life-long contribution to Czech culture [1] and in year 2004 by presidential Medal of Merit (Medaile za zásluhy). [2] The critics point to Vávra's accommodation to the wishes of communist regime.
[edit] Selected movies
[edit] Malleus Maleficarum
Otakar Vávra's magnum opus was Kladivo na čarodějnice (Malleus Maleficarum, also translated as Witches' Hammer or Witchhammer) ([3], 1969) based on Václav Kaplický’s book Kladivo na čarodějnice (1963), a novel about witch trials in Northern Moravia during the 1670s.
These trials started when an altar boy observed an old woman hiding the bread given out during communion. He alerted the priest who confronted the old woman. She admitted that she took the bread with the intent to give it to her cow to double its milk production. The priest reported the incident to the owner of the local estate who, in turn, called in inquisitor, a judge specializing in witchcraft trials.
Boblig from Edelstadt, the inquisitor, commenced an ever escalating series of trials, eventually involving hundreds of people. Eventually, 112 people were burned at the stake.
The black and white allegorical movie, full of symbols, follows the events from the beginning until the trial and execution of the priest. Unwillingness to stop the evil in the beginning only encourages the inquisitor to graduate his accusations and use torture. The vicious circle scares everyone from resistance.
[edit] Romance for Cornet
Otakar Vávra's most acclaimed movie was the Romance pro křídlovku (Romance for Cornet, also translated as Romance for Bugle) ([4], 1966). The black and white film is based on a poem by the Czech lyrical poet František Hrubín about a love story between a student, visiting his country home during the summer vacation and a daughter of a principal of an itinerant troupe of entertainers, briefly performing in the village. The lovers decide to escape, the girl packs her possessions, but the boy doesn't show up. That evening her father gives the girl to another performer, hoping he'll stay with his traveling show. The next morning the caravan of troupe's covered wagons is leaving the village. The boy shows up next to the road, belatedly searching for the girl. The girl gives him an empty look; her lover uses whip to strike him in the face.
[edit] Krakatit
Movie Krakatit (The Explosion) ([5], 1947) is based on novel Krakatit (1924) by Karel Čapek. An inventor of ultimate explosive tries to keep his invention secret against those who want to use it to rule the whole world.
The black and white version was followed, in 1980, by color remake Temné slunce (Dark Sun). The remake moved the storyline into modern era, was filled with propaganda and is seen as the weakest movie directed by Vávra.
[edit] References
- Sakkara, M. (1980) Die grosse Zeit des deutschen Films: 1933 - 1945. Leoni am Starnberg See: Druffel Verlag.
- Sebald, H. (1995) Witch-children: from Salem witch-hunts to modern courtrooms. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
- Vávra, O. (1996). Podivný život režiséra: Obrazy vzpominek. Praha: Prostor.
[edit] Filmography
- 2003 Moje Praha (My Prague)
- 1989 Evropa tančila valčík (...and Europe was dancing the Waltz)
- 1985 Oldřich a Božena (The Prince and the Maiden)
- 1985 Veronika (Veronique)
- 1984 Komediant (Comedian)
- 1983 Putování Jana Ámose (Comenius' Progress)
- 1980 Temné slunce (The Dark Sun)
- 1977 Příběh lásky a cti (About Love and Honor)
- 1976 Osvobození Prahy (The Liberation of Prague)
- 1974 Sokolovo (Red Army, Attack!)
- 1973 Dny zrady (Days of Betrayal)
- 1969 Kladivo na čarodějnice (Malleus Maleficarum)
- 1968 Třináctá komnata (The Forbidden Room)
- 1966 Romance pro křídlovku (Romance for Cornet)
- 1965 Zlatá reneta (The Golden Apple)
- 1962 Horoucí srdce (The Burning Heart)
- 1961 Noční host (The Night Visitor)
- 1960 Policejní hodina (The Hour of the Cop)
- 1960 Srpnová neděle (A Sunday in August)
- 1959 První parta (The Night Shift)
- 1958 Občan Brych (The Citizen)
- 1957 Proti všem (Against All Odds)
- 1955 Jan Žižka (The Hussites)
- 1954 Jan Hus (John Huss)
- 1953 Nástup (Jumping-off Point)
- 1949 Láska (Eternal Love)
- 1949 Němá barikáda (The Silent Barricade)
- 1947 Krakatit (The Explosive)
- 1947 Předtucha (The Foreboding)
- 1946 Cesta k barikádám (The Barricaded Road)
- 1946 Nezbedný bakalář (The Prankster)
- 1945 Rozina sebranec (Wayward Girl)
- 1945 Vlast vítá (My Country, Welcome!)
- 1943 Šťastnou cestu (Happy Journey!)
- 1942 Okouzlená (Enchanted Girl)
- 1942 Přijdu hned (I'll be there)
- 1941 Turbína (Turbine)
- 1940 Dívka v modrém (Girl in the Blue)
- 1940 Pacientka Dr. Hegla (Patient of Dr. Hegel)
- 1940 Podvod s Rubensem (Rubens' Caper)
- 1940 Pohádka máje (The Puppy Love)
- 1939 Humoreska (Humoresque)
- 1939 Kouzelný dům (Enchanted Mansion)
- 1939 Maskovaná milenka (Masked Paramour)
- 1938 Cech panen kutnohorských (The Virgins' Club)
- 1938 Na 100% (For Sure)
- 1937 Filosofská historie (Philosopher's Story)
- 1937 Panenství (Virginity)
- 1936 Velbloud uchem jehly (Camel through the Eye of the Needle)
- 1935 Listopad (November)
- 1934 Žijeme v Praze (Living in Prague)
- 1931 Světlo proniká tmou (Light Penetrating Darkness)
[edit] External links
- Otakar Vávra at the Internet Movie Database
- Short biography (in Czech)
- Complete filmography (in Czech)
