Golden Sixties

If he were to choose today between creating under ideological demands or commercial demands, he would again choose the latter possibility. The famous American film director made, despite that, in the communist Czechoslovakia of the sixties the following films, which belong to the best of our cinematography: Audition (Konkurs, 1963), Black Peter (Černý Petr, 1963), Loves of a Blond (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965), The Firemen’s Ball (Hoří, má panenko, 1967). His fate as a war orphan had thought him to fight the circumstances in a similar way in which the heroes of his multi-Oscar films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984). And also, to believe the ordinary truth and the ordinary people, his intuition and his coworkers and lifelong friends Ivan Passer, Jaroslav Papoušek and Miroslav Ondříček.

In 2008, he ended his fifty-year lasting teaching career, even then he didn’t resign from the idea of another film. First film, The Light Penetrates the Darkness (Světlo proniká tmou), he made as a twenty-year young man in 1931 and since then there have been countless films made by him, feature films and documentaries. He worked in his adult life in all regimes, often as the first and always perfectly prepared director and as a screenwriter. There is no more controversial figure among Czech directors – the creator rising so many exciting emotions, who in the same time made so many key shots in the Czech cinematography. And who as a demanding teacher brought up so many students, his future competitors. He himself in contact with them also recovered, as evidenced by his movies Golden Queen (Zlatá reneta, 1965), Romance for Bugle (Romance pro křídlovku, 1966), The Thirteenth Chamber (Třináctá komnata, 1968) and Witches’ Hammer (Kladivo na čarodějnice, 1969).

This 2009 documentary on Juraj Herz features in-depth interviews and copious clips from the director's work. Interview subjects include film-world luminaries Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Miroslav Ondříček, Otakar Vávra, and more.