
Directing
Evald Schorm
Born 1931-12-15 · Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]
At one time, Czech director Evald Schorm was known as "the conscience of the Czech New Wave" and was known for using film to promote notions of compassion, equality, and individualism in the face of social structure. Originally an opera singer, the Prague native studied filmmaking at the prestigious F.A.M.U. between 1957 and 1962. He went on to create documentaries with the Documentary Film Studio in Prague. Schorm also worked as a film actor. Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Communist government repressed his films. Still, Schorm remained in Czechoslovakia and directed opera, stage plays, and sometimes television shows. He returned to feature filmmaking in the late '80s, but died of heart failure in 1988.
Acting credits
6.8A group of the bourgeois head for a prominent figure's birthday party. As they venture through the woods and have a picnic, they're suddenly surrounded by some suspicious strangers.
The Party and the Guests
1966
6.4Mr. Dezső and Rezső are selecting the heroes for their new operetta. They represent different tastes and styles, and keep arguing about the casting of the four men and four women.
Bastion Promenade Seventy Four
1974
6.5In the 1950s, Ludvik Jahn was expelled from the Communist Party and the University by his fellow students, because of a politically incorrect note he sent to his girlfriend. Fifteen years later, he tries to get his revenge by seducing Helena, the wife of one of his accusers.
The Joke
1969
6.2A gifted poet checks into a Gothic hotel in hopes of meeting the woman with whom he has long been enamored. He is surrounded by a variety of offbeat characters like the hefty homosexual cook, shadowy clerks, snooty waiters, and valets prone to violence. He finally meets the woman of his dreams only to lose her and ultimately meet with tragedy.
Hotel for Strangers
1967
6.2A gifted poet checks into a Gothic hotel in hopes of meeting the woman with whom he has long been enamored. He is surrounded by a variety of offbeat characters like the hefty homosexual cook, shadowy clerks, snooty waiters, and valets prone to violence. He finally meets the woman of his dreams only to lose her and ultimately meet with tragedy.
Hotel for Strangers
1967
8.0A twelve-year-old is looking for his biological parents after discovering the fact that he was adopted.
Escape Home
1980
No synopsis available yet.
Ilda
1984
Documentary about the film academy in Prague and the Czech Film in 1965.
An Occasion to Speak
1966
5.5The story of a music academy student Zdenek, who meets a charming girl, and without realizing also gets a son with her. Dealing with such a situation is not easy, especially when one day the child's mother disappears. Twenty year old Zdenek faces a serious decision. Although he is aware that a child may endanger his studies and perhaps even future career, he refuses to entrust him to the care of the state institution.
Landscape with Furniture
1987
Behind the camera
Showing his own original footage of Prague Spring, director Evald Schorm describes the atmosphere these days in 1968.
Confusion
1969
7.5A short documentary about the work of railwaymen and life on the railway.
Railwaymen
1963
7.5A short documentary about the work of railwaymen and life on the railway.
Railwaymen
1963
Artistic reportage from the construction of the Orlík Reservoir. One day on the large-scale construction site and the roles of individual workers in it, i.e. the construction manager, sprinklers, workers, crane operator and others.
Blok 15
1959
Artistic reportage from the construction of the Orlík Reservoir. One day on the large-scale construction site and the roles of individual workers in it, i.e. the construction manager, sprinklers, workers, crane operator and others.
Blok 15
1959
A leading director of the Czech film renaissance provides a philosophical meditation on life and death, set amidst complex hospital apparatus and the sadness, hope, or resignation of the patients. Existentialist rather than optimist, the approach is one of humanistic atheism, accepting death as part of life. Interviews with doctors and nurses explore their outlook; all speak of death as a fact, without either sentimentality or religiosity. The studied objectivity of the film only imperfectly hides an intense emotionality.
Reflection
1966
A leading director of the Czech film renaissance provides a philosophical meditation on life and death, set amidst complex hospital apparatus and the sadness, hope, or resignation of the patients. Existentialist rather than optimist, the approach is one of humanistic atheism, accepting death as part of life. Interviews with doctors and nurses explore their outlook; all speak of death as a fact, without either sentimentality or religiosity. The studied objectivity of the film only imperfectly hides an intense emotionality.
Reflection
1966
5.8A stuffy middle-aged foreigner, a businessman named Fabricius, lonely and looking for a night's diversion, finds it in the form of a mysterious blonde. In an abandoned cemetery, she tells him three tales involving black magic and erotic obsession. In "The Last Golem," a young rabbi struggles to fashion a massive, silent giant out of living clay — until he's distracted by a mute servant girl. In the second episode, "Bread Slippers," an 18th-century countess indulges her passion for sweet cakes, adulterous affairs, and secret kisses with pretty maids until a mysterious visitor whisks her away to an abandoned mansion, where Fate has a different kind of dance in store for her. And in the final story, "Poisoned Poisoner," a ravishing murderess in the Middle Ages dispatches lecherous merchants to the tune of upbeat '60s Czech pop songs.
Prague Nights
1969
5.8A stuffy middle-aged foreigner, a businessman named Fabricius, lonely and looking for a night's diversion, finds it in the form of a mysterious blonde. In an abandoned cemetery, she tells him three tales involving black magic and erotic obsession. In "The Last Golem," a young rabbi struggles to fashion a massive, silent giant out of living clay — until he's distracted by a mute servant girl. In the second episode, "Bread Slippers," an 18th-century countess indulges her passion for sweet cakes, adulterous affairs, and secret kisses with pretty maids until a mysterious visitor whisks her away to an abandoned mansion, where Fate has a different kind of dance in store for her. And in the final story, "Poisoned Poisoner," a ravishing murderess in the Middle Ages dispatches lecherous merchants to the tune of upbeat '60s Czech pop songs.
Prague Nights
1969
5.8A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat farmer and his mother; guests at a wedding reception remain oblivious to outlying misery; and a working-class boy romances a Roma girl.
Pearls of the Deep
1966
5.8A quintet of vignettes based on short stories by Bohumil Hrabal: an eventful trip to the motorcycle races results in drunkenness, long-winded discussions, and death; two elderly men create false biographies; insurance agents visit an eccentric painter/goat farmer and his mother; guests at a wedding reception remain oblivious to outlying misery; and a working-class boy romances a Roma girl.
Pearls of the Deep
1966
A veristic investigation into life at a boarding school for girls on the Czech-Polish border. The austere black and white camera captures everyday moments, the work in the factory and the students' leisure activities. The inner world of the female protagonists is presented in a stylized commentary read by Iva Janžurová. For political reasons, the film was shown in cinemas under the name of cameraman Přemysl Prokop.
Křepelky
1969
10.0The first short story "Naked in the Thorns" tells the story of a man whose clothes were taken away by a dog during his bath in the river. In the second short story "Games of Love", a retired professor paints a biblical scene of Susan and the old man. In the last short story, "Fidelity", the dog Argos perishes while defending his beloved master.
Dogs and People
1971
A dialogue between judge and convict, winner and loser, which offers the viewer a reflection on the relativity of guilt, heroism and crime in the world of "isms".
Revenge
1969
6.2A verger, who likes to dress as a priest, is invited, by one of the villagers, to be the pastor at a vacant church. The atheist teacher resents the pastor, and tries to embarrass him in various ways, including being caught with the local girl, Majka.
The End of a Priest
1969
6.2A verger, who likes to dress as a priest, is invited, by one of the villagers, to be the pastor at a vacant church. The atheist teacher resents the pastor, and tries to embarrass him in various ways, including being caught with the local girl, Majka.
The End of a Priest
1969
5.9Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly satisfied man decide to end his own life. Jan's pretty wife Jana (Jana Brejchová) claims not to know about anything but she is conducting an affair with a family friend, almost publicly and with the blessing of her parents.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
1967
5.9Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly satisfied man decide to end his own life. Jan's pretty wife Jana (Jana Brejchová) claims not to know about anything but she is conducting an affair with a family friend, almost publicly and with the blessing of her parents.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
1967
The popular folk singer Jaro Zárubecký, a former waiter, follows the motto "A man is not what he is, but what people think of him", and that is how he is raising his son. He lives only for him. Even though he feels successful, he still tries to equal those "above" him out of a certain feeling of inferiority and wants to bring his son to that level. He learns that Paul is in a group of boys who, for lack of other interests and out of recession, let off gas so that whoever shuts him up will become a "coward". Zárubecký is willing to protect his son even at the cost of losing his job and his life partner...
Lítost
1970
In creating the film, Evald Schorm and Jan Špáta took full advantage of the possibilities offered by the Cinemascope format and created a visual poem about the beauty and fate of trees and the simple life of people in the mountains. Dynamically slow, artistic shots of majestic nature alternate with civil documentary, yet lyrical details of human work. The film emphasizes the work and social changes in the lives of lumberjacks, but on a broader scale, it also reflects on the passage of time, the eternal values of nature and man, and his relationship to work and the collective. All this in a seemingly simple, very restrained in commentary, but all the more effective documentary story. This poeticized image of human labor was created as a commissioned film for the Ministry of Economy.
Stromy a lidé
1962
This is funny or rather crazy adaptation of classical opera Carmen inspired by famous czech theatre Ypsilon play of the same name shot at various bizarre locations such as airport, botanical garden and winter forest.
Carmen Not Only According to Bizet
1968
6.7Five Girls Around the Neck, in 1967, set out to explore that critical age of adolescence when a person's character is formed for good or evil. Schorm examined a girl's problems of being giving too much. She tries to buy the goodwill of her less fortunate friends; her intentions are pure, but in the difficulty of communicating she learns envy and deceit, and must decide if she will submit to double dealing or steel her life against self-deception and mediocrity. In addition to the relationship between the girl and her friends, Schorm introduces a teenage romance and the broader relationship between the girl's parents - neatly tied together with segments of Weber's opera "Der Freischütz". He reveals himself as a skilled psychological director with a wide range of knowledge about people.
Five Girls Around the Neck
1967
6.7Five Girls Around the Neck, in 1967, set out to explore that critical age of adolescence when a person's character is formed for good or evil. Schorm examined a girl's problems of being giving too much. She tries to buy the goodwill of her less fortunate friends; her intentions are pure, but in the difficulty of communicating she learns envy and deceit, and must decide if she will submit to double dealing or steel her life against self-deception and mediocrity. In addition to the relationship between the girl and her friends, Schorm introduces a teenage romance and the broader relationship between the girl's parents - neatly tied together with segments of Weber's opera "Der Freischütz". He reveals himself as a skilled psychological director with a wide range of knowledge about people.
Five Girls Around the Neck
1967
No synopsis available yet.
Z mého života
1971